though mostly for the worse, have been made with respect to the tenure and descent of property: we hear much of the danger of innovations on private property, but little is said against the scandalous conversion of public into private property.* A great part, perhaps all, of our lands were formerly shack lands, of which the occupant had the use only whilst his crop was on, the land then reverting to the community for pasturage. Even now

* "Sone after this, the kinges Maiestie by the aduice of the Lorde Protector, and the rest of his counsayle, that is to saye, about the beginning of June, set forth a proclamation against Enclosures, for that a great number of poore men had complayned of gentlemen and other, that they had taken from them, Common of Pasture and Common Fieldes, and had enclosed them into parkes and pasture, and other such like for their owne commoditie and pleasure, to the utter undoyng of the poore men. This proclamation tending to the helpe and reliefe of the poore, commaunded that such as had so enclosed the commons, should upon a peine by a day assigned lay them out againe: But I thinke there were but few that obayed the proclamation, which thing the poore men perceyuing, and seyng none amendement follow upon the proclamation, rashly without order tooke upon themselues to redresse, and so gathering themselues together made them Capitaines and brake downe those inclosurs, and cast downe ditches, and in the ende plaide the very part of rebelles and traytors."-Grafton's Chronicle, 3rd of Ed. VI.

Such has been the origin of the sacred rights of the landed interest! In later times each appropriation has been consecrated by an inclosure bill.

the meer-bauks that separate the lands belong to the community, and the occupier of two adjoining fields has no right to plough up the meer-bauk between them. "All the lands in a district called the Theel-land, lying in the bailiwic of Norden and Bertum," says a writer in the Edinburgh Review, "are held by a very extraordinary tenure we speak in the present tense, for the customs of the Theel-land were subsisting in 1805, and we do not suppose that they have since become obsolete. The Agrarian law, elsewhere a phantom either lovely or terrific, according to the imagination of the spectator, is here fully realised. The land is considered as being divided into portions or Theels, each containing a stated quantity: the owners are called Theel-men, or Theel-boors; but no Theel-boor can hold more than one Theel in severalty. The undivided or common land, comprising the Theels not held by individuals, belongs to all the inhabitants of the Theel-land, and is cultivated or farmed out on their joint account. The Theel-boor cannot sell his hereditary Theel, or alienate it in any way, even to his nearest relations. On his death it descends to his youngest son. If there are no sons, it descends to the youngest daughter, under the restrictions after mentioned; and in default of issue, it reverts to the commonalty. But elder sons are

not left destitute: when they are old enough to keep house, a Theel is assigned to each of them (be they ever so many) out of the common lands, to be held to them and their issue, according to the customary tenure. If a woman who has inherited a Theel becomes the wife of a Theel-boor, who is already in possession of a Theel, then her land reverts to the commonalty." ""*

In the degree of civilisation hitherto attained, law has interfered only to prevent the perpetration of violence and the grosser kinds of fraudt in the acquisition of property, and to regulate in various ways its possession and conveyance. To equalise as much as possible the gifts of Providence amongst all, however consonant to reason, benevolence, and Christianity, has been scarcely at all its object. The progress of improvement, and a sense of mutual advantage have, however, induced societies of men to unite for purposes which have

* Edinburgh Review, No. lxiii., for July, 1819, p. 10, on the Laws of Friesland. For a most interesting account of this district, and of the happiness and prosperity prevailing in it in consequence of this system, see also "Travels in the North of Germany," by Mr. Hodgkins.

See also Tacitus "De Moribus Germanorum," cap. xxxvi. + Chiefly, however, frauds which affect the rich. Those which are committed by them upon the poorer classes do not even incur reproach.

this tendency such are insurances, benefit societies, and all those institutions whose object it is to obviate the inequalities of fortune, and to lessen the weight of calamity by sharing it among a numerous association. The progress of knowledge and true civilisation will tend to unite men in contriving the general security and welfare by mutual co-operation, and in discovering such laws and regulations as will enable all the members of any society to partake as much as possible of its wealth.

We are all ready to allow that the superfluities of the rich," for which men swinck and sweat incessantly," give them no increase of enjoyment, while they in their waste consume the comforts of the majority; and yet we are blindly attached to a system necessarily productive of a state of things, which the Jewish revelation has censured, which poets and philosophers have always deplored, and which Christianity has fully condemned. If the prayer be a proper one,-"Give me neither poverty nor riches,* lest I be full and deny thee,

"Aurea mediocritas."-Hor. Carm., ii. 10.

"Molestissimus et occupatissimus, et si profundius inspicias, vere miserimus est divitum status: contra autem dura quidem sed tutissima et expeditissima est paupertas. Mediocritas optima, et inter rarissima Dei dona hanc nobis contigisse gratulor."-Petrarcha Epist., lib. iii. 14.

and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal,* and take the name of my God in vain,"then is that constitution of things the best which does not expose men to these hurtful extremes, to the evils occasioned by the lubricity of fortune, and to the pernicious influence of avarice and selfish ambition, of which the poet has given us too true a picture :—

"Some thought to raise themselves to high degree
By Riches and unrighteous reward;

Some by close should'ring; some by flatteree;
Others through friends; others for base regard;
And all by wrong waies for themselves prepard;
Those that were up themselves kept others low;
Those that were low themselves held others hard,
Ne suffred them to ryse or greater grow;
But every one did strive his fellow downe to throw."
Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 7.

"As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit :
Therefore are they become great and waxen rich :
They are waxen fat, they shine."-Jerem. v. 27.

It may be unnecessary for me to add, that I

"Experience justifies me in asserting that wages are the barometer by which we may ascertain with considerable accuracy the state of crime in a county. Wherever wages have been high, I have found the amount of crime comparatively small; wherever they have been low, I have observed with pain that the labourer has resorted to the law of nature, and supported himself by plunder."-Sir W. D. Best's Charge to Somersetshire Grand Jury, August, 1827.