CHAPTEE XXIII. 



THE MORAL OP THIS NARRATIVE. 



Before we close this History it would be well to ascertain 

 what bearing the past has on the knotty problems connected 

 with the present situation, and, if possible, to adapt its teaching 

 to the several requirements of those three classes which, as a 

 whole, should compose one united Landed Interest. 



And, first, let us study the position held by the over-lord 

 after some eighteen centuries of economic changes. The 

 fundamental fact, for which we have all along contended, is 

 that he was first a magistrate, afterwards a landed proprietor. 

 "The earth," urges Mill, "is the inheritance of the human 

 race, and a large proportion of that race has been disinherited." 

 Let us admit this theory and examine into the causes of the 

 disinheriting process. 



It hardly seems reasonable to suppose that a small minority 

 of the genus man could have monopolised rights of proprietor- 

 ship claimed by the entire community, without its sanction. 

 Mill, we consider, was never so feeble of argument as when he 

 contended that " mankind attempted to reconcile, at least in 

 theory, to their sense of justice this monopolisation of the land, 

 by attaching the duties to it of either a moral or legal magis- 

 tracy." 



In the first place, the duties of the magisterial office are 

 completely swallowed up in its privileges, and when compelled, 

 men surrender with the greatest reluctance the powers and 

 pleasures of the judgment-seat. In the second place, as con- 

 nected with the landlord, judicial rights were long antecedent 

 to proprietary, and the people purchased their freedom from 

 him by exchanging for it their title to the soil. 



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