SMITHFIEL.D, LONDON. 321 



abrogated ; and even in spite of an act of Parliament, which 

 was obtained in the case, this great public nuisance must be 

 continued. 



8. CHARTERED RIGHTS. When the vast amounts of property, 

 which are here locked up, by the disposal of generations long 

 since departed, for the most frivolous, useless, and obsolete pur 

 poses, and under the most absurd tenures, are considered, and 

 that even public and acknowledged nuisances cannot be abated, 

 while maintained under the plea of chartered rights, it is quite 

 well worth considering whether this doctrine does not admit of 

 some qualifications, which would render its operation less bur 

 densome and offensive. Many cases, which are constantly 

 occurring, would do much towards reconciling one to an occa 

 sional and general revolution, under which, freed from the rusty 

 fetters of ancient prejudices, superstitions, follies, and crimes, 

 society might take a new start, and avail itself of the improved 

 experience and enlightenment of modern times. The right of a 

 man to dispose of property, after his death, other than that which 

 is the direct fruit of his own skill and industry, is, in my mind, 

 quite questionable on moral and economical, however well estab 

 lished it may be upon legal grounds ; and I hope I shall not give 

 offence by an opinion, however erroneous, yet very honestly held, 

 that no man, under any circumstances, has a right to appropriate 

 property to any object which the state may not annul when that 

 object becomes either pernicious or useless ; above all, that no 

 man, under any circumstances, has any right in the soil, which 

 is not entirely at the disposal of the state, always premising that 

 the state make adequate compensation for individual cases of 

 hardship or injury, and for any substantial improvement, which 

 may have been effected in the property by the labor or skill, or 

 at the personal expense, of the occupier. Let us suppose, for 

 example, that Smithfield had been, by some ancient charter, 

 appropriated exclusively for public executions, as it was indeed 

 the melancholy site of the martyrdom of Rogers, and other 

 heroic victims to bigotry, and that the government determined 

 that executions should cease to be public, or should take place in 

 the prison-yard ; or, what is infinitely to be desired, that, under 

 the mild influences of Christianity, the punishment of death 

 should be abolished ; must this field therefore forover remain 



