BOON OF RIGHT OF COMMON. 116 



and dependence which we too frequently 

 witness amongst the peasantry of Ireland and 

 Scotland, where there is no common land. 

 The notion is an old one ; there are some in- 

 teresting remarks on the subject in Languet's 

 Letters to his friend Sir Philip Sidney, 

 not unworthy of attention at the present 

 time. 



AMICUS. I cannot but think with you, that 

 the advantage is a great one ; and may it long 

 be continued, for the sake of the small pro- 

 prietors ! What an advantage to a labourer, as 

 I understand it, to inhabit a dwelling with a 

 right of common, on which he can feed a cow 

 or a few sheep; and what a motive in the 

 desire to possess them, and better his circum- 

 stances, to labour hard and put by his earnings, 

 and defer marriage. I have read those letters 

 to which you refer, and if I remember right, 

 the occasion of the reflections was the then 

 tendency towards enclosing and turning common 

 lands into private pastures, and thereby dimi- 

 nishing the means of subsistence of the people, 

 and consequently their numbers, the people, 

 in the old doctrine of Languet and Sidney, 

 "an abundant people," constituting "the surest 



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