20 



commodious. With the loss of these vast dominions, for many 

 of the estates are really such, the priviledged order of nobili- 

 ty must cease as a power in the state ; for the existence of 

 such an order, without large territorial possessions to sustain 

 and support it, is a dream, in which the wildest schemer 

 never indulged. That destroyed, the whole fabric of En- 

 glish government topples. It is not within the design of 

 this discussion to consider what consequence, for good or 

 for ill, would follow such an event ; nor whether to En- 

 gland or to the world, it would be a desirable event. Nor 

 do I mean to enter at all into that great arena of debate, 

 which attempts to decide the question whether agriculture 

 is, upon the whole, advanced by those princely possessions 

 and princely experiments which are here and there found 

 among the immense estates of some British peer, who unites 

 with the vast power of his real and personal wealth, that 

 higher and more noble property, the disposition to develope 

 all the capacities of his land and to increase and improve its 

 products. These questions have indeed a bearing upon the 

 general truth which I desire to present, but are simply col- 

 lateral and incidental, and I leave them. 



But the small farms of New England needed as their ad- 

 junct in the establishment and perpetuity of popular institu- 

 tions — the town meeting. 



Has it ever occurred to you to think how large a propor- 

 tion of all the matters of public interest are acted upon and 

 settled at the town meeting. We have had a National and a 

 State government, but till very recently we have hardly been 

 called upon to contribute to their support. Indeed, we hardly 

 knew of their existence, except as election days came round 

 and we were called upon to recognize the claims of some 

 friend of the people to distinction and office. The substan- 

 tial affairs of life were settled in town meeting. Our taxes, 

 imposed by the government, have been such only as were 

 necessary to preserve the organization of the State and com- 

 pensate its officers. It is only recently that either State or 



