Up to 1861, the date of the emancipation, the peasant serfs had been under the patrimonial jurisdiction of their lords.
In February, however,Bolivar formally resigned the presidency of the republic,at the same time expressing a determination to refute the imputations of ambition which had been so freely cast upon him, by retiring into private life, and spending the remainder of his days on his patrimonial estate.
On the breaking up of the gardes du corps Biran retired to his patrimonial inheritance of Grateloup, near Bergerac, where his retired life preserved him from the horrors of the Revolution.
Serfdom was abolished in 1807; but the liberated peasants received no allotments of land, and the old patrimonial jurisdictions were retained.
But no Eastern state advanced beyond the condition generally characterized as the " patrimonial," - i.e.