TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING. 317 



securing homes to the honest and industrious, should be favored. Lands beyond 

 the quantity deemed necessary for a homestead not in actual use should be taxed 

 at such a rate as will equalize the burden fa'lingon those who inhabit and cultivate 

 lands, and thereby increase the value of such as is unoccupied, thus equalizing 

 burdens and benefits. While such laws are obviously just, there exists no consti- 

 tutional objections to them. The laws of descent and distribution, as already 

 pointed out, should be made to tend in the direction of subdivisions of land ar.d 

 of the securing of homes. 



Many more suggestions might be made in the direction of making homes 

 abundant, but I abstain because other branches of the subject invite consideration. 

 And here, tirst, as to the means of securing a home, attention is specially directed 

 to two things, as not only certain to secure it, but make it what it should be after 

 it is secured. 



