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that we must still further curtail ; when we are placed in 
situations where they are dying around us, all prior right 
gradually vanishes. This law we acknowledge formally by 
a rise of poor-rates, according to the circumstances of the 
country. 
Again, to take an example from extremes, if all Britain 
were in the possession of one man, who desired to send 
out all the inhabitants, and hunt with a few friends only 
over London and Manchester, we should no doubt refuse to 
go ; we should then change our ideas of property, and we 
would adopt the opinions of the Fifth Monarchy men and 
say, “The earth is the Lord’s.” If half the country were in 
this state, we would still give the same answer ; but if only 
a county were in this possessor’s hands, we would first hesi- 
tate and say, <e What county ? ” If it were Middlesex, surely 
not — we will allow no individual to rule so despotically on 
the Thames. Lancaster also not. But when it is Suther- 
land, Arran, or Skye, we then give the permission, and the 
permission remains until the inhabitants become powerful 
enough to say that there are rights belonging to man, as an 
intellectual and moral being, on which physical rights, with- 
out moral modifications, must not be allowed to trample. 
This is especially the case with reference to clearances ; 
they are allowed, although they would not be allowed in 
densely populated counties ; and they are allowed because 
they are in conformity with formal law, although it is 
generally thought that they are in opposition to a feeling not 
yet fully expressed. It slumbers in the mind which says 
that some great law is disobeyed, but on examining the law 
of the land it is not found which portion is disobeyed, and it 
may be that the heart is also mistaken in its feelings. It is 
the business of legislators to put into words and parlia- 
mentary law the great laws of justice which are written in 
our hearts, and to see that all laws made for the nation are in 
ponformity with absolute law. All our laws are relative, or 
