Synopsis of Chapters. ix 



PAGE 



and seasons much the same after the Revolution as thej' had 

 been for ages— The introduction of a National Debt and a 

 standing army, necessitated by the circumstances of the civil 

 wars, begins to arouse popular discontent with our fiscal system 

 — Alterations apparent in the seignorial monopolj^ of district 

 government — The officials of the county police sj-stem and their 

 connection with the land — Interior economy of the rural man- 

 sion—Its servants, furniture, and construction — Dresrs, food, 

 recreation, and habits of its inmates — Altered and enlarged 

 views regarding social distinctions — Relationship between 

 squire and tenantry — Typical instances of the landed gentle- 

 man (such as Evelyn. Tull, and Townsheiid) born in the seven- 

 teenth century — Contrast between the rustic and the citizen — 

 Trade and social intercourse between town and country — U^es 

 and abuses of St. Bartholomew's Fair— Country entertainments 

 and pursuits — Seventeenth century postal arrangements, and 

 their important bearing on the dissemination of agricultural 

 information 68-94 



CHAPTER V. 



UNSATISFACTORY CONDITION OF THE LAND LAWS AFTER THE 

 ABOLITION OF FEUDALISM. 



The powers of alienation after the statute of 12 Car. II. — The con- 

 fusion and intricacy svirrounding titles to realty — Dr. Chamber- 

 laine's suggestion for a public registry — The objections to such 

 a process— An examination of the various seventeenth century 

 treatises bearing on the subject — Feigned recoveries and their 

 defects — Attempts by the advocates of registration to prove the 

 advantage of their scheme to the entire community — The argu- 

 ments of the opposing side against such reasoning — Physical 

 impossibilities of a public registry exposed — Other objections 

 briefly examined — A modifled scheme proposed b3' a writer who 

 admits the drawbacks !)ointed out by the opponents of registra- 

 tion — The course which the legislature finally adopted sketched 

 out 95-109 



CHAPTER YI. 



THE POLITICAL ECONOMIST AND THE LAND. 



The erroneous views of the earlier economists on the subject of 

 national wealth — Rise of the mercantilist school, and their 

 less faulty opinions — The sounder reasoning of Hobbes, North, 

 Petty, Locke, and Hume on the sources of v%'ealth, etc. — Ques- 

 nai's overthrow of Colbert's fallacies, and the formation in 

 Paris of the physiocratic school — Their more philosophical 

 conception of the true source of wealth, and their exaggerated 

 views on the importance of the agriculturist to society— Their 

 defective explanation of the term wealth finally set right by 

 Adam Smith — His championship of the labour element in the 

 wealth-producing maclunerj' — The insignificant influence of 

 new doctrines on the British Government — Smith's adaptation 

 of truths already promulgated bj- leading English mercantilists 



