LAND LANDEK 



what is actually contained in the existing rights. 

 To sound reason it is evident, that every person 

 must be allowed some resting-place on the earth ; 

 hence, as long as any place is left capable of affording 

 support to another individual, the proprietors cannot 

 arbitrarily deprive a fellow being- of that support. 

 They are bound to use the soil in such a way as to 

 promote the general good. For every right has some 

 duty for its basis; ami landed property is possessed 

 of peculiar rights, only because it is pledged to fur- 

 nish men with food. This duty becomes more 

 important and pressing as the population increases ; 

 hence it is necessary for the state to attend the more 

 carefully to the fulfilment of it ; and the more sacred 

 becomes the duty of those in whose hands the means 

 are lodged. According to these premises, the states 

 of Kurope have regulated their conduct ; they have 

 not suffered ground capable of yielding income to 

 lie unimproved ; they have judiciously limited the 

 cultivation of such plants as contribute nothing to the 

 nourishment of the human species, as tobacco, for 

 example ; they have encouraged the cultivation of 

 other plants ; they have forbidden the exportation of 

 articles which are needed in the state where they are 

 raised ; and, in some instances, their zeal has led 

 them into wrong principles in their commercial inter- 

 course ; above all, they have taken away all obstruc- 

 tions to the improved cultivation of the land. And 

 these ordinances are imperiously demanded by the 

 state of society ; for the right of property in the soil 

 has no other end than to promote the cultivation of 

 it for the general good ; and it is on such conditions 

 only that the state has distributed the land among 

 individuals. If it is found necessary to deprive a 

 proprietor of landed property of any advantage 

 accruing to him from such a possession, it is not 

 maintained that he shall receive no compensation ; 

 but if a compensation is granted, the laws cannot be 

 charged with interfering with his rights, if they 

 'mpose restrictions upon him in the use of his ground. 

 Hence the common good allows the state to repeal 

 all laws which are a restraint upon the free use of 

 the soil, as tithes ; to promote its distribution by 

 breaking up entails, &c., and to secure the cultivator, 

 by not permitting him to be driven from the soil at 

 the will of the landlord, or even by making temporary 

 relations permanent ; as the landed proprietors in 

 Ireland, for example, were forced to substitute, in 

 part, quit-rents in the room of leases for years. 

 These ordinances concern the whole community ; so 

 that persons who are destitute of landed property 

 have as good a right to be heard on this subject as 

 the landed proprietors. Hence, 



6. It is matter of serious reflection, that the con- 

 stitutions of many modern states provide that the 

 representative body shall be composed entirely of 

 landed proprietors. This rests partly on usage, partly 

 on principles intrinsically good, that men receive the 

 greatest advantage, not from a hasty renunciation of 

 ancient laws, although imperfect, but from slow and 

 cautious advancement, and that it is far more neces- 

 sary to preserve the existing institutions, and to build 

 them up with judgment and care, than to think of 

 rearing new edifices ; for though the foundations of 

 these may seem perfect, their advantages are not 

 certain. But whether this end can be attained by 

 an exclusive representation of landed proprietors, 

 may well be made a question. How can the true 

 wants of all classes be made manifest, if the repre- 

 sentation be confined to one ? For this reason, a 

 variety in the condition and rank of representatives 

 is highly desirable ; and, in some representative 

 governments, provision has been made to attain such 

 an object. Necessary as it is to provide that the 

 representatives shall consist of men interested in 



preserving, and not in destroying, the settled ordei of 

 things, it is equally necessary to avoid, as much as 

 possible, the preponderance of men interested in 

 maintaining old abuses, and to provide, as fully as 

 possible, for representing the views of the great body 

 of the people. It is not the soil, nor its possessors, 

 but the great interests of the whole community, 

 which form the object of the state and of represen- 

 tative constitutions. 



LAND, in the sea language, makes part of several 

 compound terms : thus laying the land denotes that 

 motion of a ship which increases its distance from the 

 coast, so as to make it appear lower or smaller on 

 account of the intermediate convexity of the sea. 

 liaising the land is produced by the motion of the 

 vessel towards it. Land is shut in, signifies that 

 another part of land hinders the sight of that the ship 

 came from. Land to; or so far from shore that it 

 can only be just discerned. Land turn; a wind 

 that, in almost all hot countries, blows at certain 

 times from the shore in the night. To set the land ; 

 that is, to see by the compass how it bears. Land 

 breeze ; a current of air which, in many parts within 

 the tropics, particularly in the West Indies, regularly 

 sets from the land towards the sea during the night, 

 and this even on opposite points of the coast. Land- 

 locked is said of a harbour which is environed by 

 land on all sides, so as to exclude the prospect of the 

 sea, unless over some intervening land. To make 

 the land, is to discover it after having been out of 

 sight of it for some time. Land-mark; any moun- 

 tain, rock, steeple, or the like, near the sea-side, 

 which serves to direct ships passing by how to steer, 

 so as to avoid certain dangers, rocks, shoals, whirl- 

 pools, &c. 



LANDS, PUBLIC. See Public Lands. 



LANDAMMANN, in Switzerland (originally Lan- 

 damtmanri) ; the highest magistrate in the country, 

 contradistinguished from Stadtamtmann, the highest 

 magistrate in the city. At present, the highest 

 magistrate in the cantons of Uri, Schweitz, Under- 

 walden, Glarus, Zug, Appenzell, St Gall, Thurgau, 

 Tessin, and Pays-de-Vaud, is called Landammann. 

 Most cantons have two or more, who command alter- 

 nately ; some only one. The first magistrates of the 

 other cantons are called Schitltkeiss(ma.yor), Burger- 

 meister, Landhauptmann, Syndicus, &c. The presi- 

 dent of the diet of all Switzerland is also called 

 Landammann. 



LANDAU ; a district of 530 square miles, with 

 101,600 inhabitants, and a fortified town of the Ger- 

 manic confederacy, with 5700 inhabitants ; Ion. 80 

 10' E. ; lat. 49 13' N. It is under the sovereignty 

 of Bavaria ; was formerly a free imperial city, be- 

 longing to Lower Alsace. Vauban constructed the 

 fortifications. 



LANDECK ; a town in Silesia, near which are 

 some mineral springs. The waters contain sulphate 

 of potash, lime, and nitrogen. The temperature is 

 86 Fah. 



LANDER, RICHARD ; the discoverer of the course 

 of the Niger, was at first the servant of captain 

 Clapperton, whom he accompanied on his second 

 expedition into the interior of Africa. He started 

 from the Bight of Benin with his master, after whose 

 death at Soccatoo (April 13, 1827), he returned to 

 the coast. His journal is published with Clapper- 

 ton's. (See Clapperton.) In the spring of 1830, he 

 set out with his brother John, on an exploring expe- 

 dition, and was landed at Badagry, March 25, whence 

 he intended to proceed to lake Tchad. He died on 

 the 2d February, 1834, at Fernando Po, of wounds 

 received from the natives. The British government 

 granted a pension of ,70 a-year to his widow and of 

 50 a-year to his infant daughter. See Niger. 



