598 



NOTE. 



[OHAP, XL. 



and its puio Chnstiamty, — I can Itut term a state of social 

 baxbarism. We also "boast of our love of justice, and that th© 

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

 punishment, tuid make the very first stc±ps to obtain jui^tice a 

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

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

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

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

 his own children bo left destitnto. Such cases have happened 

 through the operation of tbe 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 1 have done. We 

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

 legal rights of existence on the soil, to tbe Yast 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 thiukly- 

 popnlafced country like England, where oTery acre has its owner 

 and its occupier, this is a power of legally destroying bis fellow* 

 creatures ; and tliat such a power should exists and be exercised 

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

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



