THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



the roads, and sees that each in- 

 habitant keeps his part in repair; 

 he sees that the flocks and herds 

 are tended in the common pasture; 

 afid is, in fact, the chief executive 

 officer of the township. The crofter 

 who is chosen for this important 

 office removes his shoes and stock- 

 ings, uncovers his head, and, taking 

 some earth in his hand, swears in 

 the presence of Heaven to be faithful 

 to his trust. There are various modi- 

 fications of this primitive system, 

 but they are all based on a mode 

 of land tenure namely, agriculture 

 in common which still exists in 

 some parts of Ireland, Wales, and 

 even England, in the shape of com- 

 monable rights of pasture, turbary, 

 and the like. They go back to a 

 time when the land was regarded, 

 not as the absolute property of the 

 chief of the tribe or clan, but as 

 giving sustenance to all its members. 

 Sir Henry Maine, in his work on 

 ancient law, points out that in a 

 patriarchally governed society the 

 eldest son succeeds to the nominal 

 proprietorship of its property, but 

 has correlative duties not involved 

 in the conception of proprietorship. 

 Koman jurisprudence, like our own 

 law, regarded the possession of 

 property as equivalent to absolute 

 ownership, and refused to take 

 notice of the liabilities which it was 

 formerly supposed to entail. 



The Presbyterian is the Estab- 

 lished Church in Scotland, having 

 superseded the Episcopal Church in 



that position at the Eestoration in 1688. Its members are estimated at about half the 

 whole population of Scotland. Another important religious body is the Free Church, which 

 split off from the Establishment in 1843. It is based on the spiritual independence of the 

 Church, and claims the right of each congregation to elect its own minister. The Episcopal 

 Church numbers over 44,000 communicants. 



IRELAND. 



In 1891 the population of Ireland was returned at 4,704,750. The numbers have been 

 rapidly decreasing since the year 1845, when they were almost double of what they now are. 

 Famine- and consequent disease, and the great impulse given by stress at home to emigration, 

 are accountable for the decrease. The inhabitants are in great measure of almost pure Celtic 

 stock. The Teutonic element is represented by the English and Scottish settlers in Ulster, 



J'/toto by Alex. lijlu\ 



{.Edinburgh. 



A NEWHAVEN FISHWIFE. 



