4 Oration delivered before the Agricultural Society. 



has had the moft happy effeft in rendering eafy the divifion and 

 aUenation of real property, whereby the natural right of every 

 man to a certain part of the earth's furface, which in former 

 times had been violently and unjiiftly wrefted from the greateft 

 part of thofe who had advanced much above barbaric rudenefs, 

 is reftored, and with it that mediocrity of condition which 

 hears with honeft indignation the " monftrous faith of many 

 made for one." The allodial and focage tenures of our lands, 

 by giving free fcope to purchafers, and undivided profit to 

 cultivators, have paved the way to more virtue and happinefs 

 than all the mines of Peru and Mexico ever have afforded. 



And even with ail thefe advantages, how defolate, how 

 proftrate is a country until improved by the hand of induftry! 

 Turn your eyes to the United States and behold its achieve- 

 ments : — Three centuries are fcarcely paft fince thefe regions 

 were difcovered, till then unknown to the more civilized part 

 of the world. Some tribes of Savages were here and there 

 fcattered over the country, whofe fubfiftence was principa.lly 

 derived from the chace. Their chief dependence was on the 

 precarious produ£l of fifliing and hunting. Their agriculture 

 did not confifl of much more than the cultivation of a httle 

 pulfe and maize. As the v/ikl animals upon which they fedi 

 multiply infinitely more flow than tame ones, it neceflarily 

 followed, that in fuch a ftate of fociety, a very large trad of 

 country was neceffary for the maintenance of a very few 

 inhabitants. Pvude men and wild hearts roamed in fcanty 

 nmnber thro' the pathlcfs wildcrnefs, and pollefled a wider 



