244 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



marriage, or the complete revision of the whole 

 matter whenever a mortgage is required, form alto- 

 gether a tribute of such oppressive magnitude, that 

 Protection for the land from foreign competition is a 

 dream indeed, compared to the reality of the much- 

 desired Protection from ' Law.' To fully develope 

 and expose the extent to which our antiquated system 

 of Tenures, our long Entails strung with disconnected 

 life-interests, our conflicting institution of * legal' and 

 ' equitable ' estates, our prolix conveyances, and com- 

 plicated settlements, operate as a charge upon the 

 land, an impediment to its exchange, a reduction of 

 its value, a drain upon the resources of the Owner, 

 a secret injury to the Tenant and the Labourer 

 would be to write the heaviest satire upon the 

 struggle for Protection that has ever yet been 

 showered upon a class powerful to achieve, if they 

 only willed it, the completest satisfaction for the 

 repeal of the Corn-laws which an important body 

 could command or an intelligent community ap- 

 prove. Do what you will for land, this lies at the 

 bottom of, and completely surpasses in importance, all 

 other ' Improvements.' Free the soil from the pesti- 

 lent tyranny of parchment, that the obsolete necessi- 

 ties and forms of centuries have gathered around it, 



