48 RATES AND TAXES 



national lands to public sale, so that the 

 advantages of private ownership might be 

 secured. 1 



The real cause for regret is that when the 

 essence of the feudal system was abandoned, 

 the legal forms were not also swept away. 

 This, however, opens up a much wider 

 question. For the present, it is enough to 

 insist that the vague popular idea that the 

 land of England belongs to the people of 



1 "The revenue which, in any civilised monarchy, the 

 Crown derives from the Crown lands, though it appears to 

 cost nothing to individuals, in reality costs more to the 

 society than perhaps any other equal revenue which the 

 Crown enjoys. It would, in all cases, be for the interest 

 of the society to replace this revenue to the Crown by 

 some other equal revenue, and to divide the lands among 

 the people, which could not be well done better, perhaps, 

 than by exposing them to public sale. Lands for the 

 purposes of pleasure and magnificence, parks, gardens, 

 public walks, etc., possessions which are everywhere con- 

 sidered as causes of expense, not as source of revenue, 

 seem to be the only lands in a great and civilised 

 monarchy which ought to belong to the Crown " " Wealth 

 of Nations," Bk. v., chap, ii., Part I. (general conclusion). 



