14 History of the English Landed Interest. 



Avas seriously attacked. It was against them that the Agrarian 

 legislation was aimed, and they were pecnliarly vulnerable, 

 since their tenure did not include the " dominium " of the land. 

 They had become occupiers of the district when even its best 

 soil was of no value as compared with the animals that stocked 

 it or the implements that helped to till it. They had spent 

 their capital in reclaiming useless wildernesses. Now that 

 they were gardens the State began to search back for its 

 title. 



Their position in many respects resembles that of the Scotch 

 crofters; but as the Roman law allowed no right of prescription 

 against the State, they were, as tenants at will, worse off than 

 the latter. No matter how long their tenure had lasted, or 

 how much capital they had sunk in improving the holding, 

 they were liable to a moment's notice of dismissal. They had 

 no doubt abused their powers. ^ The manipulation of the 

 public revenues was in their hands, and fraudulent returns in 

 tax schedules were quite as easily effected by them as surrep- 

 titious alterations in their boundary marks. Deficiencies had 

 occr^rred in the public purse, fresh taxation became necessary, 

 and this fell heavily on the poorer citizens. Thus came about 

 those unfortunate class contests between rich and poor, of 

 which every schoolboy knows the stor3^ The S3'stem of the 

 " occupatio " was altered to suit the popular outcry. One con- 

 cession led to another, for the people would not rest content at 

 half measures. They were well aware of their rights, and 

 frequently turned out the obnoxious squatters, till Tiberius 

 Gracchus finally abolished this form of the capitalist landlord 

 altogether. A measure was passed by him which wrested the 

 bulk of their lands from the unfortunate possessores and dis- 

 tributed them in thirty jugera lots amongst the Italian pro- 

 letariat as inalienable freeholds. But even thus early the 

 claim for unexhausted improvements obtained State support, 

 and the capital sunk in the old "occupatio" was not altogether 

 lost. 



Before, however, the fall of the Republic this form of the 



' Encyclo. BriL, sub, voc. Agi-ariau Laws. 



