Q8 



the companionsliip of strangers. The favourable termiuatiou of the tale 

 is no apology for the introduction of such fatal principles ; and they come 

 home to the bosom of every man, when he supposes that his own wife 

 or sister is the person for whom such a defence is offered. With every 

 kindly feeling, therefore, for a writer who has deserved well of the 

 public, one may be excused for saying, in the language of one of his 

 Clitics — " Brother, no more of this." 



In general, however, the tendency of our popular literature is upward ; 

 so that the mass of useful knowledge is at once extended and elevated. 

 This is as it should be, and gives us hope that in future years the 

 thousands of our people will as far surpass those of our own days, as those 

 of our times, in their general characteristics, surpass the brute-force men 

 of the olden time. 



FOURTH MEETING. 



KoYAL Institution. — December 1, 1851. 

 J. B. YATES, Esq., F.S.A., &c., Peesident, in the chair. 



Mr. John Leigh Clare, Mr. James Dowie, and Mr. John Thomas 

 TowsoN, were elected Ordinary Members. 



The following Paper was read by Willlam Ihne, Esq., Ph.D., 



ON THE TENURE OF LAND AMONGST THE ROMANS. 



As far back as the light of history can penetrate into the darkness of 

 the primeval ages of our race, it shows, in every country and in every 

 nation, traces of violence and war ; nor is there at the present day any 

 race of savages, however low in the scale of humanity, however unac- 

 quainted with the sentiments, habits, arts, and practices of civilized 

 nations, whose skill and industry has not reached to the manufacture of 

 weapons as instruments for aggression or defence. It may therefore be 

 laid down as a general law, that every state of which history has to 

 treat owes its origin to conquest. The Assyrians, the Medes, the 

 Persians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Macedonians, the trading 

 Phoenicians, their descendants the Carthagenians, and finally, the 

 Romans, were in succession conquerors; and upon the ruins of that 



