274: HOW TO GET A FARM, 



been thus taken out of its neutral status within a 

 very few years. There are also ground rents which 

 have not been demanded since the first outbreak of 

 the Revolution. Other estates, liable to confisca 

 tion, but overlooked at the time, have been squatted 

 on and held until title came of possession. So val 

 uable had some of these become, and so numerous 

 were they in some localities, that sharp lawyers, 

 who devoted themselves to unearthing the secrets of 

 a past era, have grown rich by levying contributions 

 from those who held them in possession, as the price 

 of undisturbed ownership. 



These are invariable incidents of civil war. The 

 rich traitor knows beforehand that confiscation of 

 his wealth will be the penalty of his treason. &quot;When 

 our population was barely three millions, of whom 

 say only half were hostile to the Government, if 

 civil war resulted so to disloyal owners of real prop 

 erty, what will be the uncertainty and misery among 

 a population nearly six times as large, whose defiant 

 boast has been that they are all traitors ? Thous 

 ands of them are now passing through the same 

 furnace which consumed the Tories. Like them, 

 having staked all, they have lost all, and are now 

 fugitives in the earth. Others will unquestionably 

 enter into their possessions, the loyal succeeding the 

 disloyal precisely as they did in the last century. 

 The old uncertainties of title may be cured by the 

 action of a Government which seems alive to the 

 necessities of the case. This, if done promptly, will 

 hurry on pacification. 



As aforetime, squatting will be practiced every- 



