Essay on Sheep. 55 



** The Mesta, which originated with the times, 

 in which force only gave law, about the mid- 

 dle of the iifteenth century, formed a political 

 body. TI\is association was composed of rich 

 and powerful persons, and some monks, all 

 proprietors of flocks, which, under the autho- 

 rity of government, made laws and decided 

 questions relative to pasturage and flocks of 

 sheep. Two great quarto volumes formed the 

 code of privileges, and the arsenal in which 

 were found arms to combat justice and oppress 

 the weak. It was seldom that proprietors of 

 land made demands when they sustained da- 

 mage, thinking it better to suffer than to con- 

 test, when they w^re assured that the expense 

 would greatly exceed any compensation they 

 might recover. It is sufficient to say, that this 

 tribunal is not only adverse to the enclosing of 

 land, but that, under some circumstances, it 

 may prohibit proprietors from cultivating their 

 inheritance. A Spanish writer (Jovellanes), in 

 a memoh' addressed to the King of Spain, says, 

 ^ the corps of Junadines (the proprietors of 

 flocks) enjoy an enormous power, and have, 

 by the force of sophisms and intrigues, not 

 only engrossed all the pastures of the kingdom, 

 but have made the cultivators abandon their 

 most fertile lands; thus they have banished the 



