464 NOTE, [chap, xl 



mechanical skill and scientitic knowledge, of its high civilization 

 and its pure Christianity, — I can but term a state of social 

 barbarism. We also boast of our love of justice, and that the 

 law protects rich and poor alike, yet we retain money fines as a 

 punishment, and make the very first steps to obtain justice a 

 matter of expense — in both cases a barbarous injustice, or denial 

 of justice to the poor. Again, our laws render it possible, that, 

 by mere neglect of a legal form, and contrary to his own wish 

 and intention, a man's property may all go to a stranger, and 

 his own children be left destitute. Such cases have happened 

 through the operation of the laws of inheritance of landed pro- 

 perty ; and that such unnatural injustice is possible among us, 

 shows that we are in a state of social barbarism. One more 

 example to justify my use of the term, and I have done. We 

 permit absolute possession of the soil of our country, with no 

 legal rights of existence on the soil, to the vast majority who do 

 not possess it. A great landholder may legally convert his whole 

 property into a forest or a hunting-ground, and expel every 

 human being who has hitherto lived upon it. In a thickly- 

 populated country like England, where every acre has its owner 

 and its occupier, this is a power of legally destroying his fellow- 

 creatures ; and that such a power should exist, and be exercised 

 by individuals, in however small a degree, indicates that, as 

 regards true social science, we are still in a state of barbarism. 



