242 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK III. 



REMARKS. 



It is a maxim in English law that all land be- 

 longs to the king ; and, in fact, this has not 

 proved an unmeaning expression, when we see 

 the numerous confiscations of peerages and of 

 fiefs of land which took place from the twelfth to 

 the fifteenth century. But this destructive prin- 

 ciple has in the event become protective. Every 

 proprietor of lands is obliged to cultivate them, 

 or to permit them to be cultivated when unable 

 to do so himself. Thus, when a man holds the 

 upper part of a bog, the proprietor of the lower 

 part has the power to oblige him to drain it ; for 

 drainage is, and must necessarily be, a joint ope- 

 ration. 



Fifty years ago two-thirds of the English soil 

 were common-lands. The Acts of Parliament for 

 bringing them into cultivation have varied as the 

 localities varied ; but there has been one general 

 law for these inclosure acts, the law itself appoints 

 the Commissioners, who in each instance have to 

 make the divisions, to distribute the allotments 

 between the proprietors of the district in propor- 

 tion to their claims, to assign to them the labours 

 which they are called upon to undertake, and to 

 provide for the execution of these in one way or 



