RIGHTS OV PROPERTY. 2o3 



for the glory of the clan. If the sacrifice of life is the 

 duty of the serf in time of war, there is surely a corre- 

 sponding duty on the part of the chieftain in times of peace, 

 involving a kindly consideration of the wants and wishes 

 of their descendants. I am not much of a Eadical, possibly 

 not so much of a Whig as yourself ; but I think it is a 

 very grave matter of consideration how far rights of pro- 

 perty, as they are called, actually extend, when their strict 

 and tenacious exercise interferes with the wellbeing and 

 the welldoing of a whole community over an extensive 

 district. No doubt, people who feel themselves aggrieved 

 in one country may make their way into another ; but 

 suppose that all the landed proprietors in Great Britain 

 were to make up their minds among themselves to some 

 restrictive system, what would happen ? Of course, the 

 present constitution of society would be rent asunder in 

 consequence of that injustice; and it is but a poor pallia- 

 tion of those who now commit it, that there are some who 

 act in a more Christian spirit. 



" We returned here about the second week in October, 

 and have been carrying on much in our usual quiet way. 

 Edinburgh and its society, so far as we happen to be con- 

 versant with it, is pretty much as when you left it. My 

 old friend Patrick Robertson is raised to the bench, and 

 looks well and portly in his judicial garments. I dined 

 with him a few weeks ago at Sir William Allan's, the 



