The word ‘lien’ is comparatively of recent origin. It existed even as early as the reign of Edward IV under the name of a right of retainer, but the right was not called that of “lien” until about the early part of the eighteenth century. The word is derived directly from the French lien and further back from the Latin ligamen, which signifies “a tie” or “something binding.” We are not here concerned with the several definitions of this technical word of the English law. Salmond describes it as merely a shadow so to speak cast by the debt upon the property of the debtor. “The word lien,” he says, “has not succeeded in attaining any fixed application as a technical term of English law. Its use is capricious and uncertain .....” Lien in its primary sense is a right in one man to retain that which is in his possession belonging to another until certain demands of the person in possession are satisfied. In t ....