68 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE [xvi. 



not obtain land, because there was no land in the 

 market in consequence of the introduction of settle- 

 ments ? But settlements still exist, and yet it is 

 notorious that abundance of land is always to be 

 purchased, at a price which does not exceed what 

 may be called the natural level, the price of Govern- 

 ment securities yielding the same annual income. 

 Nor can it, I believe, be shown that it was formerly 

 more difficult to purchase land than it is at present. 

 The delusion that " the English nation is tenant at 

 will to a few thousand landowners " was dispelled by 

 Lord Derby's Domesday HooJc, showing that their 

 number is about a million. 



The key to the passage I have quoted will, I 

 think, be found in the second volume of Blackstone's 

 Commentaries, p. 165, in Kerr, third edition. 



Speaking of strict settlements of land in the 

 form which they first assumed, Blackstone says: 

 " In these cases, therefore, it was necessary to have 

 trustees appointed to preserve the contingent 

 remainders " (the estates granted to the first and 

 other sons in the example I have given), " in whom 

 there was vested an estate in remainder for the life 

 of the tenant for life, to commence when his estate 

 determined. If, therefore, his estate for life deter- 

 mined otherwise than by his death, the estate of the 

 trustees for the term of his natural life took effect, 

 and became a particular estate in possession, sufficient 

 to support the remainders depending in contingency. 



