ALBERT R. MANN 
 LIBRARY 
 
 New York State Colleges 
 
 OF 
 
 Agriculture and Home Economics 
 
 AT 
 
 Cornell University 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013714237 
 
BIRTHRIGHT IN LAND 
 
THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
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BIRTHRIGHT IN LAND 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM OGILVIE 
 
 OF PITTENSEAR 
 
 PROFESSOR OF HUMANLTV, AND LECTURER ON POLITICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY, 
 
 ANTIQUITIES, CRITICISM, AND RHETORIC, IN THE UNIVERSITY AND 
 
 king's COLLEGE OF ABERDEEN 
 
 WITH BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 
 
 BY 
 
 D. C. MACDONALD 
 
 Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done ON THE EARTH, 
 as it is in Heaven. 
 
 Then let its pray thai come it may. 
 
 As come it will /or a' that, 
 TluLt man to man the warld o'er. 
 
 Shall brothers be for a' that. J 
 
 LON DON 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. 
 
 I 89 I 
 
Hontmr thy father and thy mother that thy days may he long iifon the 
 LAND which the Lord thy God giveth thee : birthright tenure ! 
 
OF 
 
 WILLIAM OGILVIE, 
 ROBERT BURNS, 
 
 JOHN LOCKE, 
 
 A nd^ last but not leasts 
 GEORGE BUCHANAN, 
 
 ¥our lovers of mankind^ whose achievements m the cause of jftistice, of 
 Love, of Truth, and of Liberty, if fully known and followed up, would 
 deprive superstition, hypocrisy, ignorance, and oppression of their mono- 
 polising power over the Natural Rights of man, and could not fail to 
 establish that measure of happiness in this world which every rational 
 being ought to enjoy in accordance with the intentions of a Benevolent 
 Creator, by whose Sovereign Power the wish to be happy is implaiiUd in 
 the human breast. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Preface, .... . ix 
 
 II. Reprint of Professor Ogilvie's "Essay on the Right of Property 
 in Land," &c., with facsimile title page, synoptical Con 
 tents, Introduction, and foot notes, all from the Author's 
 own pen, . . . . . . i 
 
 III. Alphabetical Index, . . . . 123 
 
 IV. Biographical Notes, . 141 
 V. Appendix, . 388 
 
 PLATES. 
 
 Portrait of the Author. 
 " The Sapient Septemviri.' 
 
-L- PREFACE. 
 
 THIS work was written between 1776 and 
 1 78 1, about a hundred years before Mr. 
 Henry George wrote his Progress and Poverty. 
 
 Both authors traversed the sorrowful jungle of 
 Political Economy, and both discovered " the 
 central truth ". The independent testimony of the 
 one is corroborated by the equally independent 
 testimony of the other. 
 
 The same truth was revealed to John Locke 
 between the years 1680 and 1690. And is there 
 any doubt that it was seen by Moses, David, 
 Socrates, and a host of prophets, poets, and 
 philosophers, ages and ages before ? 
 
 Do we not find the Birthright of Man stereo- 
 typed in the words " Our Father " ? The Faiths 
 of the world, ancient and modern, whether con- 
 sidered natural or revealed, have all something in 
 them, in common with genuine Christianity, which 
 d&Q[a.re^ " Equality of Rights'' between man and 
 man. 
 
 " Whether," says Locke,* " we consider natural 
 
 * Essay on Civil Government. 
 b 
 
X Preface. 
 
 reason, which tells us that men, being once born, 
 have a right to their preservation, and consequently 
 to meat and drink and such other things as Nature 
 affords for their subsistence, or ' revelation,' which 
 gives us an account of those grants God made of 
 the world to Adam, and to Noah and his sons, it 
 is very clear that God, as King David says (Psalm 
 cxv. , 1 6), ' hath given the earth to the children of 
 Tfien' given it to mankind in common. 
 
 " As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, 
 cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is 
 his property. He, dy his labour, does, as it were, 
 enclose it from the common. 
 
 " God gave the world to men in common ; but 
 since He gave it for their benefit and the greatest 
 conveniencies of life they were capable to draw 
 from it, it cannot be supposed He meant it 
 should always remain common and uncultivated. 
 He gave it to the use of the industrious and 
 rational {and labour was to be his title to it) ; not to 
 the fancy or covetousness of the quarrelsome and 
 contentious." And adds Professor Ogilvie : " Nor 
 yet that it should be appropriated in such 
 a manner as that, when not more than half 
 cultivated, the farther cultivation and improve- 
 ment should be stopped short, and the in- 
 dustry of millions willing to employ themselves 
 in rendering the earth more fertile should be ex- 
 cluded from its proper field, and denied any parcel 
 
Preface. xi 
 
 of the soil, on which it could be exercised, with 
 security of reaping its full produce and just 
 reward''. " This title to an equal share of pro- 
 perty in land " is declared by Professor Ogilvie to 
 be a-" Birthright which every citizen still retains." 
 We shall see how far he advanced the question 
 towards the standpoint of Progress and Poverty. 
 
 " The reform," says Mr. Henry George, " I 
 have proposed ... is but the carrying out in 
 letter and spirit of the truth enunciated in the 
 Declaration of Independence — the ' self-evident ' 
 truth that is the heart and soul of the Declaration 
 — ' That all men are created equal ; that they are 
 endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
 rights ; that among them are life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness ! ' 
 
 " These rights are denied when the equal right 
 to land— on which and by which alone men can 
 live — is denied. Equality of political rights will 
 not compensate for the denial of the equal right to 
 the bounty of nat^t■re. Political liberty when the 
 equal right to land is denied, becomes, as popula- 
 tion increases and invention goes on, merely the 
 liberty to compete for employment at starvation 
 wages. This is the truth that we have ignored." 
 
 Such being the disease, what is the cure ? 
 
 "It is necessary," says the Philosopher of 
 Pittensear, " that the object to be aimed at, and 
 the means by which it may be obtained, should be 
 
xii Preface. 
 
 again and again stated to the public in a variety 
 of speculative views, and so rendered familiar to 
 the understandings of men. 
 
 " Internal convulsions have arisen in many- 
 countries by which the decisive power of the state 
 has been thrown, for a short while at least, into 
 the hands of the collective body of the people. In 
 these junctures they might have obtained a just 
 re-establishment of their natiiral rights to indepen- 
 dence of cidtivation and to property in land, had 
 
 TFIEY BEEN THEMSELVES AWARE OF THEIR TITLE TO 
 
 SUCH RIGHTS, and had there been any leaders pre- 
 pared to direct them in the mode of stating their 
 just claim, and supporting it with necessary firm- 
 ness and becoming moderation. Such was the 
 revolution of 1688, at which time, surely, an article 
 declarative of the natural right of property in 
 LAND might have been inserted in the Bill of 
 
 Rights, HAD the people at LARGE BEEN BEFORE- 
 HAND TAUGHT TO UNDERSTAND THAT THEY WERE 
 
 POSSESSED OF ANY SUCH CLAIM. Siuh also was the 
 late convulsion in America {ly'/d), the favourable 
 opportunities of which are not yet exhausted." 
 
 It is interesting, as well as instructive, to notice 
 the harmony that pervades the writings of these 
 three Apostles of Mans natural right to independ- 
 ence, his liberty to labour, and his Birthright in 
 land. John Locke stirred up the English Revolu- 
 tion of 1688, and in doing so he set a good 
 
Preface. xiii 
 
 example to the rest of the world, and raised his 
 country to a glorious position among nations. We 
 are only beginning to see this now. William 
 Ogilvie was neither an idle spectator of the French 
 Revolution of i 789, nor of the American Revolu- 
 tion of 1 776. The man who regarded Revolutions 
 as " favourable opportunities " for restoring the 
 natural rights of mankind was, like John Locke, a 
 practical philosopher. Mr. Henry George, as a 
 political philosopher, is equally practical. He is a 
 child of 1776, 111 spirit and in truth! He is a 
 Lockist as regards the rights of labour — labour 
 being the title and also the measure which alone 
 can give to the individual an exclusive right of 
 property in natural products. And he is an 
 Ogilvist (which is only a logical development of 
 the Lockist) as regards man's Birthright in Land 
 — the basis of the Single Tax, and the door 
 through which Labour may freely enter into pos- 
 session, and enjoy, not a mere portion of its fruit, 
 which some tyrant may set apart, but " its full 
 produce and just reward ". 
 
 Sad and strange to say, amidst our boasted 
 civilisation, our profession of the Christian Faith, 
 and our avowed belief in one impartial God, all 
 knowledge in regard to the just and equal right 
 of mankind to participate in the bounties of 
 Nature, has hitherto been systematically boy- 
 cotted. Until recently, the teacher of such prin- 
 
xiv Preface. 
 
 ciples was treated by Law and Order as a 
 dangerous criminal. John Locke had to take 
 shelter in Holland. William Ogilvie had to con- 
 ceal himself under a bushel in Scotland. Many 
 a noble son of Erin had to mount the gallows, 
 while thousands suffered imprisonment, and millions 
 were exiled from that unhappy country — a country 
 which is still held like a mangled corpse in the 
 crocodile jaws of commercial landlordism ; and 
 the monster will not let go its hold except on 
 one condition, namely, to be allowed to gorge 
 itself with British blood. 
 
 But why not utterly destroy this monster .i* 
 What better service for our soldiers, blue-jackets, 
 and policemen, than to employ themselves in 
 destroying this common enemy of mankind.'' 
 Parliament could do it, a royal warrant could do 
 it, the sufferers have a right to do it, nay " every 
 man hath a right " to destroy such monsters. " In 
 transgressing the law of Nature," says John Locke, 
 " the offender declares himself to live by another 
 rule than that of reason and common equity, which 
 is that measure God has set to the actions of men 
 for their mutual security, and so he becomes dan- 
 gerous to mankind ; the tie which is to secure them 
 from injury and violence being slighted and broken 
 by him, which being a trespass against the whole 
 species, and the peace and safety of it, provided 
 for by the law of Nature, every man upon this 
 
Preface. xv 
 
 score, by the right he hath to preserve mankind in 
 general, may restrain, or where it is necessary, 
 destroy things noxious to them, and so may bring 
 such evil on any one vs^ho hath transgressed that 
 law, as may make him repent the doing of it, and 
 thereby deter him, and, by his example, others 
 from doing the like mischief And in this case, 
 and upon this ground, every man hath a right to 
 punish the offender, and be the executioner of the 
 law of Nature." * 
 
 The benevolent and magnanimous Professor 
 Ogilvie had this passage before him when he wrote 
 the first section of his Essay. In a foot-note he 
 says : — " It were unjust to censure the proprietors 
 of land, however, for retaining and exercising, as 
 they do, a right whose foundations have not been 
 inquired into, and whose extent no one as yet 
 controverted ". Then he goes on to explain that 
 ignorance is the root of the evil. There were 
 many cases to which the modified doctrine of 
 Professor Ogilvie would apply, e.g., the "humane 
 landlords of England " of his own time, and some 
 of the princes of ancient times, " who lived for the 
 happiness of their people ". The commercial land- 
 lord, who, he tells us in the same note, is "of all 
 citizens the most pernicious," who burkes all 
 inquiry into the foundations of his right, and who 
 
 * The renowned George Buchanan, the great-grand-father of 
 British Liberty, puts it even stronger than this. (See page 319). 
 
xvi Preface. 
 
 with the aid of lawyers and priests, fills the eyes 
 of mankind with the dust of ignorance, he would 
 leave to be dealt with in accordance with the prin- 
 ciples approbated by Locke. We should not 
 degenerate from these principles, and it is to be 
 hoped that few readers will grudge the references 
 here made to the once famous, but now forgotten 
 — strangely forgotten — writings of one of the best 
 of men, and one of the greatest philosophers the 
 world ever produced, namely, John Locke. 
 
 Professor Ogilvie, who came after Locke, de- 
 votes himself in this treatise to one subject — 
 Birthright in land, it may be called. And the 
 Author may be justly styled — The Eticlid of Land 
 Law Reform. He has left little or nothing un- 
 solved in connection with the Land Question. He 
 has given us a true base line — man's equal right 
 to the raw material of the earth, to the air, to the 
 water, to the rays of the sun, and all natural pro- 
 ducts — from which we can work out any problem, 
 and by which we can test the " title and measure" 
 of every man's property. Resting on this base 
 line — man's natural rights, — he represents to us 
 the perpendicular line of mans right to labour, 
 " with security of reaping its full produce and just 
 reward". Here we have the question in a nut- 
 shell. Take away the base line, and you have no 
 right to labour, and no produce or reward, except 
 what may be meted out by the usurper of your 
 
Preface. xvii 
 
 natural rights. You have to beg for leave to toil ! 
 We thus see clearly how the robbery of labour 
 may be prevented, and how impossible it is to put 
 a stop to such robbery while the industrial classes 
 neglect to claim and exercise their natural right — 
 their right to an equal share in the earth, and all 
 its natural products. 
 
 Strikes against low wages, high rents, unjust 
 taxation, absurd conflicts between capital and 
 labour, rebellions against this or that form of 
 government, are futile skirmishes, and very fre- 
 quently are of the suicidal cock-fighting order, at 
 which the real enemy, elevated on a grand stand, 
 simply laugh. To contend successfully with these 
 evils, society must learn to begin at the source 
 thereof While labourers are content to re- 
 main deprived of their natural rights, they must 
 pay whatever ransom the brigands who have 
 seized these rights choose to demand. Not only 
 is industry robbed, taxed, and crippled, but the 
 brigand, as dog-in-the-manger, very often puts 
 an entire stop to it, and thus the happiness and 
 comfort of millions of mankind, who are willing to 
 work, are curtailed or wholly sacrificed, and misery 
 and starvation reign instead. I am somewhat 
 afraid to say hard things against brigandage. An 
 institution that is still propped up by Law and 
 Order, and supported (or winked at) on almost 
 every hand by the avowed servants of Jesus Christ, 
 
xviii Preface. 
 
 must be touched with a " gentle hand". William 
 Ogilvie has done so in the Essay now before us. 
 Although a landlord himself, he did not disregard 
 the truth, and it will be found that his pen was 
 guided by an impartial and benevolent spirit. I 
 do not require to introduce the author to the 
 reader. He has written his own Introduction. 
 
 It may, however, be noted that the practical 
 schemes propounded in the Essay, were intended 
 only as " examples and beginnings of reformation," 
 to use the author's own cautious language, and 
 should be read as such, and in the light of the cir- 
 cumstances of his own time. Let the reader then 
 peruse once more the closing sentence of the 
 Essay and the author's note thereto, and ponder 
 over the contents of the work, comparing his own 
 ideas with those of the author, before coming to a 
 hasty decision, and let no scheme for the happi- 
 ness of mankind be rejected without at least 
 attempting to substitute and promote a better one. 
 The reader, in applying the author's principles to 
 the present time, and having regard to present and 
 future circumstances, will find that these principles 
 are not of the hard and fast kind, but that they are 
 in accordance with Natural Law, and therefore 
 may be accepted as eter, al and universal in their 
 application. 
 
 The Index (pages 123 to 139) has been supplied 
 by the editor. Its purpose, although partly synop- 
 
Preface. xix 
 
 tical, is not to save the reader the pleasure of study- 
 ing the text, but rather to stimulate a restudy, 
 by comparing part with part, and reconsidering 
 the whole anatomy of the work, with its bearing 
 upon the present tide of thought in regard to the 
 natural rights of mankind — Man's Birthright in 
 Land. 
 
 I When a child is born, we recognise that it has a 
 natural right to its mother's milk, and no one can 
 deny that it has the same right to mother-earth. 
 It is really its mother-earth, plus the dew and 
 sunshine from heaven and a little labour, that 
 supplies the milk and everything else required 
 for its subsistence. The monster that would de- 
 prive a babe of its mother's milk, or would mono- 
 polise the breasts of several mothers, to the 
 exclusion of several children, is not more deserving 
 of being destroyed than the monster who seizes 
 absolute possession of more than his share of the 
 common mother of mankind, to the exclusion of 
 his fellow-creatures. Now, as these monsters are 
 comparatively few, and were always a very small 
 minority of the human race, the question naturally 
 arises, Why the vast majority submit — why, in 
 short, they do not destroy such monsters without 
 a moment's consideration ? How are the monsters 
 guarded ? By policemen ? — No. By soldiers i* — 
 No. By gunboats and blue-jackets ? — No. By 
 Law Courts and bailiffs ? — No. By the magical 
 
XX Preface. 
 
 power of the sovereign ? — No, we do not now 
 believe in the divine right of kings. By what 
 then ? — By the clergy, for we still believe in their 
 " divinity ". Our mothers at least do, and they are 
 our first teachers, aiid we seldom forget what we 
 learn when young, v The influence of the clergy over 
 womankind, and woman's influence again over the 
 whole race, explain how mankind have been, and 
 continue to be, cheated out of their birthrights. 
 The wily tyrants employ the clergy as their tools. 
 A theology is invented. Truth and reason are boy- 
 cotted. Ignorance is considered a virtue. The 
 "virtue" of our mothers in this respect Is, indeed, 
 specially guarded by the clergy and the Universi- 
 ties. In order to perpetuate landlord serfdom, it 
 is necessary to keep our mothers systematically 
 ignorant of their children's birthright. By a most 
 unchristian system of law and theology woman is 
 regarded as an inferior being, while man is elevated 
 to the position of a God — a Creator ! * Thus 
 robbed of her natural position, and of her equal 
 rights, in her own sphere, as a parent, she is con- 
 demned to the position of a slave. In this position 
 she brings forth her children. She generally does 
 
 * This is a relic of Paganism— the worship of males. The 
 -worship of the sun {on Sundays !) had its origin in the belief 
 that "he" pro-created new life every Spring. This very 
 ancient religion is not British. The grian (sun) of the Celts 
 is not a fie, but a goddess with "golden locks," and so— with 
 the Bard of Avon — " Juliet is the sun ! " 
 
Preface. xxi 
 
 so by licence from the clergy. But notwithstand- 
 ing this " divine licence," her children are treated 
 as bastards. They are denied the right to draw 
 one breath in their native land, unless the parents 
 beg permission of the landlord. They have to pay 
 for the right to live on his land. They are victims 
 of humiliation and extortion from the cradle to the 
 grave. The idea of a Birthright is entirely lost in 
 the case of all children whose mothers are slaves. 
 That sense of honour towards "thy mother," en- 
 joined by Moses, is obliterated, when you have 
 lost sight of your right to ' ' the land which the 
 Lord thy God giveth thee ". When woman's 
 natural rights as a parent are interfered with and 
 curtailed, her natural duties to her offspring are 
 rendered harder, and in many cases impossible to 
 perform. The usual result is universal ignorance, 
 slavery, and suffering of mankind. It is here we may 
 read the real fall of man — the loss of his birthright 
 — his miserable and slavish position — an outcast 
 
 " Who begs a brother of the earth, 
 To give him leave to toil " — 
 
 who, like a dog, has to submit to the oppressor's 
 rod, in the shape of insolent robbery or insulting 
 expatriation at the instance of a Duke of Argyll, a 
 Lord Clanricarde, or a Mr. A. J. Balfour. 
 
 Where is the free woman — the natural mother — 
 whose blood would not boil, and set a-boiling the 
 blood of dead men, at the thought of her children 
 
xxii Preface. 
 
 being so treated ? But as a slave she must submit. 
 It is the duty of the clergy to stamp out all such 
 natural and motherly feelings. The mothers of J ohn 
 Locke's countrymen are kept, I believe, in greater 
 ignorance of their children's birthright than the 
 mothers of the most savage tribe in middle Africa. 
 It is not necessary to come to Scotland or to cross 
 the Irish Channel in order to witness how landlord- 
 oppression and wage-slavery flourish under the 
 shade and shelter of churches and steeples. 
 
 " Asses, swine, have litter spread, 
 And with fitting food are fed ; 
 All things have a home but one : 
 But thou, O Englishman, hast none ! 
 
 " This is Slavery ! Savage men, 
 Or wild beasts within a den, 
 Would endure not as ye do ; 
 But such ills they never knew. 
 
 " \Vhat is Freedom ? Ye can tell' 
 That which Slavery is too well, 
 For its very name has grown 
 To an echo of your own. 
 
 " Tis to work and have such pay 
 As just keeps life from day to day 
 In your limbs, as in a cell 
 For the tyrant's use to dwell : 
 
 " So that ye for them are made. 
 Loom and plough and sword and spade ; 
 ^Vith or without your own will, bent 
 To their defence and nourishment. 
 
Preface. 
 
 "Tis to see your children weak, 
 With their mothers pine and peak, 
 When the winter winds are bleak — 
 They are dying whilst I speak. 
 
 " Tis to hunger for such diet, 
 As the rich man in his riot 
 Casts to the fat dogs that lie 
 Surfeiting beneath his eye. 
 
 " Men of England, wherefore plough 
 For the lords who lay ye low ? 
 Wherefore weave with toil and care 
 The rich robes your tyrants wear ? 
 
 "Wherefore feed, and clothe, and save, 
 From the cradle to the grave. 
 Those ungrateful drones who would 
 Drain your sweat — nay, drink your blood ! 
 
 " The seed ye sow another reaps ; 
 The wealth ye find another keeps ; 
 The robes ye weave another wears ; 
 The arms ye forge another bears. 
 
 " Sow seed — but let no tyrant reap ; 
 Find wealth — let no impostor heap ; 
 Weave robes — let not the idle wear ; 
 Forge arms, in your defence to bear. 
 
 " Let a great assembly be 
 Of the fearless and the free, 
 On some spot of Enghsh ground, 
 Where the plains stretch wide around. 
 
XX iv Preface. 
 
 " Men of England, Heirs of glory, 
 Heroes of unwritten story, 
 Nurslings of one mighty naother, 
 Hopes of her and one another. 
 
 " Rise, like lions after slumber. 
 In unvanquishable number ! 
 Shake your chains to earth like dew 
 Which in sleep has fallen on you ! 
 Ye are many — they are few ! " 
 
 When the women of England will take up this 
 song, it is then and only then that the Men of 
 Eiigland W\\\ respond to the word "Rise!" The 
 army, the navy, the volunteers, and the police will 
 then no longer be content to strut about as the slaves 
 of the classes while drawing their pay from the 
 masses ! England I as the sanctuary of landlord- 
 ism, thy cup is filling fast ; but whether the next 
 revolution will be bloodless or otherwise, who can 
 tell? True, the enemy "ai-e few," and unless" they" 
 behave worse than madmen not a drop of blood 
 need be spilt, no treasure or property need be 
 wasted, and no industry need be injured. But 
 while misery, injustice, and discontent reign, and 
 all legitimate attempts at reform are discarded, 
 postponed, and rejected by successive governments, 
 an accidental spark may at any time create a confla- 
 gration. The great French Revolution was not the 
 result of a concerted plan. It was only the burst- 
 ing forth of the streams of liberty and justice from 
 the channels and sinks of iniquity and oppression 
 
Preface. xxv 
 
 in which they had been so long confined. A con- 
 certed plan would have succeeded better — a more 
 skilful removal of the feudal earthworks would have 
 prevented the flood from damaging the plains 
 below. The blind forces of nature have to be con- 
 trolled by intellectual skill, by scientific knowledge, 
 and by education in the use and working of such 
 forces. V The strongest force connected with human ' 
 nature is maternal affection. The pagan priests 
 knew this — hence the reason why they always made 
 it their chief business to subject womankind to 
 ignorance, superstition, and slavery. The Jewish 
 priests treated women very much in the same way, 
 notwithstanding the distinct commandment of 
 Moses, who, by the way, must have honoured his 
 mother fully as much, and deservedly so, as he did 
 his father. Were we to probe history properly 
 we would find how much the influence of woman has 
 had to do with all the great reforms — the great re- 
 volutions by which the world has been blessed. 
 Women are compelled to work behind the scenes. 
 They are forced to practise intrigue as the only 
 means by which they can do any good to society. 
 This has had a pernicious effect on their nature, 
 and has been the cause of giving them a reputation 
 for mean conduct wholly inconsistent with their 
 natural instincts. Their whole training hitherto 
 has undoubtedly tended to make them easy victims 
 to ignorance, superstition, and slavery. 
 
/xxvi Preface. 
 
 Jesus Christ attempted to raise woman to her 
 natural position but His followers have discarded 
 His doctrines. V The Apostle Paul seems to have 
 been more of a Jew than a Christian in regard to 
 the status of woman ; and it suited European feudal- 
 ism to follow the Apostle rather than Christ. 
 Hence woman's position in the Christian Europe of 
 to-day is much lower than it was among the 
 pagan Celts and Goths, who, Plutarch tells us, 
 honoured their mothers, as well as their fathers, by 
 giving them a place and a voice in their legislative 
 assemblies. The sons and husbands of these 
 women measured swords successfully with the 
 proud warriors of the Roman empire, and they 
 founded a new empire, on the throne of which now 
 sits a woman — a lonely relic of western civilisation ! 
 
 Nature having formed, endowed, and entrusted, 
 woman to be the guardian of her children, and with 
 the mutucil right to select who is to be their 
 father, is it natural, is it just, is it reasonable, is it 
 wise, to withhold from her the opportunities of 
 intellectual, moral, or physical development enjoyed 
 by the other sex ? Or is it natural, just, reason- 
 able, or wise, that she should have no voice in the 
 making of laws, which avowedly refer to the wel- 
 fare of her special wards ? Is it for the benefit of 
 societ)- that we have excluded maternal instinct, 
 and its immediate influence, from our legislative 
 Councils ? Our brutal, unjust, and unnatural laws 
 
Preface. xxvii 
 
 will answer this question. Is it because women 
 are too stupid that they are excluded ? No — that 
 would rather be a recommendation, seeing that 
 our Acts of Parliament are veritable monuments of 
 confusion. Take, for example, our " Reform 
 Acts," passed since 1832, as they now stand, and 
 imagine if anything so hopelessly jumbled could be 
 put together by an assembly of crazy old women. 
 Our Franchise, Registration, and Voting Laws, 
 instead of being as simple as ABC, so that a 
 child could understand them, are composed of 
 legal puzzles which many experts are not able to 
 solve. Our representative system, with its house- 
 hold suffrage denied to women, and which gives 
 only a phantom franchise to men, is a barbarous 
 relic of the dregs of feudalism, and forms part and 
 parcel of the Land Laws. The ballot-box is 
 necessary. What hold has an Englishman of 
 his house while some lord owns the ground ou 
 which it stands } The Duke of Argyll can dis- 
 franchise every soul on his lands, with the ex- 
 ception of the crofters who got "fixity of tenure" 
 in 1886. Our Land Laws, looked at as a 
 sample of legislation by males, present' to us a 
 dense jungle of iniquity, full of thorns, briars, 
 and bitter fruit. They furnish ample evidence 
 that one section of humanity cannot adequately 
 perform duties which naturally belong to humanity 
 as a whole. To clear that jungle, to reclaim the 
 
xxviii Preface. 
 
 land, and to settle the question of man's birthright, 
 society must utilise the full strength, genius, and 
 natural instincts of undivided humanity, without 
 any offensive distinction of sex. In legislating for 
 posterity, why should the dictates of maternal 
 instinct be disregarded ? 
 
 If men, in common with the males of other 
 animals, are characterised by boldness and strength, 
 do we not find that women, in common with the 
 females of other animals, are, in some respects, 
 superior to men in sagacity and instinct ? Mater- 
 nal instinct is the sublimest faculty bestowed on 
 humanity by the Creator. Even in regard to 
 boldness and strength the female man should not 
 be despised. The world has produced more than 
 one Joan of Arc. The victim of the suttee ex- 
 hibits almost supernatural bravery. The widow 
 who struggles against life's battles on behalf of her 
 children is not less brave. The Englishwoman 
 who toils in the forges of Cradley Heath, and her 
 more fortunate sister who outstrips her male com- 
 panions in following the hounds, are equally brave 
 specimens of their sex. In some parts of the 
 Highlands of Scotland, where the landlords pro- 
 hibit the keeping of horses, women work the spade, 
 drag the harrow, and carry the dung-creel ; and 
 Highland women, like their oppressed sisters in 
 Ireland, have stood guard, as front rank, against 
 batons and bayonets, protecting their homes from 
 
Pi^eface. xxix 
 
 landlord invasion. But on the other hand, where 
 we have the soul of woman filled with ignorance, 
 her intellect bewildered with superstition, and her 
 instinct and reason polluted and condemned, she 
 becomes worse than useless as a guardian and pro- 
 tector of the natural and sacred rights of mankind. 
 The lords of this world use religion as a pirate- 
 flare for diverting the attention of the bulk of 
 mankind to "another world" — a much better 
 world, they say, as if that were a good reason for 
 despising this world while we are in it. Women, 
 alas ! are too often caught in this way. Anything 
 tacked on to an old religion becomes fashionable, 
 becomes respectable, and women must be in the 
 fashion, must be respectable, and men follow the 
 women, no matter how absurd and how unreason- 
 able the temple performances, or the doctrines 
 taught by priests and fakirs, may be. The mother's 
 instincts are not holy — they are only natural ! 
 The father's instincts of self-defence are also only 
 natural, and everything natural — " the flesh, the 
 world, and the devil" — must be renounced. Man's 
 natural right to a share of his native land, being 
 thus sandwiched with the devil, must be given up. 
 It is thus that the children's birthright is lost, 
 that eviction is made easy, and that the landlords 
 are allowed to reap where they did not sow. 
 
 These thoughts are placed here before the 
 reader because it is " devoutly to be wished " that 
 
XXX Preface. 
 
 every girl as well as every boy, every woman as 
 well as every man, and especially every mother, 
 should read and carefully digest such works as 
 Professor Ogilvie's " Essay on the Right of Pro- 
 perty in Land". No social movement can be 
 carried to a successful issue either by evolution or 
 revolution unless woman joins heartily in it, and 
 then instead of being a drag, she becomes a spur 
 in the march of civilisation. The education, 
 emancipation, and co-operation of woman is neces- 
 sary before her children — mankind — can regain 
 and inherit their birthright. Man is only emerg- 
 ing from slavery when woman is being emancipated. 
 If a man's mother, sister, wife, and daughter are 
 slaves, is he not steeped in slavery ? Religion and 
 Law, bossed by weak men, have been the causes 
 of woman's degraded position as a member of 
 society. The Creator is not in the least-to blame. 
 
 " Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears, 
 Her noblest work she classes, O : 
 
 Her 'prentice han' she try'd on man, 
 An' then she made the lasses, O." 
 
 Professor Ogilvie's Essay is a pastoral prose 
 poem, through which we can realise this beautiful 
 world, with its ample provision for satisfying man's 
 instinctive and rational faculties of enjoyment. 
 The " Sovereign Power " from which all blessings 
 flow is manifested as a wise, just, and impartial 
 Creator, who invites us to make His laws our 
 
Preface. xxxi 
 
 laws, and who in these latter days has delegated 
 to us some wonderful powers, by which — with 
 equality of rights and freedom of labour — the 
 comforts of this life, and the products of the world, 
 may be multiplied more than a thousand fold, 
 purposely (shall we not say ?) to increase the happi- 
 ness and virtue of mankind. 
 
 The sun never sets, and when one group of 
 workers are retiring to rest, on his " going down," 
 another group are rising with him. Light and 
 labour thus go their incessant rounds ; and so it is 
 with the seasons of seed-time and harvest — the 
 eternal law of revolutions seems to regulate all 
 things ! Human speech, borne on the mysterious 
 wings of thunder, revolves round the earth, and 
 " man to man the world o'er " can hold instan- 
 taneous converse. Man himself revolves round 
 the world, carried by his fire-souled amphibious 
 steed from places where he lacks food, raiment, or 
 enjoyment, to more hospitable regions. Or he 
 can, with magic-like power, cause the superfluous 
 granaries, larders, and wardrobes, to move from 
 one side of the globe, to feed and clothe the 
 hungry and naked on the other. Nature seems to 
 have decreed — "There shall be no more famines ! " 
 But although the sun shines ceaselessly, and man's 
 labour follows him steadily in his course, the flow 
 of blessings which such evolutions naturally pro- 
 duce is polluted and diverted by the influence 
 
xxxii Preface. 
 
 of landlordism, which, like a upas tree, poisons 
 the surrounding atmosphere, spreads desolation in 
 the country, and crowds the town with vice, want, 
 disease, misery, and crime, far beyond the power 
 of churches, charities, hospitals, divorce courts, 
 and police courts to cure. There is only one cure 
 — " Cut it down : why cumbereth it the ground?" 
 
 D. C. McD. 
 Aberdeen, May, 1891. 
 
AN 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 ON THE RIGHT OF 
 
 PROPERTY IN LAND 
 
 With respeft to its Foundation 
 
 IN THE 
 
 LAW OF NATU RE 
 
 Its present Establishment 
 
 BY THE 
 
 MUNICIPAL LAWS OF EUROPE 
 
 AND 
 
 The Regulations by which it might be rendered 
 more beneficial to the lower Ranks of Mankind 
 
 LONDON 
 
 Printed for J. Walter, Charing-Cross 
 1782 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction - . i 
 
 PART I. 
 Section I. 
 
 Of the Right of Property in Land as derived from 
 the Law of Nature. 
 
 1. Each individual derives from the right of general occupancy 
 
 a right to an equal share of the soil 7 
 
 2. This right cannot be precluded by any possession of others 8 
 
 3. Nor is it tacitly renounced by those who have had no oppor- 
 
 tunity of entering upon it 9 
 
 4. The opportunity of claiming this right ought to be reserved for 
 
 every citizen - 9 
 
 5. Rude societies have respected this right ; in the progress of arts 
 
 it is overlooked, and by conquests generally subverted - 10 
 
 6. Speculative reasoners have confounded this equal right with 
 
 that which is founded in labour, and ascertained by municipal 
 
 law 10 
 
 7. The right of a landholder to an extensive estate must be founded 
 
 chiefly in labour 11 
 
 8. The progress of cultivation gives an ascendant to the right of • 
 
 labour over that of general occupancy 11 
 
 9. But the public good requires that both should be respected and 
 
 combined together 12 
 
 10. Such combination is difficult, and has rarely been established 
 
 for any length of time - 12 
 
 11. It is the proper object of Agrarian laws, and effectual means of 
 
 establishing it may be devised 13 
 
iv Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 12. The value of an estate in land consists of three parts — the 
 
 original, the improved, and the improvable value - - 13 
 
 13. The original and the improvable value of a great estate still 
 
 belong to the community, the improved alone to the land- 
 holder . - 14 
 
 14. The original value is the proper subject of land-taxes ; the im- 
 
 provable value may be separated from the improved, and 
 ought to be still open to the claims of the community - 15 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Of the Right of Property in Land as founded on 
 ptiblic Utility. 
 
 15. Public happiness is the object of good government ; it is not 
 
 always increased by increased wealth and dominion 18 
 
 16. Nor by increase of numbers 18 
 
 17. The happiness of citizens bears proportion to their virtue; . 
 
 some situations are favourable to virtue, that of the inde- 
 pendent cultivator more especially is so - ig 
 
 18. Men in that situation increase more in number ig 
 ig. And by their industry most effectually promote the real wealth 
 
 of the public 19 
 
 20. Comeliness and strength are the least equivocal marks of pro- 
 
 sperity in a race of people 20 
 
 21. In these respects the race of cultivators excel , 20 
 
 22. To increase the number of men in this situation, seems to in- 
 
 crease public happiness - -21 
 
 23. The natural rights and best interests of men require the same ' 
 
 . economy of property in land 21 
 
 24. Other plans for increasing happiness ought to be postponed to 
 
 independent cultivation 21 
 
 25. Manufactures and commerce in particular ought to be postponed i 
 
 to it - 22 
 
 26. If every field is cultivated by its proprietor, and every person 
 
 who chooses it may become proprietor of a field, the highest 
 public prosperity may be said to be obtained - 23 
 
Contents. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 Of the Abuses and Pernicious Effects of that Exorbitant 
 Right of Property in Land which the Municipal 
 Laws of Europe have established. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 27. The actual state of Europe, with respect to property in land, 
 
 the cultivation of the soil, and the prosperity of the lower 
 ranks, is very different from what might be desired - 26 
 
 28. The imperfection of this state arises from that right to the im- 
 
 provable value of the soil which landholders possess - - 27 
 
 29. The oppression proceeding from this right debases the spirit 
 
 and corrupts the probity of the lower ranks - 27 
 
 30. The rent which may be taken for land ought to be submitted 
 
 to regulations not less than the interest of money 28 
 
 31. It is of more importance that regulations should be imposed on 
 
 property in land 29 
 
 32. And though difficult, not impracticable - 29 
 
 33. Property in land, as at present established in Europe, is a 
 
 monopoly of the most pernicious kind - 30 
 
 34. By this monopoly, population is rendered almost stationary in 
 
 Europe 31 
 
 35. It checks the progress of agriculture in fertilising the earth 32 
 
 36. Under its influence the increase of population tends to diminish 
 
 happiness, and the celibacy of particular orders cannot be 
 called a polical evil - 32 
 
 37. The interest of landholders is substituted for that of the com- 
 
 munity ; it ought to be the same, but is not - - 33 
 
 38. The landholders of a nation levy the most oppressive of all 
 
 taxes ; they receive the most unmerited of all pensions, — if 
 tithes are oppressive to industry, rents capable of being 
 raised from time to time are much more so 33 
 
 39. All property ought to be the reward of industry ; all industry 
 
 ought to be secure of its full reward ; the exorbitant right of 
 
 the landholders subverts both these maxims of good policy 34 
 
 40. It is the indirect influence of this monopoly which makes a 
 
 poors-rate necessary; requires unnatural severity in penal 
 laws ; renders sumptuary laws unpolitical, and the improve- 
 ment of machinery for facilitating labour unpopular, and 
 perhaps pernicious - - - 3^ 
 
40 
 
 VI Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 41. While such a monopoly subsists, emigration ought to be left 
 
 free, if not facilitated 39 
 
 42. The oppressed state of the cultivators, being universal, has 
 
 been regarded by themselves and others as necessary and 
 irremediable 
 
 43. A sound policy respecting property in land is perhaps the 
 
 greatest improvement that can be made in human affairs 41 
 
 44. It might restore a sinking state 41 
 
 PART II. 
 Section I. 
 
 Of Circumstances and Occasions favourable to a complete 
 Reformation of the Laws respecting Property in Land, 
 by the sovereign or legislative power. 
 
 45. Reformation in this important point is not to be despaired 
 
 of; the establishment of property in land has changed, and 
 may hereafter receive other innovations - 43 
 
 46. Conquering princes might establish the most equitable and 
 
 beneficial system in countries subdued by their arms - 45 
 
 47. In nevif colonies it ought to be established by the parent state 47 
 
 48. In small dependent states the sovereign of a great nation may 
 
 establish it without danger 48 
 
 49. Princes of heroic minds, born to absolute monarchy, might 
 
 establish a complete reformation in their whole dominions 
 
 at once - .49 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Of Circumstances and Occasions favourable to a partial 
 Reformation of the Laws respecting Property in Land, 
 by the sovereign or legislative power. 
 
 50. Absolute monarchs might without difficulty establish many 
 
 regulations of partial yet very extensive reformation 51 
 
 51. The whole community may be disposed to adopt the most bene- 
 
 ficial plans for public good 52 
 
 52. Under cover of other regulations some changes favourable to 
 
 cultivation may be introduced . 57 
 
Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 53- Certain regulations particularly require, and may justify such 
 
 changes - 60 
 
 54. The regulation of leases is not unusual, and might be made 
 
 productive of the best effects 61 
 
 55. A right of redemption might be given to the cultivators of any 
 
 estate exposed to sale 63 
 
 56. Forfeited and escheated lands might be made the subject of 
 
 beneficial establishments 64 
 
 Section III. 
 
 Of Circumstances 7vhich might induce the rulers of a State 
 to turn their wishes and endeavours towards the ac- 
 complishment of such a Change. 
 
 57. The collective body of the people, if at any time their power 
 
 shall predominate, ought above all things to insist on a just 
 regulation of property in land 66 
 
 58. The candidates for disputed thrones might offer this reformation 
 
 to the body of the people 68 
 
 59. Whatever bodies of men are oppressed in other respects ought 
 
 to claim this right also. It might become the ministers of 
 religion to support it 68 
 
 60. Public calamities may induce the rulers of a state to think of 
 
 renovating the vigour of the community by a just regulation 
 
 of property in land 70 
 
 61. Imminent and continual dangers may have the same effect 72 
 
 62. And the accumulation of public debts ought to have it 74 
 
 Section IV. 
 
 Of Public Institutions calculated for promoting a gradual 
 and salutary Change in the state of Property in 
 Land. 
 
 63. A board instituted for that purpose might promote the inde- 
 
 pendence of cultivation by calm and silent operations 79 
 
 64, Premiums might produce some effect, as in affairs of inferior 
 
 importance - . - . 82 
 
viii Contents. 
 
 Section V. 
 
 Of such examples and beginnings of reformation as might 
 be expected from the generous efforts of private persons 
 acting singly. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 65. In the management of a great estate, various measures favour- 
 
 able to independent cultivation might be very prudently 
 introduced . g^ 
 
 66. And in the settlement of an entail on liberal principles 85 
 
 67. Some examples and beginnings may be obtained by charitable 
 
 bequests and foundations • 86 
 
 68. And by the liberality of opulent individuals - 87 
 
 Section VI. 
 
 Of such examples and beginnings of reformation as might 
 be produced by the combined endeavours of private 
 persons. 
 
 6g. The joint contribution of many might effect what individuals 
 
 cannot attempt go 
 
 70. The attention of societies for the encouragement of agriculture 
 
 might be extended to this, the most effectual encouragement 
 
 of all 91 
 
 Section VII. 
 
 Of a progressive Agrarian law, which might be made the 
 basis of all partial and occasional reformation re- 
 specting property in land. 
 
 71. Scheme of a progressive Agrarian lavif, exhibited in detail gz' 
 
 72. Peculiar advantages of such a scheme - - 100 
 
 73. Variations by which it might be accommodated to the interests 
 
 of various orders 102 
 
 74. Modifications more particularly adapted to different countries - 107 
 
 75. The inconveniences that cannot be separated from such in- 
 
 novations would be more than compensated by probable ■ ■ 
 advantages - 116 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE municipal laws of every country are not only 
 observed as a rule of conduct, but by the bulk of 
 the people they are regarded as the standard of right 
 and of wrong, in all matters to which their regulations 
 are extended. 
 
 In this prejudice, however natural to the crowd, and 
 however salutary it may be deemed, men of enlarged 
 and inquisitive minds are bound by no ties to acquiesce 
 without inquiry. 
 
 Property is one of the principal objects of municipal 
 law, and that to which its regulations are applied with 
 greatest efficacy and precision. With respect to property 
 in movables, great uniformity takes place in the laws of 
 almost all nations ; they differ only as being more or less 
 extended to details, comprehending the diversity of 
 commercial transactions; and this branch of jurispru- 
 dence may be said to have almost attained to its 
 ultimate maturity and perfection. 
 
 But with respect to property in land, different 
 principles have been adopted by different nations in 
 different ages ; and there is no reason why that system, 
 which now prevails in Europe, and which is derived from 
 an age, not deserving to be extolled for legislative 
 
2 Introduction. 
 
 wisdom, or regard to the equal rights of men, should be 
 supposed to excel any system that has taken place 
 elsewhere, or to be in itself already advanced beyond the 
 capacity of improvement, or the need of reformation. 
 
 It is to a free and speculative disquisition, concerning 
 the foundation of this right of property in land, and 
 concerning those modifications, by which it may be 
 rendered in the highest degree beneficial to all ranks of 
 men, that the author of these pages wishes to call the 
 attention of the learned, the ingenious, and the friends 
 of mankind. 
 
 It can give him no surprise, if the opinions he has 
 advanced on a topic of discussion, so new, and so 
 interesting to all, shall meet with the approbation of a 
 few only. Were they now for the first time to be 
 presented abruptly to his own mind, he believes that 
 they would startle his first thoughts, and perhaps might 
 be rejected on a transient view. But the leading 
 principles of that system, which he now holds, respecting 
 property in land, have been coeval in his mind with the 
 free exercise of his thoughts in speculative inquiries; 
 they have recurred often, they have been gradually 
 unfolded, and for some years past he has been accus- 
 tomed to review them frequently, almost in their present 
 form, with still increasing approbation. 
 
 All that he would request in their favour (and the 
 candid will readily grant this) is, that they may not be 
 rejected on a first disgust, and that those who cannot 
 adopt the opinions here advanced may at least bestow 
 some pains in ascertaining their own. These are the 
 
Introduction. 3 
 
 opinions of one individual, thinking freely, and for 
 himself; they are erroneous perhaps and visionary; 
 their singularity may well authorize a suspicion that 
 they are so, and this suspicion ought to have kept them 
 back from the public eye, but for the hope of exciting 
 others to enter into the same train of inquiry, and no 
 longer, in a matter of the first importance to the interests 
 of society, implicitly to acquiesce in traditionary doctrines, 
 never yet submitted to examination. 
 
 Free inquiry, however it may give birth to vain 
 theories and chimerical projects, has never in any 
 department been productive of essential detriment to 
 the true interests of mankind. What undesirable con- 
 sequences have always arisen from the stagnation of 
 inquiry, and from silent acquiescence, even in establish- 
 ments that are beneficial, and in opinions that are true, 
 the history of mankind bears witness in every age. 
 
 It is natural to the mind, when new ideas arise on 
 important subjects, to open itself with fondness to the 
 pleasing impression which they make. Yielding to this 
 seducing enthusiasm, the author has been led to speak 
 with freedom of great changes, suddenly to be accom- 
 plished, as practicable in some cases, and to be desired 
 in many. Yet is he well aware that great changes, 
 suddenly accomplished, are always pregnant with danger, 
 and with evil, and ought on almost no occasion whatever 
 to be desired, or brought forward by the friends of 
 mankind. Partial reformation, gradual progressive in- 
 novation, may produce every advantage which the most 
 important and sudden changes can promise, yet without 
 incurring those dreadful hazards, and those inevitable 
 
4 Introduction. 
 
 evils, with which great and sudden changes are still 
 attended, 
 
 With the greatest satisfaction of mind he avows his 
 persuasion, that were, great and important innovations 
 respecting property in land as practicable and safe, as 
 they are difficult and full of danger, there is no country 
 under the sun which stands less in need of such reforma- 
 tion than England. Although indeed the principles of 
 jurisprudence, respecting property in land, which the 
 laws of England recognize, are derived from the same 
 source, and partake of the same absurd and pernicious 
 nature with those maxims which prevail almost every- 
 where on the continent of Europe, yet such has been the 
 generosity of English landholders, such their equitable 
 conduct towards their tenants and dependants, and such 
 the manly spirit of the lower classes, fostered by a sense 
 of political rights, that in England the comfortable 
 independence of the farmer and actual cultivator of the 
 soil, is established on as secure a footing as the most 
 refined system of property in land deduced from the 
 genuine principles of public good and natural right can 
 propose to render effectual and permanent. It is to be 
 regretted only that this comfortable independence which 
 the farmers enjoy cannot be extended to a still greater 
 proportion of the community. English landholders 
 and English farmers are superior in all respects to the 
 same class of men in other countries: in their manly 
 vigour, their plain good sense, their humane virtues, 
 consists the true basis of our national pre-eminence. 
 Their blood circulates in every rank of society, their 
 domestic manners have given the tone to the English 
 character as displayed in all the various departments of 
 
Introduction. 5 
 
 business and enterprize; nor can any wish be formed 
 more favourable to the prosperity of the public, than 
 that the numbers of this class of men may be increased. 
 To increase the number of landholders by advancing 
 farmers to that more independent situation, can never 
 be made the object of legislative care in this country, as 
 it might in the absolute monarchies of the continent; 
 but to increase the number of farmers, by favouring the 
 advancement of day labourers and manufacturers to the 
 more animating and manly occupation of cultivating a 
 small farm for their own account, is an object very 
 similar to many branches of enlightened policy which 
 the British legislature (more than any other) has pursued 
 with attention and success. 
 
 To the worthy and humane English landholders, 
 and more particularly to those who of late years have 
 voluntarily granted to their tenants an abatement of 
 rent, this short Essay is inscribed by the Author, as to 
 men whom he regards with high esteem, and from whom 
 he may hope that his speculations, should they ever 
 come to their knowledge, would meet with no unfavour- 
 able reception. Why should he not flatter himself with 
 this hope, however seemingly vain, since uninformed by 
 theoretical reasonings, and prompted only by the innate 
 candour and humanity of their own minds, these re- 
 spectable landholders, truly worthy of their station and 
 of their trust, have habitually acted in conformity to 
 those principles of public good and natural right which 
 he is desirous to elucidate and establish. 
 
ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 RIGHT OF PROPERTY IN LAND. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 Of the Right of Property in Land as derived from 
 the Law of Nature. 
 
 I. A LL Right of property is founded either in 
 ±\. occupancy or labour. The earth having been 
 given to mankind in common occupancy, each individual 
 seems to have by nature a right to possess and cultivate 
 an equal share. This right is little different from that 
 which he has to the free use of the open air and running 
 water; though not so indispensably requisite at short 
 intervals for his actual existence, it is not less essential 
 to the welfare and right state of his life through all its 
 progressive stages.* 
 
 * The bulk of mankind in every country are ignorant of the difference 
 between their own laws and those of other nations ; too ignorant to 
 understand, and to value aright what is truly excellent in their own 
 code, or to perceive what improvements it may still admit, and what 
 innovations ought to be desired. In no article are they more ignorant 
 than in respect to property in land, the established rules of which are in 
 
8 The Right of 
 
 2. No individual can derive from this general right 
 of occupancy a title to any more than an equal share of 
 the soil of his country. His actual possession of more 
 
 every country accounted permanent and immutable, as being fixed by 
 the destination of nature. 
 
 In most countries the proprietors of land will ever retain a more than 
 equitable authority over those who cultivate their fields, and not un- 
 fortunately for both, did they but remember that the situation of a pro- 
 prietor is more allied to that of a prince than that of a merchant, and 
 requires some degree of those generous sentiments, and that benign de- 
 meanour, which ought to adorn the highest station. 
 
 It cannot be denied, that all over Europe, those who are employed in 
 cultivating the soil lead a very wretched life ; and that it seems very 
 practicable to render their condition much better than it is, without 
 rendering that of their landlords and superiors any worse. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that much more beneficial establishments of 
 property in land than those which obtain in Europe, or almost any that 
 are known to have obtained elsewhere, may be devised, and are capable 
 of being instituted, and receiving form and consistence fi:om human laws. 
 
 The present system of property in land is not adapted to times of 
 commerce, order, and tranquillity, but to warlike and turbulent ages, 
 when the entire dependence of great bodies of men on their leaders, and 
 the confidence of leaders in their respective bands, were requisite for their 
 common safety. 
 
 In the present advanced state of industry, security, and commerce, the 
 relations and ties which arose out of this mutual dependence, with all 
 their concomitant pleasures and advantages, are unknown ; and the land- 
 holder, who now abuses that power wherewith an obsolete establishment 
 has invested him, to the exacting the last farthing his lands can produce, 
 and effectuating in combination with others a monopoly of that \ aluable 
 and necessary commodity, is, though perhaps he knows it not, of all citizens 
 the most pernicious. He reaps the greatest emoluments firom the institu- 
 tions of society, and contributes least to the increase of plenty, or preser- 
 vation of order. 
 
 It were unjust to censure the proprietors of land, however, for retaining 
 and exercising, as they do, a right whose foundations have not been in- 
 quired into, and whose extent no one has ever yet controverted. It is the 
 situation in which they find themselves placed that prompts their conduct, 
 nor can they readily conceive either the injustice or the detriment which 
 the public suffers, by permitting such rights to be exercised. On the 
 other hand, the farmers and cultivators have no clear perception of the 
 injustice and oppression which they suffer. They feel indeed, and they 
 
Property in Land. 9 
 
 cannot of right preclude the claim of any other person 
 who is not already possessed of such equal share.* 
 
 3. This title to an equal share of property in land 
 seems original, inherent, and indefeasible by any act or 
 determination of others, though capable of being alienated 
 by our own. It is a birthright which every citizen still 
 retains. Though by entering into society and partaking 
 of its advantages, he must be supposed to have submitted 
 this natural right to such regulations as may be esta- 
 blished for the general good, yet he can never be under- 
 stood to have tacitly renounced it altogether ; nor ought 
 anything less to establish such alienation than an express 
 compact in mature age, after having been in actual 
 possession, or haying had a free opportunity of entering 
 into the possession of his equal share. 
 
 4. Every state or community ought in justice to 
 reserve for all its citizens the opportunities of entering 
 
 complain, but do not understand, or dare not consider steadily, from what 
 cause their grievances take their rise. The oppressive rights of the one 
 order, and the patient submission of the other, have grown up together 
 insensibly from remote ages, in which the present state of human affairs 
 could not be foreseen. 
 
 * " God gave the earth in common to all men, but since He gave it 
 for their benefit, and the greatest conveniences of life they were capable 
 to draw from it, it cannot be supposed that He meant it should always 
 remain common and uncultivated. He gave it for the use of the indus- 
 trious and rational ; and labour was to be his title to it." (Mr. Locke on 
 government, page 167 of Mr. HoUis's edition.) Nor yet that it should be 
 appropriated in such a manner as that, when not more than half culti- 
 vated, the farther cultivation and improvement should be stopped short, 
 and the industry of millions willing to employ themselves in rendering the 
 earth more fertile should be excluded from its proper field, and denied 
 any parcel of the soil, on which it could be exercised, with security of 
 reaping its full produce and just reward. 
 
10 The Right of 
 
 upon, or returning to, and resuming this their birth- 
 right and natural employment, whenever they are inclined 
 to do so. 
 
 Whatever inconveniences may be thought to accom- 
 pany this reservation, they ought not to stand in the way 
 of essential justice. 
 
 Although at first sight such reservation may appear 
 incompatible with the established order of societies and 
 the permanent cultivation of the earth, yet ought it on 
 the other hand to be presumed, that what is so plainly 
 founded on the natural rights of men, may by wise 
 regulations be rendered at least consistent with the best 
 order and prosperity of societies, and with the progress 
 of agriculture ; perhaps, very beneficial to the one, and 
 the highest encouragement to the other. 
 
 5. In many rude communities, this original right 
 has been respected, and their public institutions accom- 
 modated to it, by annual, or at least frequent partitions 
 of the soil, as among the ancient Germans, and among 
 the native Irish even in Spenser's time. 
 
 Wherever conquests have taken place, this right has 
 been commonly subverted and effaced. 
 
 In the progress of commercial arts and refinements, 
 it is suffered to fall into obscurity and neglect. 
 
 6. Whatever has been advanced by Mr. Locke and 
 his followers, concerning the right of property in land, 
 as independent of the laws of a higher original than 
 they, and of a nature almost similar to that divine right 
 of kings, which their antagonists had maintained, can only 
 be referred to this original right of equal property in 
 land, founded on that general right of occupancy, which 
 
Property in Land. il 
 
 the whole community has, to the territory of the State. 
 This equal right is indeed antecedent to municipal laws, 
 and not to be abolished by them. But it were a mistake 
 to ascribe any such sacred and indefeasible nature to 
 that sort of property in land which is established by the 
 regulations of municipal law, which has its foundation 
 in the right of labour, and may be acquired by individuals, 
 in very unequal degrees of extent, and to the accumula- 
 tion of which very few states have thought fit to set any 
 limits. 
 
 7. That right which the landholder has to an estate, 
 consisting of a thousand times his own original equal 
 share of the soil, cannot be founded in the general right 
 of occupancy, but in the labour which he and those to 
 whom he has succeeded, or from whom he has purchased, 
 have bestowed on the improvement and fertilization of 
 the soil. To this extent, it is natural and just : but such 
 a right founded in labour cannot supersede that natural 
 right of occupancy, which nine hundred and ninety-nine 
 other persons have to their equal shares of the soil, in 
 its original state. Although it may bar the claim of 
 individuals, it cannot preclude that of the legislature, as 
 trustee and guardian of the whole. 
 
 8. In every country where agriculture has made 
 considerable progress, these two rights are blended 
 together, and that which has its origin in labour is 
 suffered to eclipse the other, founded in occupancy. 
 As the whole extent of soil is affected by both rights at 
 once, and not different parts by each ; as these rights 
 subsist together in the same subject, the limits by which 
 their influence and extent may be discriminated from 
 
12 The Right oj 
 
 each other do not readily present themselves to the 
 mind ; and could these limits be distinctly ascertained, 
 it may seem still more difficult to suggest any practicable 
 method by which the subjects of each could be actually 
 separated and detached. 
 
 9. That every man has a right to an equal share of 
 the soil, in its original state, may be admitted to be a 
 maxim of natural lavi?. It is also a maxim of natural 
 law, that every one, by whose labour any portion of the 
 soil has been rendered more fertile, has a right to the 
 additional produce of that fertility, or to the value of it, 
 and may transmit this right to other men. On the first 
 of these maxims depend the freedom and prosperity of 
 the lower ranks. On the second, the perfection of the 
 art of agriculture, and the improvement of the common 
 stock and wealth of the community. Did the laws of 
 any country pay equal regard to both these maxims, so 
 as they might be made to produce their respective good 
 effects, without intrenching on one another, the highest 
 degree of public prosperity would result from this 
 combination. 
 
 10. Plans for the establishment of this combination 
 are not, it must be owned, very obvious, nor have they 
 on the other hand been very industriously sought for. 
 Scarcely has any nation actually carried or attempted to 
 carry into execution any plan having this for its object ; 
 and not many can be said to have attained in any period 
 of their history those enlarged views of the public 
 interest which might lead to the investigation or esta- 
 blishment of such a plan. 
 
 Rude nations have adhered to the first of these 
 
Property in Land. 13 
 
 maxims, neglecting the second. Nations advanced in 
 industry and arts have adhered to the second, neglecting 
 the iirst. 
 
 Could any plan be proposed for uniting these 
 two maxims in operation and effect, still, in rich and 
 industrious nations, the supposed (not the real) in- 
 terests of the less numerous but more powerful 
 orders of men, would be found in opposition to its 
 establishment. 
 
 11. To establish a just combination of these two 
 maxims, at the original foundation of states, so as to 
 render it a fundamental part of their frame and constitu- 
 tion, or to introduce it afterwards with as little violence 
 as may be, to the actual possessions and supposed rights 
 and interests of various orders of men, ought to be the 
 object of all Agrarian laws ; and this object being once 
 distinctly conceived, if wise and benevolent men will 
 turn their attention towards it, no doubt need be enter- 
 tained that very practicable methods of carrying it into 
 execution will in time be discovered, by comparison of 
 projects, or from the result of trials. 
 
 12. When any piece of land is sold, the price paid 
 by the purchaser may be considered as consisting of 
 three parts, each being the value of a -distinct subject, 
 the separate amount of which, men skilful in agriculture, 
 and acquainted with the soil of the country, might 
 accurately enough appreciate. 
 
 These parts are : 
 
 (ist.) The original value of the soil, or that which it 
 might have borne in its natural state, prior to all cultiva- 
 tion. 
 
14 The Right of 
 
 (2nd.) The accessory or improved value of the soil : 
 that, to wit, which it has received from the improvements 
 and cultivation bestowed on it by the last proprietor, 
 and those who have preceded him. 
 
 (3rd.) The contingent, or improvable value of the soil : 
 that further value which it may still receive from future 
 cultivation and improvements, over and above defraying 
 the expense of making such improvements ; — or, as it 
 may be otherwise expressed, the value of an exclusive 
 right to make these improvements. 
 
 If, in England, 100 acres of arable are sold for ;£^i5oo, 
 money being at 5 per cent., the contingent value may be 
 reckoned ;£"50o — for the superior value of that security 
 which land gives may, in a general argument, be supposed 
 to be counterbalanced by the trouble of management. 
 Of the remaining ;^iooo, two or three hundred may be 
 computed to be the original value of the soil, a judg- 
 ment being formed from the nature of the adjoining 
 common, and the ^£'700 or ;£'8oo remaining is to be 
 accounted the amount of the accessory or improved 
 value. In this example, these three parts of the general 
 value are to one another as 2, 8, and 5. If the example 
 is taken from a hundred acres in Bengal, or the lower 
 Egypt, the proportion of the parts may be supposed to 
 be 10, 4, and i. If from 100 acres of uncultivated moor- 
 land, in Ireland, or the northern counties of England, the 
 proportion of the parts may be as i, o, and 14. 
 
 13. The estate of every landholder may, while he 
 possesses it, be considered as capable of being analysed 
 into these three component parts ; and could the value 
 of each be separately ascertained by any equitable method 
 (as by the verdict of an assize), it would not be difficult 
 
Property in Land. 15 
 
 to distinguish the nature and the extent of his private 
 right, and of that right also which, still belongs to the 
 community, in those fields which he is permitted, under 
 the protection of municipal law, to possess. He must be 
 allowed to have a full and absolute right to the original, 
 the improved, and contingent value of such portion of his 
 estate, as would fall to his share, on an equal partition of 
 the territory of the State among the citizens. Over all 
 the surplus extent of his estate, he has a full right to the 
 whole accessory value, whether he has been the original 
 improver himself, or has succeeded to, or purchased from 
 the heirs or assignees of such improver. But to the 
 original and contingent value of this surplus extent he 
 has no full right. That must still reside in the com- 
 munity at large, and, though seemingly neglected or 
 relinquished, may be claimed at pleasure by the legisla- 
 ture, or by the magistrate, who is the public trustee.* 
 
 14. The difficulty of ascertaining these diiTerent 
 sorts of value, and of separating them from one another, 
 if ascertained, may be supposed in general to have 
 prevented such claims from being made. It is particularly 
 
 * Even in those countries wtiere tlie extensive rights of tlie pro- 
 prietors of land are most firmly established and guarded, as in Britain, 
 by laws which they themselves have &amed, the magistrate, when any 
 public occasion requires it, as in constructing new roads, canals, and 
 streets, building bridges and fortifications, obliges the proprietors, for a 
 reasonable compensation, to part with as much of the soil as may be 
 requisite for the intended works. — There is nothing wanting to complete 
 the prosperity of Europe, but a rule, or familiar method, according to 
 which the landholders may be made, for a like compensation, to part 
 with such portions of the soil as are wanted firom time to time, for the 
 accommodation of particular citizens, desirous to employ their industry 
 and their stock in the cultivation of the earth, with full security of reaping 
 the due reward. 
 
1 6 The Right of 
 
 difficult to distinguish the original from the accessory- 
 value ; nor is the community much injured by suffering 
 these to remain together in the hands of the greater 
 landholders, especially in countries where land-taxes 
 make a principal branch of the public revenue, and no 
 tax is imposed on property of other kinds. The original 
 value of the soil is, in such states, in fact, treated as a 
 fund belonging to the public, and merely deposited in 
 the hands of great proprietors, to be, by the imposition 
 of land-taxes, gradually applied to the public use, and 
 which may be justly drawn from them, as the public 
 occasions require, until the whole be exhausted. Equity, 
 however, requires that from such land-taxes those small 
 tenements which do not exceed the proprietor's natural 
 share of the soil should be exempted. To separate the 
 contingent value from the other two is less difficult, and 
 of more importance ; for the detriment which the public 
 suffers by neglecting this separation, and permitting an 
 exclusive right of improving the soil to accumulate in 
 the hands of a small part of the community, is far greater, 
 in respect both of the progress of agriculture, and the 
 comfortable independence of the lower ranks.* 
 
 * If the original value of the soil be the joint property of the community, 
 no scheme of taxation can be so equitable as a land-tax, by which alone 
 the expenses of the State ought to be supported, until the whole amount 
 of that original value be exhausted ; for the persons who have retained 
 no portion of that public stock, but have suffered their shares to be de- 
 posited in the hands of the landholders, may be allowed to complain, if, 
 before that fund is entirely applied to the public use, they are subjected 
 to taxes, imposed on any other kind of property, or any articles of con- 
 sumption. 
 
 How preposterous, then, is the system of that country which maintains 
 a civil and military establishment, by taxes of large amount, without the 
 assistance of any land-tax at all !— In that example may be perceived the 
 true spirit of legislation, as exercised by landholders alone. 
 
 Without regard to the original value of the soil, the gross amount of 
 
Property in Land. 1 7 
 
 property in land is the fittest subject of taxation ; and could it be made 
 to support the whole expense of the public, great advantages would arise 
 to all orders of men. What then, it may be said, would not in that case 
 the proprietors of stock in trade, in manufacture and arts, escape taxation, 
 that is, the proprietors of one-half the national income ? They would 
 indeed, be so exempted ; and very justly, and very profitably for the State ; 
 for it accords with the best interests of the community, through successive 
 generations, that active progressive industry should be exempted, if 
 possible, boxa. every public burden, and that the whole weight should be 
 laid on that quiescent stock, which has been formerly accumulated, as 
 the reward of an industry which is now no longer exerted. 
 
 A just and exact valuation of landed property is the necessary basis 
 of an equal land-tax, and the tenant in mortgage ought to sustain a pro- 
 oortional share of the burden, in the actual landholder's stead. 
 
 To keep a land-tax equal, the valuation ought to be renewed from age 
 to age. 
 
 If that valuation returns periodically after long intervals, of half a 
 century or more, instead of repressing the progress of improvement in 
 agriculture, it will tend to excite the utmost diligence in that pursuit. 
 
 If in any country there is reason to appehend that the encumbered 
 state of the finances will constrain the rulers of the State, in a short time, 
 to have recourse to this great fund, the expectation of a new valuation will 
 damp the progress of agriculture ; and the intelligent friends of the public 
 good ought to desire that a scheme which cannot be avoided should 
 take place without delay. 
 
Section II. 
 
 Of the Right of Property in Land, as founded on 
 public Utility. 
 
 15. ' I "'HE increase of public happiness is the true 
 X. primary object which ought to claim the atten- 
 tion of every state. It is to be attained by increasing 
 the common standard or measure of happiness, which 
 every citizen may have a chance of enjoying under the 
 protection of the State ; and by increasing the number of 
 citizens, who are to enjoy this common measure of 
 happiness. The increase of opulence, or of dominion, 
 are subordinate objects, and only to be pursued, as they 
 tend to the increase of happiness, or of numbers ; to both 
 of which they are in some respects, and in certain cases, 
 unfriendly.* 
 
 16. Whatever regulations tend directly to increase 
 the common measure of happiness, enjoyed by each in- 
 dividual citizen, tend assuredly to increase the number 
 
 * It would be unjust to assert that the landholders have premedi- 
 tated and intended to effect this oppression of the cultivators, so injurious 
 to that order of men, and so little profitable to the landholders themselves; 
 it would be a mistake to suppose that it has been accomplished by any 
 concerted plan of iniquity and fraud. No, it is the course of things that 
 has brought it gradually forward : the natural submission of dependents 
 has been insensibly enforced to this degree ; the cultivators have not 
 been sufficiently aware to protect their own right ; still less has the 
 sovereign power been attentive to protect the most useful order of men in 
 the State. 
 
The Right of Property in Land. 19 
 
 of citizens. But every regulation tending to increase 
 the number of citizens does not certainly tend to increase 
 the common measure of happiness, and in various 
 situations of the community, may tend to diminish it. 
 The first sort of regulations is therefore to be preferred, 
 in case of interference, to the second. 
 
 17. The happiness of individuals, or of any great 
 body of men, is nearly in proportion to their virtue and 
 their worth. That manner of life, therefore, which is 
 most favourable to the virtue of the citizens, ought, for 
 the sake of their happiness, to be encouraged and pro- 
 moted by the legislature. Men employed in cultivating 
 the soil, if suffered to enjoy a reasonable independence, 
 and a just share of the produce of their toil, are of simpler 
 manners, and more virtuous, honest dispositions, than 
 any other class of men. The testimony of all observers, 
 in every age and country, concurs in this, and the reason 
 of it may be found in the nature of their industry, and its 
 reward. Their industry is not like that of the labouring 
 manufacturer, insipidly uniform, but varied, — it excludes 
 idleness without imposing excessive drudgery, and its 
 reward consists in abundance of necessary accommo- 
 dations, without luxury and refinement. 
 
 18. The families which are employed in this health- 
 ful industry, and live in this comfortable independence, 
 increase more than others in different situations of life. 
 It is by their progeny chiefly that the waste of great 
 cities, of armies, navies, commercial and manufacturing 
 occupations is continually supplied. 
 
 19. The labour of men applied to the cultivation of 
 
20 The Right of 
 
 the earth tends more to increase the public wealth, for it 
 is more productive of things necessary for the accommoda- 
 tion of life, wherein all real wealth consists, than if it were 
 applied to any other purpose ; and all labour applied to 
 refined and commercial arts, while the State can furnish 
 or procure opportunities of applying it to the cultivation 
 of the soil, may be said to be squandered and misapplied, 
 unless in so far as it is given to those liberal arts, whose 
 productions operate on the mind, and rouse the fancy or 
 the heart. 
 
 20. The most obvious, the surest, and least equivocal 
 indication of prosperity and happiness is the strength 
 and comeliness of a race of men.* 
 
 21. Those who are employed in agriculture, if not 
 oppressed by the superior orders, if permitted to enjoy 
 competent independence and rustic plenty, remote from 
 the contagion of intemperance, are known to excel in 
 strength, comeliness, and good health, every other class 
 of men in civilized nations; and are only excelled in 
 those respects by some simple tribes of men, who 
 enjoy the advantages common to both in a still higher 
 degree. 
 
 * If it be asked what is the most natural state of human kind, it 
 may be replied, that in which the whole tribe or race approach near to 
 one common standard of comeliness and strength, without any mixture 
 of deformed, dwarfish, or mutilated individuals. In other species of 
 animals, this is always found to take place in their natural state. 
 
 If we would ascertain whether the slaves of antiquity were more or 
 less happy than the modern artisans, manufacturers, cottars, and men of 
 various degraded ranks and vocations, abounding in great cities, we 
 ought to inquire whether they degenerated as perceptibly, and became as 
 dwarfish and deformed, as the races of these men become. 
 
Property in Land. 2i 
 
 22. From all these considerations it may perhaps 
 appear that the best, plainest, and most effectual plan 
 which any government can pursue for increasing the 
 happiness and the numbers of its people is to increase 
 the number of independent cultivators, to facilitate their 
 establishments, and to bring into that favourable situation 
 as great a number of citizens as the extent of its territory 
 will admit Of two nations equal in extent of territory 
 and in number of citizens, that may be accounted the 
 happiest in which the number of independent cultivators 
 is the greatest. 
 
 23. Any given country will then have the greatest 
 possible number of independent cultivators, when each 
 individual of mature age shall be possessed of an equal 
 share of the soil ; and in such country the common 
 measure or standard of happiness will probably have 
 reached its highest degree. 
 
 Whether therefore we inquire into the natural rights 
 and privileges of men, or consult for the best interests of 
 the greater number, the same practical regulations for the 
 economy of property in land seem to result from either 
 inquiry. 
 
 24. Whatsoever plans seem to promise the increase 
 of wealth, happiness, and numbers in any other channel 
 than the freedom and independence of cultivation, are of 
 a more doubtful nature, and may well have their claim to 
 public encouragement postponed until this paramount 
 object of good policy be carried to its utmost perfection.* 
 
 * That nation is greatly deceived and misled which bestows any 
 encouragement on manufactures for exportation, or for any purpose but 
 the necessary internal supply, until the great manufactures of grain and 
 
22 The Right of 
 
 25, Manufactures and commerce promise such aug- 
 mentation of wealth and people, Some degree of both 
 is requisite for the progress of agriculture, and must 
 attend it ; but neither of them can in any situation pf 
 things have any title to encouragement at the risk gf 
 obstructing independent agriculture. The balance of 
 their respective claims may always be adjusted in the 
 most unexceptionable manner, by leaving men wholly to 
 their free choice, and removing all obstruction and mono- 
 poly equally from the pursuit of both. Let all freedom 
 be given to him who has stock, to employ it in any sort 
 of trade, manufacture, or agriculture, that he may choose; 
 and let it be made equally easy for the farmer to acquire 
 the full property of the soil on which he is to exercise 
 his industry, as for the manufacturer to acquire the full 
 property of the rude materials he is to work up.* 
 
 pasturage are carried to their utmost extent. It can never be the interest 
 of the community to do so ; it may be that of the landholders, who desire 
 indeed to be considered as the nation itself, or at least as being represen- 
 tatives of the nation, and having the same interest wfith the whole body 
 of the people. 
 
 In fact, however, their interest is, in some most important respects, 
 directly opposite to that of the great body of the community, over whom 
 they exercise an ill-regulated jurisdiction, together with an oppressive 
 monopoly in the commerce of land to be hired for cultivation. 
 
 The encouragements granted to commerce and manufactures, and so 
 universally extolled, seem merely schemes devised for employing the poor 
 and finding subsistence for them, in that manner which may bring most 
 immediate profit to the rich : and these methods, are, if not deliberately, 
 at least without inquiry, preferred to others, which might bring greater 
 advantage to the body of the people directly, and ultimately even to the 
 rich themselves. 
 
 * The progress of agriculture will more readily excite the activity 
 of manufactures, and carry that branch of national industry to its proper 
 pitch, than the progress of manufactures will carry agriculture to its most 
 prosperous state, though each, it must be confessed, has a reciprocal influ- 
 ence on the other. 
 
 In certain countries, manufactures seem to have advanced beyond their 
 
Property in Land. 23 
 
 26. That every field should be cultivated by its 
 proprietor, is most favourable to agriculture, and culti- 
 vation. That every individual who would choose it should 
 be the proprietor of a field, and employed in its cultiva- 
 tion, is most favourable to happiness, and to virtue. In 
 the combination of both circumstances will be found the 
 most consummate prosperity of a. people and of their 
 country, — and the best plan for accommodating the 
 original right of universal occupancy with the acquired 
 rights of labour.* 
 
 proper pitch, and begin very sensibly to affect the race of people and 
 their manners. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great progress which agriculture has made in 
 England, still greater remains to be made : though regarded by foreign 
 nations as an example worthy of imitation, it remains for Britain still 
 to surpass the best examples hitherto given. 
 
 The chief obstacle to rapid improvement of agriculture is plainly that 
 monopoly of land which resides in the proprietors, and which the com- 
 mercial system of the present age has taught them to exercise with art- 
 ful strictness, almost ever3rwhere. 
 
 * The fields around every gentleman's seat are cultivated in a better 
 manner, and raised to a higher degree of fertility, than those of the 
 adjacent farms, because they have been for ages cultivated by the pro- 
 prietors of the soil ; in them is seen to what degree of fertility the whole 
 cultivable lands of any country may be brought, were every field in like 
 manner cultivated by its proprietor. 
 
 There is no natural obstacle to prevent the most barren ground firom 
 being brought by culture to the same degree of fertility with the kitchen 
 garden of a villa, or the suburbs of a great town. An attentive applica- 
 tion of the natural manure of the fields may effect it in a long course of 
 time : the plentiful and judicious use of extraneous manures, the great 
 fund of which in the limestone quarries and marl pits of the earth cannot 
 be exhausted, will accomplish it in a much shorter period ; but the pre- 
 sent care and the secure interest of a proprietor is required for both. 
 
 With a view to depreciate the public credit and resources of this 
 nation, it has been observed that England^ has almost no unculti- 
 vated land to be improved. But the author (Dr. Franklin, in a 
 paper circulated in 1777) of that observation knows well, that four- 
 fifth parts of the cultivated lands of England are cultivated in a very im- 
 
24 The Right of 
 
 perfect manner, and may be yet raised to a fertility twice if not three 
 times as great as that which they presently have, — This is a fund to 
 which the wisdom of the nation may sometime have recourse, and by 
 which the industry and internal wealth of the community may be sup- 
 ported, even in the worst extremities ; nor can it be torn from us bu£ 
 with the independence of the State. 
 
 An unlimited property in land ought not to be possessed by any 
 citizen ; a restricted property in land cannot be communicated to too 
 great a number. 
 
 That high prosperity which some states have attained, by the en- 
 couragement of manufactures, and the prosecution of commerce, on 
 enlarged and liberal principles, has become of late the object of emulation, 
 perhaps of envy, to others, so that all civilized nations are now impatient 
 to become manufacturing and commercial in their turn. Yet before the 
 example was set, no one had apprehended the possibility of exciting so 
 much active industry, nor the important effects it was to produce in the 
 great system of Europe. 
 
 Hereafter, perhaps, some fortunate nation will give, the example of 
 setting agriculture free from its fetters also, and of introducing a change 
 in that department of industry, similar to that which has been accom- 
 plished in manufactures and commerce, by the dissolving of monopolies, 
 and removing obstructions and restraints. A new emulation will then 
 arise among the nations hastening to acquire that still higher vigour and 
 prosperity, which the emancipation of the first and most useful of all 
 arts cannot fail to produce. 
 
 Cultivation by slaves, by villeins, and by metayers, have succeeded 
 one another all over the west of Europe. In England, even the last of 
 these is totally worn out, and has given place to cultivation by farmers, 
 whilst in France two-third parts of the land is still cultivated by metayers^ 
 and in Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Russia a yet greater proportion 
 is still cultivated by villeins and slaves. In all these successive changes 
 the landholder has still found his advantage in communicating to the 
 occupier of the ground a greater and greater degree of security in his 
 possession, and the public prosperity has kept pace with this good 
 administration of the landholder's private estate. England perhaps 
 owes that power and lustre, by which she surpasses other nations, chiefly 
 to her having preceded them in the prosecution of these changes. Ought 
 it not therefore to be tried whether the landholder may not still further 
 improve his own interest, as well as the public good, by pursuing the 
 same line a little farther, and communicating still greater security and 
 independence to the cultivators of his fields ? 
 
 No impracticable Utopian scheme can be said to be suggested, in pro- 
 posing that property in land should be diffused to as great a number of 
 citizens as may desire it : that is only proposing to carry somewhat 
 
Property in Land. 25 
 
 farther, and render more extensive, a plan which the experience of many 
 ages has shown to be very practicable, and highly beneficial in every pub- 
 lic and private respect. 
 
 It is the oppression of the landholders and their agents, which has 
 ever been the bane of Europe, more than even the oppression of the most 
 arbitrary governments ; and the absence of this more close and prying 
 oppression renders the despotic governments of the East not intolerable 
 to their subjects. However numerous and powerful that body of men, 
 by whom this oppressive right is presently exercised, it may in the course 
 of ages be reduced within proper limits, as other exorbitant invasions of 
 the common rights of men have sometimes been. 
 
 The institutions of the Mosaical law respecting property in land have 
 been but little attended to by the learned. 
 
 To that most respectable system an appeal may be made in support of 
 these speculations ; for the aim of the Mosaical regulations plainly is, 
 that every field should be cultivated by its proprietor, and that every de- 
 scendant of Jacob should possess in full property a field which he might 
 cultivate. 
 
 Whoever shall consider the probable effect of such an institution in 
 increasing the number of people, will cease to wonder at the uncommon 
 populousness of Judea in ancient times. The same effect might be re- 
 newed in that country, could these Agrarian regulations be restored to 
 their force. The same effect might be exhibited in almost any district of 
 Europe in which they could be established for any length of time. 
 
 While sovereigns, judges, and clergymen, have made continual refer- 
 ence to the Mosaical law, as to a standard by which their regulations 
 and their claims were justified and enforced, it may seem strange, and 
 worthy of regret, that the common people have never had recourse to 
 the same standard, and claimed the advantages of an Agrarian institution, 
 so favourable to the independence of agriculture, the increase of popula- 
 tion, and the comfortable state of the lower classes of men. 
 
 Occasion will be found of treating more at length of the Mosaical 
 Agrarian, considered as an economical regulation, in a history of property 
 in land, which may hereafter be offered to the public. 
 
 In any just system of regulations relative to property in land, the chief 
 difficulty must be to reconcile the interests of an improving agriculture 
 with the natural rights of every individual to a certain share of the soil 
 of his country ; but in the present state of municipal law in Europe, the 
 interest of improving agriculture is sacrificed, and yet the right of the 
 people to a common possession, or to equal shares on partition, is not 
 provided for. Both are given up, in favour of the lordly rights of one 
 pre-eminent order of men. 
 
Section III. 
 
 Of the Abuse and Pernicious Effects of that Exorbitant 
 Right of Property in hand, which the Municipal 
 Laws of Europe have established. 
 
 27. ' I 'HE means by which a state may attain pr 
 J- approach near to this consummate prosperity 
 cannot be thought to exceed the compass of human 
 wisdom duly applied ; yet if we consider the nature and 
 the effects of that system of property in land, which has 
 superseded all others in the enlightened nations of 
 Europe, and against which hardly any complaint has 
 arisen, we shall find them very different from what 
 might be expected of any system, in which even the 
 smallest attention was paid to the natural rights, or the 
 attainable happiness of the great body of the people. 
 
 Of a million of acres, scarcely twenty thousand are 
 cultivated by proprietors. 
 
 Of a thousand citizens, masters of families, scarcely 
 five hundred are employed in cultivating the soil for 
 their own account, while four hundred and fifty of the 
 remainder would prefer (or at the time of choosing their 
 employment for life would have preferred) that to their 
 present occupation, could they procure on reasonable 
 terms the opportunity of exercising it. 
 
 Of five hundred cultivators, not more than twenty 
 are proprietors, or have any permanent tenure of the soil 
 which they cultivate. 
 
The Right of Property in Land. 27 
 
 Of ten thousand acres, scarcely ten are raised to that 
 highest degree of fertility which experience has shown 
 that the common soil of the country may be brought to, 
 by the judicious culture of occupiers, to whom the 
 remotest advantages of that improvement are secured. 
 
 Of one thousand people, not five can be thought to 
 be endowed with that degree of strength and comeliness, 
 which nature seems to have intended for the human race. 
 
 28. All these untoward circumstances, which take 
 place in most countries in Europe, in a higher degree 
 than what is here specified, may be traced up, as to their 
 cause, to that exclusive right to the improvable value of 
 the soil which a few men, never in any country exceeding 
 one hundreth part of the community, are permitted to 
 engross — a most oppressive privilege, by the operation 
 of which the happiness of mankind has been for ages 
 more invaded and restrained, than by all the tyranny of 
 kings, the imposture of priests, and the chicane of lawyers 
 taken together, though these are supposed to be the 
 greatest evils that afflict the societies of human kind. 
 
 29. The silent but pervading energy of this oppres- 
 sion comes home to the bosoms and to the firesides of 
 the lowest orders of men, who are thereby rendered 
 mean-spirited and servile. It begets in them also, for 
 their own defence, so much cunning, fraud, hypocrisy, 
 and malignant envy towards those who enjoy affluence, 
 that by its wide and continual operation the virtue of 
 mankind is more corrupted, and their minds more de- 
 based, than by all the luxury and ostentatious mean- 
 ness of courts, together with the debauched indigence 
 and riotous profusion of great cities. 
 
28 The Right oj 
 
 30. Whatever good reasons may be given for 
 restraining money-holders from taking too high interest, 
 may with still greater force be applied to restraining 
 proprietors of land from an abuse of their right. By 
 exacting exorbitant rents, they exercise a most pernicious 
 usury, and deprive industry that is actually exerted of 
 its due reward. By granting only short leases, they stifle 
 and prevent the exertion of that industry which is ready 
 at all times to spring up, were the cultivation of the soil 
 laid open upon equitable terms.* 
 
 * For what reason is the money-holder prohibited from taking the 
 highest interest, or premium, which he can bargain with the borrower to 
 give ? Chiefly, that he may not thus have it in his power to damp the 
 active spirit of commerce and of industry, by levying too high a tax on 
 the means by which it is to be exerted. Why then should not the land- 
 holder be restrained from taxing at too high a rate the means of exerting 
 that sort of industry which is of all others the most essential to the com- 
 munity ; and is even necessary for the salutary occupation and best con- 
 dition of the greater number of its members ? In restraining the interest 
 of money, the legislatures of most countries have not feared to impose a 
 check on the free enjoyment of the reward of industry in its most recent 
 form ; for that reward in its first accumulation, and nearest to the sources, 
 consists always of money, to be lent out at interest, which is afterwards 
 converted into property in land. 
 
 All other kinds of property, as that of the money-holder in his cash, 
 of the inventor in his inventions, even that of the writer in his books, are 
 limited and regulated, by the consideration of what is supposed to tend 
 to the greatest public utility : why ought not then the property of the 
 landholder in his lands, which is the most extensive and most important 
 of all, to be submitted to restrictions of the same tendency ? 
 
 Much praise has been bestowed, and not unjustly, on the advantages 
 of that free circulation and ready commerce which is now established in 
 most countries of Europe. It is, indeed, extremely favourable to the 
 industry of men, and to the provision of a supply for all their wants, that 
 whoever possesses skill, art, or diligence of any kind, may find the 
 materials whereon to exercise his talents at a moderate price ; and may 
 bring the produce of his labour to a free market. 
 
 This freedom is enjoyed completely by every sort of mechanic, manu- 
 facturer, and artist, excepting only the cultivator of the ground, who is 
 of all others the most essential artisan to the welfare of the community.— 
 
Property in Land. 29 
 
 31. It is of more importance to the community, 
 that regulations should be imposed on the proprietors of 
 land, than on the proprietors of money ; for land is the 
 principal stock of every nation, the principal subject of 
 industry, and that the use of which is most necessary for 
 the happiness and due employment of every individual. 
 
 32. Nor is it less practicable to adapt regulations to 
 the use of land than to the use of money, were the 
 legislative body equally well inclined to impose salutary 
 restrictions on both. The glaring abuses of the one 
 
 He, indeed, in many countries may now bring his produce to a free and 
 open market, but he cannot so easily find the rude materials of his 
 industry at a reasonable price : for he is confined in his inquiry and 
 choice to that narrow district of country with which he is acquainted, 
 and even to the small number of farms that may happen to fall vacant 
 about the same time with his own : in this narrow district a monopoly 
 is established against him in the hands of a few landholders ; in this re- 
 spect his situation is much inferior to that of the artisan, who can go to a 
 cheap market wherever it is found, and can bring his rude materials from 
 a great distance to his home ; but the cultivator must carry his home to 
 his rude materials when he has found them. 
 
 In another more important respect, the condition of the cultivator is 
 still worse : every other artisan, when he has purchased his rude materials, 
 becomes sole proprietor of them for ever, and whatever skill or diligence 
 he bestows in improving or refining them, whatever additional value he 
 gives them, no other person has any right to the whole or to any part of 
 it. It is rarely, indeed, that the cultivator can purchase his materials on 
 such terms ; the fields he has improved he must surrender at a fixed 
 period, and cannot separate the improvements he has made to carry them 
 away with him. Is he not nearly in the state of a borrower of money, 
 who, after thirty-one years' certain possession of the sum borrowed, pay- 
 ing regularly a large interest, should be obliged to refund the capital, and 
 to pay along with it whatever he had gained by the use of the money, 
 and had not thought proper to spend in his daily subsistence ? 
 
 Would it not at least be fair, that if the cultivator cannot purchase his 
 rude materials in perpetual property, he may be permitted to carry off 
 the additional improvement he has made ; or (if that cannot be separated 
 from the original subject) entitled to require some equivalent for its value ? 
 
30 The Right of 
 
 might be as effectually prevented as those of the other ; 
 although the total exclusion of all manner of abuse from 
 either, is not to be looked for. But that class of men in 
 whom the strength of every government resides, and the 
 right of making or the power of influencing and controll- 
 ing those who possess the right of making laws, have 
 generally been borrowers of money and proprietors of 
 land. 
 
 33. Simple rustics are naturally averse to quit their 
 native soil, and the narrow circuit of that neighbourhood 
 in which their youth has been spent. Hence the unlimited 
 right of property in land becomes a monopoly in the 
 hands of the proprietors of every district : a monopoly 
 which tends not less to the starving of their fellow-citizens, 
 than a monopoly of bakers without any control or 
 inspection of the magistrate would do. It will not 
 produce its effects very suddenly indeed : it is only a 
 lingering piecemeal famine, under which the individual 
 languishes, and the race becomes dwarfish, debilitated, 
 and deformed.* 
 
 * The monopoly of rude materials, indispensably requisite for 
 ■carrying on any branch of industry, is far more pernicious than the 
 monopoly of manufactured commodities ready for consumption. The 
 hionopoly possessed by landholders is of the first sort, and affects the 
 prime material of the most essential industry. 
 
 This monopoly, indeed, cannot be said to take place in any courttry, 
 until the age of military suite and services be past, and the reign of law 
 and of order well established. Till that time the landholder stands no 
 less in need of brave and strong men to assist and defend him, and 
 attached to his interest, than these men stand in need of cultivable soil 
 on which their industry may be exercised in the intervals of tumult, and 
 from which the subsistence of their families may be procured. Each 
 party, therefore, having a commodity to traffic, of which the other stands 
 in need, the bargain will be made on equitable terms. 
 ■ The monopoly possessed by landholders enables them to deprive the 
 ■peasants not only of the due reward of industry exercised on the soil, 
 
Property in Land. 31 
 
 34. What other cause than this pernicious monopoly 
 can be assigned, why population has been so long at a 
 stand in Europe, and does not advance with nearly the 
 same rapidity as in America ; since so much land 
 remains in every country that may be cultivated, or 
 improved, at little more, perhaps equal, or less expense, 
 than the forests of the new world can be cleared? 
 Vicinity would compensate some difference in expense, 
 but the persons who would be inclined to bestow their 
 labour on these European wastes, cannot hope to obtain 
 property in them on reasonable terms.* 
 
 but also of that which they may have opportunity of exercising in any 
 other way, and on any other subject ; and hence arises the most obvious 
 interest of the landholder, in promoting manufactures. 
 
 There are districts in which the landholder's rents have been doubled 
 within fifty years, in consequence of a branch of manufacture being intro- 
 duced and flourishing, without any improvement in the mode of agricul- 
 ture, or any considerable increase of the produce of the soil. Here, there- 
 fore, the landlords are great gainers, but by what industry or attention 
 have they earned their profits ? How have they contributed to the pro- 
 gress of this manufacture, unless by forbearing to obstruct it ? and yet 
 fironi the necessity under which the manufacturing poor lived, of resorting 
 to these landholders to purchase firom them the use of houses and land, 
 for the residence of their families, they have been enabled to tax their 
 humble industry at a very high rate, and to rob them of perhaps more 
 than one-half of its reward. 
 
 Had the manufacturers of such districts possessed what every citizen 
 seems entitled to have, a secure home of their own, had they enjoyed 
 full property in their lands, would not then the reward of their industrious 
 labour have remained entire in their own hands ? 
 
 • What is it that in England restrains the early marriages of the 
 poor and industrious classes of men ? Alas! not the Marriage Act, but a 
 system of institutions more difficult to be reformed ;. establishing in a 
 few hands that monopoly of land by which the improvable as well as 
 the improved value of the soil is engrossed. It is this which chiefly oc- 
 casions the difficulty of their finding early and comfortable settlements 
 in life, and so prevents the consent of parents firom being given before 
 the legal age. It is this difficulty, which even after that age is passed 
 
32 Th^ Right of 
 
 35. What other reason can be given, than the 
 influence of this monopoly, why in countries, for many 
 ages not thinly inhabited, nor unacquainted with the 
 arts of agriculture, so great a proportion of the soil 
 should still remain barren, or at least far below that 
 state of fertility, to which the judicious cultivation of 
 independent occupiers could bring it ? If in any country 
 this monopoly were abated or removed, population and 
 agriculture would advance together gradually, perhaps 
 rapidly ; nor would they find any limit to their progress, 
 until every two acres of dry land, the ridges of mountains 
 excepted, were rendered capable of maintaining a man ; 
 and until the population of that country, if it does not 
 already exceed the mean population of Europe, were 
 increased perhaps five-fold.* 
 
 36. While the cultivable lands remain locked up, as 
 it were, under the present monopoly, any considerable 
 increase of population in a particular state, though it 
 seems to add to the public strength, must have a 
 pernicious influence on the relative interests of society, 
 
 still withholds the consent of parents, restrains the inclinations of the 
 parties themselves, and keeps so great a number of the lower classes 
 unmarried to their thirtieth or fortieth years, perhaps for their whole lives. 
 
 * Let it be considered what regulations a colony of men settling in a 
 small island, just sufficient to furnish them subsistence, by the aid of 
 high cultivation, would probably establish in order to render the inde- 
 pendent subsistence of each individual secure, and to prevent any one, or 
 a few, from engrossing the territory, or acquiring a greater share than 
 might be consistent with the public good ? Just such regulations respect- 
 ing property in land, it would be the interest of every state to establish 
 at any period of its history. The supposed state of this colony, whose 
 land, aided by the highest cultivation, is but just sufficient to maintain its 
 people, is that to which every nation ought to aspire, as to its most per- 
 fect state ; and to that state the progress of physical causes will bring it 
 forward, if no political obstructions are interposed. 
 
Property in Land. 33 
 
 and the happiness of the greater number. By diminishing 
 the wages of labour, it favours the rich, fosters their 
 luxury, their vanity, their arrogance ; while on the other 
 hand, it deprives the poor of some share of their just 
 reward and necessary subsistence. While this monopoly 
 subsists, the celibacy of the Roman Catholic clergy is 
 far less detrimental in a political light, than it has been 
 supposed to be. Justly might that order retort on the 
 landholders the accusation of retarding the population 
 of the State. 
 
 37. When mention is made in political reasonings 
 of the interest of any nation, and those circumstances, 
 by which it is supposed to be injured or promoted, are 
 canvassed, it is generally the interest of the landholders 
 that is kept in view : nor would there be any mistake in 
 this, if all men were admitted to claim, if they chose it, 
 their natural share of the soil. The prevalence of this 
 manner of speaking and reasoning may well be 
 construed to indicate, amid all the artificial establish- 
 ments of society, a secret though confused perception of 
 this original right. 
 
 38. Regarding the whole wealth of the community, 
 as belonging of right to themselves, landholders stand 
 foremost in opposing the imposition of exorbitant taxes 
 by the State, forgetting the exorbitancy of that taxation 
 which they themselves impose on the cultivators of the 
 soil, and which the sovereign may in justice, and in the 
 way of retaliation ought to, regulate and restrain. They 
 clamour aloud against pensions and sinecure places, 
 bestowed by the sovereign, not adverting that their own 
 large incomes are indeed pensions, and salaries of sinecure 
 
 3 
 
34 The Right of 
 
 offices, which they derive from the partiality of municipal 
 law in favour of that order of men by whom its regula- 
 tions are virtually enacted. The injury done to the 
 community at large is the same, whether such unjust 
 distribution be made by the chief magistrate, or by the 
 system of laws itself. The injustice proceeding from 
 the latter will always be more permanent, and more 
 extensive. Against the tithes of the clergy, landholders 
 have been accustomed to complain bitterly, as the bane 
 of agriculture, as an usurpation on their own most 
 evident rights, as wages exacted for which little or no 
 duty is performed. But, while the bad effects of a tithe 
 right must be acknowledged, in checking improvement, 
 and robbing humble industry of its due reward ; the 
 right of the landholder must be allowed to operate in 
 the same manner, with more unlimited force. The 
 foundation of both rights, notwithstanding prejudices on 
 either side, is precisely the same, viz., the improvident 
 regulations of municipal law. And if any pretensions 
 to a higher original are advanced, those in favour of the 
 tithe right are no doubt most plausible. If considered 
 as the reward of duties, to be performed to the public, 
 the incomes of the clergy, after admitting all that spleen 
 has advanced against that order of men, must appear by 
 far better earned. How slight indeed in themselves, 
 and how negligently performed, are those duties which 
 the State seems to expect at the hands of landholders, 
 in return for their affluence ? 
 
 39. The public good requires that every individual 
 should be excited to employ his industry in increasing 
 the public stock, or to exert his talents in the public 
 service, by the certainty of a due reward. Whoever 
 
Property in Land. 35 
 
 enjoys any revenue, not proportioned to such industry 
 or exertion of his own, or of his ancestors, is a freebooter, 
 who has found means to cheat or to rob the public, and 
 more especially the indigent of that district in which he 
 lives. But the hereditary revenue of a great landholder 
 is wholly independent of his industry, and secure from 
 every danger that does not threaten the whole State. It 
 increases also without any effort of his, and in proportion 
 to the industry of those who cultivate the soil. In respect 
 of their industry, therefore, it is a taille or progressive 
 tax of the most pernicious nature, and in respect of the 
 landholder himself, it is a premium given to idleness, 
 an inducement to refrain from any active useful employ- 
 ment, and to withhold his talents, whatever they are^ 
 from the service of his country. If the circumstances in 
 which he finds himself placed stimulate to any exertion 
 at all, it is that insidious vigilance by which he himself 
 is debased, and his dependents at once corrupted and 
 oppressed.* 
 
 * It has been required of the magistrate that he should with the 
 same assiduity apply rewards to virtue as punishment to vice. The part 
 which he has to act in respect of these cases is very different. The 
 natural sentiments of men are sufficient to repress smaller vices, and to 
 encourage and reward great and striking virtues ; but they are not vigo- 
 rous enough to apply adequate punishment to great crimes, nor steady and 
 uniform enough to secure due reward and regular encouragement to the 
 common and ordinary virtues of human life. It is to great crimes, there- 
 fore, that the magistrate must apply fit punishment, and protection he 
 must give to the ordinary virtues. Of these there is none which will 
 stand more in need of his protection, or may be more effectually 
 reached by his care, than industry. The cultivation of the soil is by 
 far the most extensive and most important branch of national in- 
 dustry, and in all respects most worthy of the magistrate's peculiar 
 attention. 
 
 Every man, and every order of men, have their peculiar commodity, 
 which they bring to market for the service of the community, and for pro- 
 curing the means of their own subsistence. It would be injustice and 
 
36 The Right of 
 
 40. The indirect and remote influences of this 
 monopoly are productive of many unnatural situations 
 and many pernicious effects, which the skill of legislature 
 is frequently employed in vain to redress. Were this 
 monopoly anywhere removed, and the cultivation of 
 the soil laid open upon reasonable terms, the lowest 
 classes of men would not be destitute of wherewithal to 
 maintain their decayed and infirm relations and neigh- 
 bours* These charitable attentions, prompted by private 
 
 oppression, therefore, in any one order to impose restrictions on any 
 other, respecting the price they may demand for their peculiar commodity. 
 This injustice, however, certain higher orders have attempted, though 
 generally without success, to put in practice, on various occasions, 
 against their inferiors — against hired servants, day labourers, journey- 
 men, and artists of various kinds — by prescribing limits to the wages they 
 are allowed to ask or to receive. 
 
 These lower classes of citizens have only the labour of their hands for 
 their commodity, and if any is more than another entitled to the privileges 
 of a free and equal market, it is surely that which may be accounted 
 more immediately the gift of nature to each. 
 
 The community has a right, no doubt, to restrain individuals from 
 doing aught that may be pernicious or offensive : what right it can have 
 to compel them to exert their industry for the public service, at a regulated 
 price, may admit of question, excepting only those cases in which the 
 safety of the State is brought into immediate and evident danger. This 
 will not be alleged when journeymen tailors, or even farm servants, 
 refuse to work without an increase of wages. 
 
 * England virtually acknowledges, by the system of her poor laws, that 
 right of common occupation of the territory of the State which belongs to 
 every individual citizen, and has only varied, perhaps mistaken, the 
 natural means of rendering that right effectual. 
 
 It has been common of late to complain of, and to traduce, this the 
 most generous and the most respectable establishment of which the 
 jurisprudence of nations can boast. It is the monopoly of landholders 
 that renders such an establishment necessary ; it is their discontent that 
 aggravates the complaints against it. All men who can regard the 
 interests of the poor, and of the landholders, with an impartial eye, will 
 perceive that it is not less just than generous, and will find reason to 
 
Property in Land. 37 
 
 affection, would be better discharged, than when they 
 devolve on the public; and all that encouragement to 
 idleness, that waste, and mismanagement, inseparable 
 
 think that it has proved highly beneficial to England, in respect of the 
 spirit of her people. 
 
 The abuses which may have crept into this respectable system of 
 laws, ought not to be alleged against its utility, for even in the most 
 perverted state of the institution the abuses are fully compensated by 
 equivalent advantages ; and that they are not in a great measure rectified 
 and removed is the fault of those only whose interest and whose duty 
 require them to attend to this care. 
 
 Even while they subsist, the chief abuses of the poor laws tend 
 more to the advantage of the poor than of the rich ; and of all 
 permanent institutions, there is no other, perhaps, of which this can 
 be affirmed. 
 
 No regulation could tend more effectually to promote a reduction of 
 poor rates than the establishment of certain branches of a progressive 
 Agrarian law ; and it might deserve consideration, whether other methods 
 of reducing these rates, which are attempted, and which may be supposed 
 by the poor themselves to bear hard on the freedom of their condition, 
 ought not to be accompanied with some establishment of that nature ; 
 which, whilst it might contribute effectually to alleviate the burden of 
 the rates, would tend, at the same time, to convert this class of men into 
 a new source of national wealth and of increasing force. 
 
 The great amount of the poor rates is justly imputed to this, that, 
 whilst young and healthy, the lower classes of labourers and servants do 
 not save their wages as they might, for the assistance of their old age. 
 The reason why they do not save for that purpose, is supposed to be the 
 assurance they have of being maintained by the parish when they come 
 to stand in need of it. Another reason might be given : they do not 
 save, because they see no probable view of obtaining by such saving a 
 comfortable settlement, in which they may spend their old age with their 
 families around them. " I never yet knew," says a writer who has ob- 
 served them well (Farmer's Letters, p. 294), " one instance of any poor 
 man's working diligently, while in health, to escape coming to the parish 
 when ill or old. Some will aim at taking little farms ; but if by any 
 means they are disappointed in their endeavours, they consider the 
 money they have already saved as of no further value, and spend it long 
 before they really need it." Almost all of them, it may be believed, 
 would aim at taking small farms, were the opportunities frequent, and 
 the terms easy. 
 
 That much of the dissipation and profligacy of the poor arises from 
 
38 The Right of 
 
 from poor rates, and other public institutions of this sort, 
 would be spared. In any country were this monopoly 
 abolished, sumptuary laws, which might have the most 
 salutary effects on the manners, and character, and 
 even on the prosperity of a people, would not be 
 politically absurd and pernicious, as in the present state 
 of Europe they must be confessed to be.* 
 
 their not having a proper object of saving offered to their hopes, was surely 
 the opinion of those who framed an excellent bill which, in 1773, passed 
 through the House of Commons, for inviting the poor to set apart money, 
 for the purchase of annuities, in their respective parishes and townships. 
 
 An annuity may be a very proper object for the unmarried, and those 
 who purpose to have none but themselves to care for ; but the natural 
 object of every young peasant is a small farm on which he may settle 
 with the companion of his affections, and raise a family of his own ; for 
 this object, if it appears attainable, far the greater number of them will 
 work hard and save with economy. 
 
 Perhaps no better reason can be given for the great increase of poor 
 rates in England, since the reign of Charles II. (while in Wales, they 
 remain almost the same) than the increase of manufactures and the 
 diminished number of small farms. 
 
 * Sumptuary laws have been frequently turned into ridicule, and not 
 unjustly, as pretending to maintain an impracticable simplicity, and an 
 unnecessary austerity of manners, among the great body of citizens ; but 
 they deserve a very different estimation, if considered as means of direct- 
 ing the public industry to those exertions which may be productive of the 
 most extensive utility, and most valuable enjoyments to the community 
 at large. 
 
 If those persons who spend their days in the manufactures of velvet 
 and of lace could be induced to employ the same industry in raising 
 grain, potatoes, and flax, would they not, by increasing the plenty of these 
 necessary commodities, augment the real accommodation of a very 
 numerous class of citizens ? And would not the happiness thence arising 
 more than compensate the scarcity of those frivolous refinements which 
 may be required for the gratification of a few ? 
 
 Why should it be necessary to restrain the industry which ministers 
 to luxury ? Because the industry which is productive of essential plenty 
 is restrained. If the cultivation of the fields was laid open on reason- 
 able terms, would not the imposition of taxes on arts and manufactures, 
 subservient to luxury, tend to encourage the increase of useful com- 
 modities, fit for general consumption ? 
 
Property in Land. 39 
 
 In a country where the opportunities of exercising a 
 natural employment, and finding an easy subsistence, 
 were thus laid open to all, the temptations to theft and 
 other violations of property would be very much 
 diminished ; nor could it be thought necessary to 
 restrain such crimes by the unnatural severity of capital 
 punishments. 
 
 In such a country no suspicion could arise, no 
 surmise would be listened to, that the invention of 
 machines for facilitating mechanical labour, could ever 
 be pernicious to the common people, or adverse to the 
 prosperity of the State. The plough itself is the first 
 machine against which any imputation of this kind 
 could be admitted, and the time might indeed come 
 when such imputation would be just. 
 
 41. That legislature which is not willing, or must 
 not venture to remove this monopoly from the lands of 
 the State, owes it in justice and in tenderness to the 
 persons born under its protection, that emigration at 
 least should be free ; or rather, that it should be 
 encouraged and facilitated, to all who desire to remove 
 into countries, less fully settled, in search of their natural 
 rights, and most salutary occupation. This may indeed 
 seem to impair the national strength, by diminution of 
 numbers, and it will undoubtedly affect the interest of 
 the higher ranks ; but by raising the wages of labour, it 
 must increase the prosperity of the lower and more 
 numerous ranks.* To increase the prosperity and the 
 
 * To a wise and benevolent legislature it can never appear that the ftee 
 course of emigration could prove detrimental to the community over 
 which that legislature presides. For what are the effects of a free and 
 a brisk emigration ? It operates in two ways, on two different classes of 
 men. It betters the circumstances of all those who derive their subsist- 
 
40 The Right of 
 
 happiness of the greater number is the primary object 
 of government, and the increase of national happiness 
 must be the increase of national strength. Besides that 
 the equilibrium of happiness between the old country 
 and the new would be found, long before any consider- 
 able diminution of numbers had taken place in the 
 former. Is it not the duty then, and perhaps also the 
 interest, of every legislature in the west of Europe, to 
 promote the emigration of its less opulent subjects, 
 until the condition of the lower classes of men at 
 home be rendered nearly as comfortable as the con- 
 dition of the same classes in the new settlements of 
 North America? 
 
 42. Perhaps no government can claim to itself the 
 praise of having attended with the same impartial care, 
 to the interests of the lower, as of the higher classes of 
 men. Those who are employed in cultivating the soil 
 are placed below the regard of men in higher stations of 
 public dignity and trust ; nor are their sufferings and 
 wrongs obtruded on every eye, like the misery of the 
 begging poor. They themselves are not much accus- 
 tomed to reflection ; they submit in most countries to 
 their hard fate, as to the laws of nature, nor are they 
 skilled, when severer oppression has at any time awaked 
 
 ence from the produce of their labour. It impairs the circumstances of 
 all those who are supported by a tax or impost, collected from the labour 
 of other people. It betters, therefore, the circumstances of nine millions 
 eight hundred thousand out of ten millions of people ; it impairs the cir- 
 cumstances of one hundred thousand ; and to a hundred thousand per- 
 sons, who live partly on the produce of their own labour, and partly on a 
 tax collected from others, the effect is indifferent. 
 
 Emigration is part of the plan pursued by nature in peopling the earth ; 
 and laws directed to oppose or restrain it may be suspected of the same 
 absurd and unnatural tendency as laws for restraining population itself. 
 
Property in Land. 41 
 
 them to a sense of the injustice they suffer, in making 
 known their feelings and their complaints to others. 
 But if the intelligent, and the friends of mankind, will 
 take some pains to inquire into the nature and extent of 
 that oppression, under which the industrious peasants 
 groan in secret, and the force of that exorbitant mono- 
 poly, from whence their grievances proceed ; and if such 
 men will employ the talents which nature hath given 
 them, in explaining these grievances, and the rigour of 
 that monopoly, to the whole world, — Europe, enlightened 
 Europe, will not be able to endure it much longer ; and 
 the subversion — nay, even the abatement — of this mono- 
 poly, with the abuses flowing from it, may well deserve 
 to be accounted the best, and most valuable fruit of all 
 her refinements and speculations. 
 
 43. If it be indeed possible to accomplish any great 
 improvement in the state of human affairs, and to unite 
 the essential equality of a rude state, with the order, re- 
 finements, and accommodations of cultivated ages, such 
 improvement is not so likely to be brought about by any 
 means, as by a just and enlightened policy respecting 
 property in land. It is a subject intimately connected 
 with the proper occupation and the comfortable sub- 
 sistence of men ; that is, with their virtue and their 
 happiness. It is of a real substantial nature, on which 
 the regulations of law may be made to operate with 
 efficacy, and even with precision. 
 
 44. So powerful and salutary might the good effects 
 of such an enlightened policy prove, so beneficial such a 
 restoration of the claims of nature and the general birth- 
 rights of mankind, that it might alone suffice to renovate 
 
42 The Right of Property in Land. 
 
 the strength of nations, exhausted by civil war, or by 
 great and unsuccessful enterprises ; and even in the most 
 flourishing states, it might give rise to a new era of 
 prosperity, surpassing all example, and all expectation 
 that may reasonably be founded on any other means of 
 improvement. 
 
PART II. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 Of Circumstances and Occasions favourable to a complete 
 Reformation of the Laws respecting Property in Land, 
 by the sovereign or legislative power. 
 
 45. T F, indeed, we consider only how far the present 
 -1- state of property in land, even in the most 
 flourishing and best governed nations of Europe, is re- 
 moved from that more equitable and advantageous 
 system, which tends to establish in every country the 
 greatest number of independent freehold cultivators that 
 the territory of the State can admit, we may almost be 
 led to despair, that any great progress can be made to- 
 wards so remote an improvement, however justly, and 
 however much it may be desired. — On the other hand, 
 the actual system of landed property in the West of 
 Europe is greatly changed, and in some respects greatly 
 improved, from what it has formerly been. It has varied 
 its form, with the prevailing character of successive 
 ages* ; it has been accommodated to the rude simplicity 
 
 * In the progress of the European system of landed property, three 
 stages may be distinguished — the domestic, the feudal, and the com- 
 mercial. In the first, the condition of the cultivator was secured from 
 any great oppression, by the affectionate sympathy of the chief of his 
 clan. 
 
 In the second, it was still secured, and almost as effectually secured. 
 
44 The Right of 
 
 of the more ancient times, to the feudal chivalry of the 
 middle centuries, and to the increasing industry and 
 cultivation of later more tranquil periods : it may now 
 therefore be expected to receive a new modification, 
 from the genius and maxims of a commercial age, to 
 which it is too manifest that the latest establishment of 
 landed property is by no means adapted, and that from 
 this incongruity the most pernicious and most flagrant 
 oppressions arise. 
 
 That free discussion which every subject now receives 
 gives reason to hope that truth and utility will always 
 triumph, however slowly ; and various examples may be 
 offered to confirm these hopes. In politics, in agriculture, 
 
 by that need which his lord had of attachment, assistance, and support, 
 in the frequent military enterprises and dangers in which he was engaged. 
 
 But in the commercial state there is no natural check which may 
 establish the security of the cultivator ; and his lord has hardly any obvi- 
 ous interest but to squeeze his industry as much as he can. It remains, 
 therefore, for the legislatures of different countries to establish some con- 
 trol for protecting the essential interests of their common people. It is 
 an object which deserves, and will reward, their care. In the dark and 
 disorderly ages the oppression exercised over the cultivators could not 
 be reduced to a system. Their landlords depended on their assistance 
 and military services, and would not, therefore, hazard the diminution of 
 their attachment. If at any time the landlord endeavoured to exact more 
 than they were inclined to give, means of concealment and evasion 
 were not wanting, by which his rapacity might be effectually eluded. 
 But in the present times there is no reciprocal dependence, and all means 
 of concealment and evasion are rendered by the order of our laws un- 
 certain, or, indeed, vain. 
 
 In those disorderly times, whatever oppression, or chance of oppres- 
 sion, the cultivators of the field were exposed to, they saw their landlords 
 exposed to others, perhaps greater and more frequent ; there was common 
 to both an uncertainty in the possession of their just rights ; and to com- 
 pensate this, a chance of obtaining by address somewhat beyond these 
 rights. In the present times, these common chances are removed by the 
 protection of established government. The rights of the higher orders 
 are rendered perfectly secure, while those of the cultivators are laid open 
 to their oppressions. 
 
Property in Land. 45 
 
 in commerce, many errors have been rectified in theory, 
 and even the practice in some, though not in an equal 
 degree, reformed. And shall it be reckoned, then, that 
 in this, the most important of all temporal concerns to 
 the greatest number of mankind, the most pernicious 
 errors will be suffered to remain still unrefuted, or if not 
 unrefuted still unreformed ? It is not permitted to the 
 friends of mankind to despair of aught which may tend 
 to improve the general happiness of their species, any more 
 than it is consistent with a magnanimous and genuine 
 patriotism ever to despair of the safety of our country. 
 
 There have not been wanting in former times, nor 
 will there fail hereafter to arise in the course of human 
 affairs, occasions, conjunctures, and situations, in which 
 a new and perfect system of property in land might be 
 completely established at once ; — other conjunctures, other 
 situations of much more frequent occurrence, are favour- 
 able, in a greater or a less degree, to partial reformation, 
 and progressive improvement of the ancient system ; and 
 in many cases where public care cannot be effectually 
 applied, the beneficence and even the interest of particular 
 persons, well directed, may be made to produce no in- 
 considerable effects, and to furnish examples of that 
 which the rulers of mankind ought to aim at producing 
 in a large extent. 
 
 46. Conquering princes, and great revolutions effected 
 by the prevailing force of arms, have not often made 
 their appearance on the theatre of the world in modern 
 times ; but the longer that interval which has elapsed is, 
 the greater probability there seems to be, that some new 
 phenomena of this interesting sort, are about to be pre- 
 sented to the nations of the earth. 
 
46 The Right of 
 
 At the head of his victorious army, a conquering 
 monarch has it in his power, no doubt, to re-establish in 
 the subjected state, the inherent rights of mankind, and 
 the system of natural justice, with regard to the property 
 of the soil. He may even perceive it to be in all 
 probability the best security of his new acquisitions, and 
 certainly the best foundation of his claim to immortal 
 renown. It were an object, and a pretext which 
 might even in the eye of reason and philosophy 
 almost justify the ambitious desire of conquest in the 
 breast of an heroic prince ; or if it may not avail so 
 far, no other pretext whatever can be admitted to do 
 so.* 
 
 In proportion as the true principles of property in 
 land are inquired into, canvassed, and established in 
 theory, it becomes less improbable that heroes and 
 conquerors, hitherto esteemed the scourges of mankind, 
 may be led to adopt such a salutary reformation of 
 landed property for their object ; and in the same pro- 
 portion it will become more easy for them to make such 
 magnanimous and benevolent intentions generally under- 
 stood, and to engage the concurrence and good wishes 
 of all men in their accomplishment. 
 
 * The illustrious situation of a monarch, placed at the head of victori- 
 ous armies, might well inspire with generous sentiments any mind not 
 ignobly formed, and waken a magnanimous desire of promoting the 
 general welfare of mankind. In this manner it has operated, even on 
 the breasts of men, numbered with barbarians, whose names and charac- 
 ters can with difficulty be rescued from the obscurity of Gothic annalfl 
 (see History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii., p. 
 250). To save from oblivion such authentic examples of true heroism is 
 one of the most pleasing tasks which a historian can have to perform : to 
 record them for the instruction of the great and powerful, in the pages of 
 a work which may be long and often revolved, is one of the most essential 
 services that can be rendered to mankind. 
 
Property in Land. 47 
 
 47. The establishment of new colonies, sent forth 
 from the civilized and populous nations of Europe, may 
 be supposed frequently to take place hereafter. The 
 practice seems only in its commencement, and the mis- 
 takes incident to first trials are not yet corrected. Im- 
 mense tracts of vacant or half-peopled countries, both 
 maritime and inland, still invite emigrants and planters 
 from every quarter. The southern regions of Africa and 
 America, the Banks of the River of the Amazons, and 
 the whole Continent of New Holland have scarcely yet 
 received the first settlements of any race of men by 
 whom they may be cultivated and filled. Siberia 
 alone, it is thought, might contain the whole inhabi- 
 tants of Europe more at ease than in their present 
 habitations. Princes, instead of imprisoning their 
 subjects, may come to perceive that a well regulated 
 exportation of men, as of any other commodity, 
 tends to secure and to increase the domestic produce. 
 Even Britain will no doubt find inviting occasions 
 (and just now perhaps has them) of sending forth 
 new colonies, on better digested plans, with happier 
 
 omens, 
 
 Et qu(2 fuerint minus obvia Gratis. 
 
 In every such settlement there is opportunity of 
 establishing the just and natural system of property 
 in land, in the most advantageous form. The funda- 
 mental laws of such a colony ought to ascertain, in 
 precise and explicit terms, the joint property of the 
 whole community in the whole soil — a right which in 
 that situation of their affairs will be easily compre- 
 hended by all. They ought, further, to ascertain the 
 permanent and indefeasible nature of this right, which 
 no possession of individuals, nor any industry by 
 
48 The. Right of 
 
 them applied to any portion of tiie soil, can ever cancel 
 or impair. 
 
 However extensive the tract of country may then be 
 in proportion to the number of the first settlers, general 
 rules should even then be established, having respect to 
 a future period when the whole territory may be found 
 too scanty for its multiplied inhabitants. By such pre- 
 cautions, occasionally enforced by practical examples, 
 it seems not impossible to prevent the formation of 
 those erroneous opinions of private right, and those 
 habits of possession, which in countries long settled 
 prevent the greater number of citizens from knowing 
 or desiring to claim their natural rights in this most 
 important point, and which would produce the most 
 violent opposition to their just claims, if at any time 
 they were advanced. 
 
 48. Whatever inclination a wise and benevolent sove- 
 reign may have, to communicate to all his subjects that 
 prosperity which the reformation of property in land 
 seems capable of diffusing, it may appear in most cases 
 too hazardous for the public peace, and the security of 
 his throne, to attempt the establishment of a wise and 
 equitable system at once, and in the whole extent of his 
 dominions ; yet in some instances a fair opportunity is 
 given, of making a complete change in the landed 
 property of certain subordinate states, which, though 
 held in absolute dependence by the sovereign, are not 
 incorporated with, but considered as essentially distinct 
 from, the great body of his dominions — so distinct, that 
 no innovation in the smaller realm, is likely to give any 
 alarm, or create any jealous discontent in the other. 
 Such is the subjection of Courland to the throne of 
 
49 
 
 Russia ; such Aerha^l 'ihe depenci^i^-/6f Milan on the 
 House of Austr\^lS^svBk!a*SBd^^tce, and of Minorca 
 on Britain ; not toSH^j^roi^-tliose dependent states 
 which Britain and other European nations have brought 
 under their yoke on the Continent of Asia, and in the 
 islands of the East. 
 
 49. Great monai-chs sometimes arise, who, having 
 confirmed the authority of an absolute sovereignty by 
 the vigour of their natural talents, and by unremitting 
 application to the cares and occupations of their royal 
 office, have attained such an ascendant over all ranks of 
 their people, that without hazard they might avow 
 themselves the patrons of the multitude, and supporters 
 of natural justice, in opposition to all the confederated 
 force of the powerful and the rich. Europe sees at least 
 one prince, to whose magnanimity and talents a complete 
 and total reformation of the system of landed property 
 in his dominions might be thought no unequal task, and 
 to whose benevolent zeal for the general good of his 
 people the idea of such a reformation might present 
 itself as no chimerical project In looking back through 
 the records of modern ages, it is difficult to fix on 
 another prince equally capable of conceiving so sublime 
 a scheme, and of prosecuting the measures requisite for 
 carrying it into execution ; unless, perhaps, that father 
 of his people, who wished only to live, that he might 
 convince the French nation how much he loved them as 
 his children, and who hoped to see the day when every 
 householder throughout his dominions should put a fowl 
 into his pot on Sunday. Had the reign of this humane 
 prince, to whom the condition of the lower classes was 
 familiarly known, been prolonged in peace, he might 
 
 4 
 
so The Right of Property in Land. 
 
 probably have bestowed more particular attention on 
 the means by which his paternal wishes were to be 
 realized ; the talents of his faithful minister would have 
 been exerted in such schemes, with still greater alacrity, 
 and perhaps with greater skill, than in those warlike 
 preparations which busied the last years of his master's 
 reign ; and the effects due to the joint endeavours of 
 such a sovereign and such a minister must have followed. 
 Many princes who might succeed perhaps in carrying 
 such schemes into execution, may not be endowed with 
 that magnanimous and comprehensive turn of mind, 
 without which they cannot be formed ; or are deficient 
 in that courage, without which no trial will be attempted. 
 Yet, if any plan may be concerted, by which it seems not 
 unlikely that the happiness of mankind might be in- 
 creased two-fold at once, where is the monarch who 
 would not eagerly engage in such attempts, at whatever 
 risk ? Where, indeed, is that monarch who enjoys so 
 much felicity himself in the possession of a throne, 
 that in such a cause, with the hope of accomplishing 
 so great an advantage to his people, and obtaining such 
 distinguished glory for himself, he ought not to risk 
 it all? 
 
 Mortemque pro laude pacisci. 
 
Section II. 
 
 Of Circumstances and Occasions favourable to a partial 
 Reformation of the Laws respecting Property in 
 Land, by the sovereign or legislative power. 
 
 SO. TV /TAN Y schemes of innovation may be thought 
 iVJ. of, which, without amounting to a complete 
 change, or the establishment of the best system of 
 property in land, might yet recommend themselves to 
 the attention of absolute monarchs, as being more 
 suddenly, and therefore more safely, to be carried into 
 execution, than any total reformation can be, and pro- 
 ductive of very beneficial effects, though not of the best. 
 Such as, 1st. To fix the rent of every farm for ever, 
 and limit the duration of all leases to a single 
 life of the tenant ; that is, to convert leases into 
 benefices. 
 2ndly. To make the duration of every lease perpetual, 
 so long as the tenant may choose to make an 
 addition of one-twelfth, or some other just pro- 
 portion of the present rent, at the end of every 
 thirty years. 
 3rdly. To make the duration of every lease perpetual, 
 reserving to the landlord a stated proportion of 
 the annual produce, suppose one-fifth to be paid 
 in the staple commodity of the country ; the 
 amount of this produce to be ascertained by a 
 jury, once in thirty years, if the landlord require 
 it, or in twenty, if the tenant chooses. 
 
52 The Right of 
 
 4thly. To convert all farms into freeholds, with a 
 reservation of the present rent to the landlord, 
 transferring at the same time all land taxes and 
 all public burdens whatever, with all their future 
 augmentations from the landlord, to the new free- 
 holders, formerly his tenants. 
 Sthly. To establish a sort of jubilee, with regard to' 
 property in land, biy enacting, that at the expira- 
 tion of fifty years after the last purchase of an 
 estate in land, every farm shall become freeholdi 
 in the hands of the farmer, with reservation of 
 the average rent of the last seven years to the^ 
 landlord. -; 
 
 These are examples only; many other schemes might; 
 be easily devised. , 
 
 By the ist, the landlord receives power in exchange 
 for gain, and by the 4th, a lucrative exemption, in place 
 of the uncertain increase of a racked rent. 
 
 By the 3rd, the claims of both parties are compro- 
 mised in a manner scarcely less favourable to the 
 landlord, and far less oppressive to the cultivator, than 
 the conditions of leases for a limited time commonly are. 
 By the 2nd, the cultivator, and by the 5th, the 
 landlord, would be excited to a diligent improvement of 
 the fertility of the soil. 
 
 In all cases, the farms thus converted into freehold 
 should be made subject at the same time to the laws of 
 gavel-kind, until they are subdivided into allotments of 
 less than forty acres, or whatever other standard may be 
 fixed upon as best suited to the state of the community 
 and the nature of the soil. 
 
 51. It has sometimes happened, though too rarely, 
 
Pmperty in Land. 53 
 
 that all ranks and orders of men in a state, forgetting for 
 a while their subordinate and particular interests, are 
 disposed with concurring wishes to seek for, and to adopt 
 Whatever schemes may contribute most effectually to the 
 •public good, and may become the foundations of lasting 
 order and prosperity. Such seems to have been the 
 prevailing disposition of the Romans, when the laws of 
 the twelve tables were enacted; such nearly that of 
 Athens, when Solon was intrusted by his fellow citizens 
 to compose a body of laws for their country ; and 
 such that spirit which ought to pervade, and has in 
 general pervaded every community of men, while con- 
 tending for independence, against the efforts of a more 
 powerful state. 
 
 Should ever any happy concurrence of disposing 
 causes produce such a temporary disposition in any of 
 the Western nations of Europe ; could the legislature, 
 prompted by enlightened zeal for the universal good, 
 set at naught the discontents which might arise in any 
 ■particular class, and remove with ease all opposition 
 made to their generous purposes ; in this fortunate 
 situation, it might occur to them, perhaps, that a just 
 regulation of property in land is, of all those arrange- 
 ments which the present moment could give opportunity 
 of establishing, the most essential for diffusing prosperity 
 and independence among the body of the people. 
 
 Pursuing this idea, biassed by no influence, awed by 
 no faction, they might be led to enact a law, by which 
 every person inclined to employ himself in cultivating 
 the earth for his own subsistence, and that of his family, 
 should be entitled to claim in full property a reasonable 
 share of the soil of his country ; without prejudice, how- 
 ever, to the just rights of any other persons who may 
 
S4 The Right of 
 
 have previously bestowed their industry in cultivating 
 and improving the same spot. 
 
 Such a law might, from the nature of its operation, 
 be not unfitly denominated a progressive Agrarian, and 
 might be comprised in the following articles, or others of 
 similar effect : 
 
 I. That every citizen, aged twenty-one years or 
 upwards, may, if not already in possession of land, 
 be entitled to claim from the public a certain por- 
 tion, not exceeding forty acres, to be assigned 
 him in perpetuity, for cultivation and residence, 
 in the manner and under the conditions hereafter 
 specified. 
 
 II. That the claimant shall have right to choose 
 the situation of his allotment, on any farm, free- 
 hold, or uncultivated common, within his own 
 parish, if the same be not excepted by the other 
 provisions of this law. If there be no unexcepted 
 land in his own parish, he shall have right to 
 choose in any of the parishes contiguous to his 
 own ; and if in these there be no unexcepted 
 land, he shall have right to choose throughout 
 the whole district or county. 
 
 III. This allotment shall be set apart, and its land- 
 marks fixed by the magistrate, with the aid of an 
 assize, or of arbitrators chosen by the parties. 
 It shall be marked out, in the manner most 
 convenient to both the old and the new occupiers ; 
 it shall approach to a square, or some other 
 compact form ; one of its sides shall run along 
 the boundary of the old farm ; and it shall 
 have communication with some road already 
 patent. — None of these circumstances to be 
 
Property in Land. 55 
 
 departed from without the consent of both 
 parties. 
 
 IV. The ground thus set apart shall be submitted 
 to the cognizance of an assize, or of arbitrators 
 chosen by the parties, who shall determine what 
 reserved perpetual rent the claimant must pay to 
 the landlord, and what temporary rent to the former 
 tenant (if any), in compensation of their rights. 
 
 V. The following farms are to be exempted from 
 all such claims. — Every farm from which, if the 
 allotment claimed is taken away, less than forty 
 acres will remain to the first tenant. — The farm 
 or park belonging to the lord of the manor, the 
 same bearing a regulated proportion only to the 
 extent of his estate. — Every farm of whatever 
 extent that has not been fifteen years occupied 
 by the present tenant. — Every farm whose arable 
 ground has been diminished one-half by claims 
 founded on this law, shall be exempted for twenty 
 years to come, if the tenant so desire. — All farms 
 of barren ground taken for the sake of improve- 
 ment, under such forms and regulations as may 
 prevent the collusive evasion of this law. 
 
 VI. The person thus acquiring property in land 
 shall continue to reside upon his farm. He shall 
 have right to transmit it to his heirs or assignees 
 in full property, or under a reserved rent, but 
 shall not have, nor transmit the right of alienating 
 it with reversion, that is of letting the whole, or 
 any part of it in lease. — If he sells to another, 
 who shall not reside upon it, but annex it to some 
 
 ■ other farm, one-tenth part of the price, or of the 
 reserved rent, shall belong to the public. 
 
56 The Right of 
 
 VII. The property acquired in these allotments 
 shall not carry along with it any right of common 
 of any sort in the commons, woodlands, private 
 roads, or other appendages of the manor, except- 
 ing only, in the nearest well and watering-pond, 
 and in the bog or common for turf, if that is the 
 fuel of the country ; in which case this right is 
 to be regulated by the usages of the manor, as if 
 the allotment had been given off in lease only. 
 Neither shall any use, prescription, or connivance 
 ever in course of time procure to the holder of 
 such allotment any right of common, that is not 
 founded on and ascertained by express compact. 
 
 The Agrarian laws of antiquity seem to have failed 
 in producing durable and beneficial effects, chiefly from 
 two circumstances : 
 
 (ist.) Their operation was sudden, violent, and occa- 
 sional only, whereas the progressive Agrarian is 
 so constituted as to exert a continual influence, 
 more or less intense, in proportion as the general 
 interests of the community may require. 
 
 (2nd.) The ancient Agrarian laws were easily, and 
 thus generally, evaded ; as they opposed the whole 
 body of those who wanted lands, to the whole 
 body of those who possessed more than the legal 
 allotment, without assigning to individuals a 
 specific right in any particular fields or district, 
 a general convulsion of the State must have 
 attended every attempt to call forth the energy 
 of law. To avoid these tumults, all persons 
 soon became disposed to connive at various 
 evasions of these laws, and to acquiesce in their 
 falling into desuetude, until some popular leader 
 
Property in Land. 57 
 
 arose and called anew for their restoration. But 
 the progressive Agrarian assigns particular definite 
 rights to a few men, within every district of 
 moderate extent; it opposes the natural claims 
 and the indigence of these few men to the 
 exorbitant possessions and the opulence of a still 
 smaller number within the same district. The 
 facility of evasion must be much diminished by 
 this regulation. The vigilance of the claimants, 
 being confined to a narrow space, will be more 
 awake and precise; their limited rights founded 
 on a local claim, and derived from their birth, 
 will be more distinctly conceived by themselves, 
 and more readily supported by the concurring 
 sentiments of all other men. 
 
 52. Without venturing to make openly any alteration 
 in that system of landed property, which, like systems 
 of corrupted religion, is regarded with superstitious 
 reverence in countries where it has long obtained, many 
 occasions will occur, whereof advantage may be taken to 
 introduce under the cover of other objects, and as part 
 of the usual proceedings of the State, such regulations 
 as may tend very effectually, though by remote and 
 mdirect influence, to promote the independence of the 
 plough, and the distribution of property in land, in small 
 allotments, among the lowest ranks of the people. 
 
 If, for example, new taxes are to be levied, what 
 subjects of taxation can be more justly liable to the 
 imposition, or more productive, than large farms and 
 short leases ? * The landlord, by adopting these plans in 
 
 * Any tax imposed on extensive farms might from its novelty be 
 regarded as a grievance ; but the servants' tix, which is so justly popular, 
 
S8 The Right of 
 
 the management of his estate, means to derive advantage 
 to himself, from measures which at once obstruct the 
 increase of population, and diminish the spirit and 
 independence of the common people ; and if his right to 
 make these invasions on the public good cannot be 
 directly attacked, let him at least be obliged to indemnify 
 the public in some degree, by some other mode, more 
 familiar to the minds of men. 
 
 A tax imposed on barren lands, and so regulated as 
 to engage the proprietor in their immediate cultivation, 
 or oblige him to resign them to the community for 
 general distribution, could not be esteemed in the 
 smallest degree unjust. His right to these barren lands 
 is founded solely on occupation ; there is no improved 
 value superadded, no right accruing from labour bestowed, 
 and as he occupies, besides, more than his equal share of 
 the soil, the whole unimproved tracts of his estate 
 belong strictly and entirely to the public; and no small 
 indulgence is shown in giving him an option to improve 
 or to resign them. 
 
 A tax on all augmentation of rents, even to the 
 extent of one-half the increase, would be at once the 
 
 might be applied to the same purpose, if extended to hired servants em- 
 ployed in agriculture, when more than one are kept in the same family, 
 and to rise to still higher rates in proportion to the numbers kept. 
 
 The popular voice has demanded a heavy tax on the foreign domes- 
 tics, that are so frequently to be seen in the families of the rich ; but 
 the suggestion ought not to meet with attention. These foreigners are 
 generally employed in frivolous offices in the train of opulence and 
 luxury, and were they proscribed by the imposition of any heavy t&x, an 
 equal number of robust Englishmen would be called away from the'ir 
 rustic labours, and other necessary employments, allured by higher 
 wages, to perform more awkwardly the same servile tasks, and to lead 
 the same dissipated lives. The profitable industry of the nation would 
 he diminished in proportion. 
 
Property in Land. 59 
 
 most equitable, the most productive, the most easily- 
 collected, and the least liable to evasion of all possible 
 taxes, and might with inconceivable advantage disen- 
 cumber a great nation from all those injudicious imposts 
 by which its commercial exchanges are retarded and 
 restrained, and its domestic manufactures embarrassed.* 
 
 If the increase of population is to be promoted by 
 encouraging the marriages of the lower ranks; let every 
 farmer be entitled to an addition of five years to the 
 duration of his lease (whatever that may be) for the 
 first legitimate child, and of three years for every other. 
 Let every person whatever, not possessed of lands, and 
 having five children, be entitled to the privileges of the 
 Agrarian law, within a certain district. 
 
 If the improvement of agriculture is to be promoted 
 and rewarded, let not the prize held forth to those who 
 excel be, as it has sometimes been in France, the rank 
 of nobility, but rather the full property, under reserva- 
 tion of the present rent, of those farms to which their 
 skill and industry have been applied ; and let an annual 
 prize or prizes of this sort be proposed not for the 
 whole extent of a great kingdom, but for every small 
 district and neighbourhood. 
 
 If any changes are to be made in the municipal 
 laws, relative to succession, inheritance, or the trans- 
 mission of property in any other form, let them not pass 
 unaccompanied by the introduction of some mode of 
 
 * An absolute monarch might combine together the increase of his 
 revenue and the encouragement of small farms in the same regulation, 
 by imposing a heavy tax on all future increase of rent, excepting in those 
 farms which did not exceed the extent of one plough, and were granted 
 in lease for a term of not less than fifty years. Such an edict must operate 
 beneficially, either by bringing money into the treasury of the State, or 
 by increasing the number of citizens in the most useful class. 
 
6o The Right of 
 
 the Agrarian law, extended over the estates of those 
 persons whose interests or caprice are consulted in the 
 intended change. Let no land estate, for example, pass 
 to heirs of entail, nor even to collaterals in the ordinary 
 course of succession, without becoming subject to such 
 a law, even in its utmost extent. 
 
 S3. Certain regulations which have formerly taken 
 place, and are like enough to be renewed in flourishing 
 states, are of such a nature, that they ought to be 
 accompanied by the introduction of some branches of 
 the progressive Agrarian law, as an equivalent and com- 
 pensation in some degree to those orders of men whose 
 interests are encroached on by the change ; and as a 
 very moderate deduction from the advantages of those 
 other orders, for whose advantage chiefly such regula- 
 tions are intended, two remarkable examples may be 
 pointed out in the reduction of interest, and the corn 
 laws. 
 
 Every reduction of interest throws a great immediate 
 advantage into the hands of the landholders, who are in 
 general encumbered with debts : the interest of these 
 debts being reduced, their actual income is thereby 
 increased ; besides, this reduction increases the value of 
 their property in land, if they are obliged to sell off a 
 part, or the whole ; and it tends to enhance the rent of 
 farms, by determining persons who had formerly lived 
 on the mere annual rents of their stock, to betake them- 
 selves now to some sort of industry, and to agriculture 
 more than any other, as being that alone which men 
 are supposed qualified to undertake, without any par- 
 ticular education to fit them for it. 
 
 All those laws which prohibit the importation of 
 
Property in Land. 6r 
 
 grain into any country, and still more those which give 
 a premium on the exportation, are calculated to bestow 
 great advantages on the farmer and landholder, though 
 chiefly on the latter, at the expense of that far more 
 numerous class of citizens, who till no land for their own 
 behoof, and must purchase all the grain or bread con- 
 sumed in their families from the landlord and the 
 farmer, or their agents and retailers. 
 
 Commonly one-half of the slender incomes which 
 men of this class enjoy must be expended on this in- 
 dispensable article, the price of which is, by these laws, 
 kept up one-fourth or more above its natural level. 
 
 Is it not highly reasonable, then, that the in- 
 dustrious poor, who are taxed in this manner, and to 
 this amount, without their consent, for the behoof not 
 of the public, but of other orders of men richer than 
 themselves, should have it at least in their power to 
 pass with ease from that class of people, who must go 
 to market to purchase this commodity, to the class of 
 those who raise and have it to sell ? The introduction of 
 a progressive Agrarian law, extending over the demesnes 
 of the crown, waste lands, and 'farms of too great extent, 
 would produce this effect in no inconsiderable degree, 
 and would at the same time essentially promote the 
 object of all corn laws, if that object be indeed the 
 prosperity and increase of agriculture, and not rather 
 the profitable monopoly of the landholders. 
 
 54. It is by no means without example that the 
 legislative power of a state, however tender of seeming 
 to meddle with the general system of property in land, 
 should interfere to impose some regulations on the man- 
 ner of granting leases. Ireland furnishes a recent ex- 
 
62 The Right of 
 
 ample of some importance, and the laws of many 
 countries have, on various occasions, interposed their 
 authority to protect the peasants from outrageous 
 oppressions, from violent and sudden removals, and 
 from the pretensions of a new purchaser, coming in 
 place of their former lord.* 
 
 In this field, there is great room, without seeming to 
 pass beyond the usual jurisdiction of municipal law, for 
 introducing into most countries new and beneficial 
 regulations, relative to the three essential articles of a 
 lease, the extent, the duration, and the rent to be paid. 
 
 In respect of duration all leases ought to be of con- 
 siderable length (sufficient at least for the farmer to 
 bring up his family, and settle them around him, with- 
 out being removed himself), and of uncertain termina- 
 tion, ending with a life. New forms, adapted to the 
 advantage of both parties, might easily be devised ; as, 
 for example, a lease which might be called a lease on 
 alternate lives, beginning with that of the lessee, and 
 ending with the life of that person who shall have come 
 into the place or right of the lessor, when the first life 
 falls, or when any number of years — 20, 30, 40, or more — 
 from that uncertain date have elapsed. 
 
 That the extent of the farms set in lease should be 
 moderate, is certainly most advantageous to the com- 
 munity in general, and may be so adjusted as to prove 
 
 * What is the shortest term of a lease which ought to be given by the 
 landlord or accepted by the cultivator ? In Ireland, that may be exactly 
 determined by the statutes to be not less than thirty-one years. For if 
 any great landholder resolves not to give leases of more than twenty-one 
 years, he determines to treat his Protestant tenantry more unkindly, and 
 more unreasonably than the legislature, actuated by the most violent 
 spirit of persecution, thought it proper or decent that the Roman Catholics 
 should be treated. 
 
Property in Land. 63 
 
 not less favourable to the interest of the landlord. The 
 rent to be paid ought always to be fixed at a determined 
 proportion of the real or estimated annual produce of 
 the soil ; and this proportion being determined by the 
 letter of the law, the application of that law to each 
 particular case ought to be committed to a jury from 
 the neighbourhood, if either party so desire. 
 
 Leases on improvement, as they are called, if con- 
 sidered according to the principles of natural equity, 
 must be accounted altogether absurd and unjust ; for 
 they avowedly take from the farmer, as his cultivation 
 advances, a share of that increased produce to which 
 his industry has given rise, in order to bestow it on a 
 landlord who has contributed nothing at all to the 
 improvement of the soil ; yet, in respect of expedience, 
 they are to be regarded as among the best and most 
 practicable compromises, which, under that establishment 
 of land property which now obtains, can be brought 
 about between the exorbitant rights of the landlord 
 and the reasonable expectations of the farmer. Various 
 beneficial schemes of such leases have been proposed, 
 and some carried into execution ; yet great scope still 
 remains for varying their form, and combining new 
 stipulations in such a manner, as that both parties may 
 be interested in the progressive improvement of the soil. 
 But the interposition of the legislature seems necessary 
 in most countries, to render the landholders willing to 
 give the preference to leases of this kind. 
 
 55. By the laws of many nations, a right of redemp- 
 tion (^jus retractus) belongs to the superior lord, or to 
 the nearest of kin ofthe landholder, who sells his estate. 
 By this right, they are entitled to redeem the land sold 
 
64 The Right of 
 
 at the agreed price, within a limited time, comrnonly 
 twelve months after the bargain has been struck ; and 
 so generally is this privilege established on the Con- 
 tinent, that it has been considered as a branch of the 
 law of nations. Much more justice and much more 
 good policy would there be, in conferring such a right 
 on the tenants and cultivators of the lands alienated, if, 
 within a limited time, any number of them, not less than 
 one-third part, could form a scheme, to be approved by 
 the tribunals of justice, for purchasing the estate among 
 them, by advancing one-half the price, or any other 
 proportion required by law, and converting the re- 
 mainder into reserved rents. The public ought even 
 in justice and in policy to come to their assistance 
 in forming such a scheme, and to advance the money 
 wanted, on proper security to have it repaid by gradual 
 instalments, or converted into perpetual refserved rents, 
 which might again be sold, at no great discount of that 
 value which had been given for them. 
 
 56. Various occurrences in the political revolutions 
 of government have frequently stripped the ancient 
 proprietors of large tracts of land, and thrown the 
 absolute, disposal of these lands into the hands of the 
 rulers of the State : such are the forfeitures usually 
 following on unsuccessful insurrections and conspiracies, 
 the subversion of obnoxious associations, as the Tem- 
 plars and Jesuits ; the dissolution of the monasteries, and 
 the reformation of ecclesiastical establishments in the 
 north of Europe. The courtiers and grandees who have 
 been enriched on these occasions by the profusion of 
 their sovereigns, might have been equally well gratified 
 and attached by the donation of seignorial rights and 
 
Property in Land. 65 
 
 reserved rents alone, and the property of the soil might 
 have been all at once conferred on the cultivators, or 
 rendered subject to the operation of a progressive 
 Agrarian law ; or indeed both regulations might have 
 been made to take place at the same time ; that is, the 
 property might have been given to the present cul- 
 tivators, but subject to future claims arising from the 
 Agrarian law. 
 
 Such a disposal of escheated or forfeited lands may, 
 without regard to the encouragement of agriculture and 
 the independence of the plough, be recommended by 
 policy of State alone, as tending to interest the lowest 
 as well as the highest ranks in those innovations, whether 
 justly or unjustly concerted, which the sovereign is 
 desirous of having accomplished. 
 
 Would not, it may be asked, that great transfer of 
 property made in Ireland by Cromwell have been 
 almost equally acceptable to his captains and officers at 
 the time, had it been accompanied with a progressive 
 Agrarian law ? And would not the effect of such a law, 
 so applied, have shown itself in the most beneficial 
 manner to Ireland long before the present age? 
 
 Had the lands left vacant by the expulsion of the 
 Moors been distributed in full property to cultivators 
 only, might not even Spain have recovered in a few 
 generations the effects of that severe wound ? 
 
Section III. 
 
 Of Circumstances which might induce the Rulers of a 
 State to turn their wishes and endeavours towards 
 the accomplishment of such a Change. 
 
 57. C* UCH occasions and incidents, as those before 
 O enumerated, might be improved by the 
 sovereign, the legislature, or the real patriots of any 
 country, for introducing by degrees this important 
 innovation, it being supposed that they are beforehand 
 fully apprized of its great utility, and animated by a 
 warm desire of seeing it effectually established for the 
 advantage of the community.* 
 
 * It seems to have been unfortunate for the Romans, that in the age of 
 the Gracchi the practice of granting leases for any considerable term of 
 years was not familiar, and the alienation of land under a reserved rent 
 wholly unknown. Had Tiberius Gracchus proposed to the Patricians 
 either of these plans for accommodating the poor citizens with lands, a 
 compromise might probably have taken place, to the great advantage of 
 both. He would not have encountered such determined opposition at 
 first, nor would he have been forced into the violent measures he after- 
 wards adopted. 
 
 In the history of this illustrious citizen of Rome, those men who may 
 hereafter undertake the patronage of general rights, and of the lower 
 classes of mankind, may find an instructive example, how necessary it is 
 to adhere to moderation, even in the noblest pursuits, and not to suffer 
 the insolent and unreasonable obstinacy of opponents to provoke any 
 passionate retaliation. Had Gracchus persevered in maintaining his first 
 temperate and liberal proposal, — had he not impetuously, it cannot be 
 said unjustly, hurried into the extreme opposite to that which his anta- 
 gonists held, it cannot be doubted that his great endeavours might have 
 proved fortunate for himself and his country. 
 
The Right of Property in Land. 67 
 
 Other occurrences and aspects of affairs tend to 
 inspire with such generous desires either the sovereign 
 or some considerable bodies of men in the State, capable 
 of exerting powerful efforts in so laudable a cause, and 
 with the desire may communicate the hope also of being 
 able to accomplish some salutary changes of greater or 
 of less importance, especially if the object to be aimed 
 at, and the means by which it may be obtained, have 
 been again and again stated to the public in a variety of 
 speculative views, and so rendered familiar to the 
 understandings of men. 
 
 Internal convulsions have arisen in many countries 
 by which the decisive power of the State has been 
 thrown, for a short while at least, into the hands of the 
 collective body of the people. In these junctures they 
 might have obtained a just re-establishment of their natu- 
 ral rights to independence of cultivation and to property 
 in land, had they been themselves aware of their title to 
 such rights, and had there been any leaders prepared to 
 direct them in the mode of stating their just claim, and 
 supporting it with necessary firmness and becoming 
 moderation. — Such was the revolution in 1688, at which 
 time, surely, an article declarative of the natural right of 
 property in land might have been inserted into the Bill of 
 Rights, had the people at large been beforehand taught 
 to understand that they were possessed of any such 
 claim. Such also was the late convulsion in America, 
 the favourable opportunities of which are not yet ex- 
 hausted ; and whatever party shall hereafter in the 
 agitations of any state assume the patronage of the 
 lower classes, in respect of this their most essential 
 privilege, may entertain confident hopes of being able 
 by their support to obtain their own particular object of 
 
68 The Right of 
 
 pursuit, while at the same time they establish an 
 arrangement of the highest importance to the general 
 welfare of their fellow-citizens. 
 
 58. Princes sitting on disputed thrones might, among 
 other expedients for giving additional security to their 
 possession, consider whether it would not prove of 
 advantage that the numerous class of cultivators were 
 interested in their cause by some well-regulated com- 
 munication of equal right ; and on the other hand, the 
 expelled candidate might not unwisely seize the same 
 occasion of strengthening his interest and increasing the 
 number of his adherents, if it were left not preoccupied 
 by his more fortunate antagonist. 
 
 In such cases as these, when the minds of the vulgar 
 are to be suddenly engaged, it is perhaps more expe- 
 dient not to propose a refined system, having for its 
 object the greatest good that can be reconciled to the 
 greatest supposed equity, or to the general convenience 
 of all, but to hold forth some striking advantages to 
 great bodies of men, who may feel that they have a 
 common interest, and are not incapable of being taught 
 to act together in concert, for promoting it ; to promise, 
 for example, that every farm, as presently possessed, 
 shall be converted into a freehold, vested in the farmer 
 and his heirs for ever. 
 
 59. Difference of religious opinions, it may be hoped, 
 will never again be made, as it has too often been, an 
 occasion of disturbing the civil societies of mankind ; 
 but if any respectable body of dissidents find themselves 
 obliged to contend with the rulers of their country for 
 the rights and immunities of a just toleration ; if the 
 
Property in Land. 6g 
 
 leaders of the sect shall think proper to avow and 
 inculcate principles of civil policy and justice favourable 
 to the rights of the lower classes, and to the indepen- 
 dence of cultivation, they may be well assured of 
 strengthening their party thereby, of inspiring their 
 adherents with more vigour and consistency, and of 
 obtaining in process of time both the one and the other 
 of these just and important objects of pursuit. These 
 objects they will attain the sooner, and with more ease, 
 the more cautiously they guard against the insinuation 
 of that levelling and fanatic principle which has some- 
 times brought disgrace in the first place, and final dis- 
 appointment in the end, on schemes wisely conceived, 
 or bravely undertaken for restoring the rights of man- 
 kind. 
 
 It is supposed by many intelligent persons that, 
 partly through the increase of infidelity, and partly from 
 the prevailing moderation of wise men's opinions re- 
 specting disputable tenets of religion, the ecclesiastical 
 order have of late lost much of that ascendant which 
 they seem formerly to have possessed over the higher 
 classes of men, so that in almost every country of 
 Europe, under every form of the Christian religion, their 
 establishments are either secretly envied and undermined, 
 or very avowedly attacked ; and it may be apprehended 
 that a crisis of great danger to their temporal rights 
 and privileges cannot be far distant. It might, there- 
 fore, be accounted no unnecessary provision for their 
 own safety, and very liberal policy with regard to the 
 general interests of mankind, should this respected 
 order attach themselves more particularly to the in- 
 ferior and laborious classes of men. These humble 
 ranks are always found docile and obsequious to reli- 
 
70 The Right of 
 
 t gious instructors ; and in justice to the simplicity of 
 their native sense and piety, let it be remarked also, 
 that they are more ready to listen with attention to 
 rationalfand sound doctrines than to the extravagancies 
 of enthusiasm or superstition, if only the same zeal and 
 assiduity is displayed by the teachers of both. It 
 would not ill become the ministers of any Church to 
 assume the patronage of these men (whose reliance and 
 attachment will not fail to increase in proportion to the 
 attention bestowed on them), and to stand forth as the 
 advocates of their natural rights and the guardians of 
 their independence in opposition to the opulent, the 
 luxurious, and the idle, who in too many respects 
 domineer over them. It would not be unwise nor 
 improper to connect thoroughly the interests of the 
 ecclesiastical order with those of the laborious poor, 
 who stand perhaps more in need of the direction and 
 guardianship of enlightened superiors than the mendi- 
 cant poor themselves, whom the Church has in every 
 country taken under her immediate protection. In 
 most cases, the mendicant poor would be sufficiently 
 provided for by the charity of those very orders of men 
 by whom the far more numerous class of laborious poor 
 are oppressed. 
 
 That sort of correspondence and co-operation which 
 might be denominated an alliance between the Church 
 and the Plough, in subordination to the State, would not 
 only prove equally beneficial to both parties, but seems 
 in the present state of Europe to have become necessary 
 for the support of their mutual interests. 
 
 60. Great public calamities and disasters may dis- 
 pose the rulers of a state, however reluctant and averse. 
 
Property in Land. yi 
 
 to seek for the renovation of national vigour and pros- 
 perity by those measures which are to be accounted the 
 only true sources of strength, opulence, and manly 
 virtues ; by cherishing the common people, bettering 
 their condition, and exciting their industry by such 
 cheerful hopes and reasonable expectations as belong 
 to their humble situation, and not by the hard pressure 
 of necessity, so often preposterously and inhumanly 
 recommended as the most effectual spur of industry, so 
 often unhappily applied as such. 
 
 Under circumstances of recent public distress and 
 humiliation, such as the unfortunate issue of expensive 
 war, the loss of commerce and of foreign dominion, even 
 the higher and privileged ranks, awed into wisdom and 
 humanity by the impending gloom, may be inclined to 
 acquiesce in those regulations which tend to renovate 
 the whole body of the State, though at the expense of 
 diminishing in some degree the privileges and emolu- 
 ments of their own order. They will consider that, 
 unless the numbers, the industry, and the manly temper 
 of the body of the people can be kept up, the fortune of 
 the community must fall into continual and accelerated 
 decline, and the privileges of every rank become in- 
 secure. But if these essential foundations of public 
 prosperity can be supported, and any increase of them, 
 especially of the last, can be procured, the loss of 
 military glory, of political rank and ascendant, even of 
 territory and establishments, may be regarded with less 
 regret, as the loss of external appendages only, the 
 plumes and trappings of national honour, which may be 
 in due time recovered again by the returning vigour of 
 the community, if such ought to be their endeavour or 
 desire. 
 
72 The Right of 
 
 If, in the meantime, commerce is restrained and 
 manufactures decline, let the cultivation of the soil be 
 laid open, on reasonable terms and without delay, to the 
 people thus deprived of their usual employment ; such a 
 resource would indeed convert what they must account 
 a misfortune into an opportunity of finding real and 
 natural happiness and ease. 
 
 If colonies are lost, it may seem more particularly 
 requisite to provide some new opportunities of settle- 
 ment for the usual emigration. If the facility of 
 domestic establishments is presented to their choice, 
 that will not only prevent the turbulence of unsettled, 
 discontented multitudes confined at home, but will 
 apply their numbers, and call forth their industry for 
 the augmentation of the public opulence and strength. 
 
 6i. Public dangers, especially, if not sudden and 
 -transitory, but continual, as proceeding from the vicinity 
 of powerful and ambitious neighbours, ought to produce 
 in the rulers and the higher ranks of a nation so 
 threatened, a similar disposition of recurring to the 
 genuine sources of public opulence and force. 
 
 What more effectual preparation can be made for 
 the most vigorous defence of national liberty and in- 
 dependence, than to interest every individual citizen 
 more immediately and directly in the welfare of his 
 country, by giving him a share in the property of the 
 soil, and training him to the use of arms for its defence. 
 The former of these means of public security and defence 
 is scarcely less requisite than the latter, the propriety of 
 which is so generally understood. 
 
 A great standing army may be sufficient for the 
 purposes of ambition, and for carrying offensive war into 
 
Property in Land. 73 
 
 foreign states, but if resistance is to be made at home, 
 and a prolonged defence to be maintained against a 
 more powerful invader, the discipline of standing forces, 
 however perfect, must be combined with, and sustained 
 by, the zealous patriotism of a militia. The King of 
 Prussia, beset by hostile powers naturally superior in 
 strength, has set the first example of a military esta- 
 blishment modelled on this plan ; an example which 
 deserves to be imitated, and will not fail to be so by 
 every potentate in the same perilous situation. The 
 time seems to be not very far distant, when Britain her- 
 self must trust no longer with entire reliance to her 
 wooden walls, even in time of peace, but must keep in 
 continual array a land army proportioned in some 
 degree to those of the continental powers. Even the 
 greater powers themselves, by the continual augmenta- 
 tion of their standing armies, with an intention of in- 
 vading others, approach still nearer and nearer to the 
 establishment of a disciplined militia, as they continually 
 increase the proportion of soldiers to unwarlike citizens ; 
 and when they begin to perceive that they themselves 
 are at last in danger of being invaded in their turn by 
 the powerful confederacies of neighbours, whom separately 
 they have insulted or held in terror, they will then hasten 
 to adopt the whole plan, in the same manner as these 
 neighbouring powers have already done. Thus, that 
 continual augmentation of disciplined standing armies 
 throughout Europe, which the friends of liberty and of 
 mankind regard with so much anxiety and distrust, 
 seems to tend to an ultimate state of advancement, in 
 which every ploughman will be made a soldier, and 
 almost every soldier remain a ploughman ; a system 
 very favourable, no doubt, to the happiness and virtue 
 
74 The Right of 
 
 of mankind, and more particularly of the lower class; 
 a fortunate and desirable effect, which it may be hoped 
 will arise from so very suspicious a cause as the restless 
 ambition of monarchs. Whenever this state of things 
 is brought near to its maturity in any country, there will 
 be wanting only one regulation to realize the fancied 
 virtues and happiness of primeval ages, though without 
 that supposed perpetual tranquillity which seems not 
 very consistent with the highest felicity of mankind. 
 That regulation is, that every individual thus accus- 
 tomed to the use of arms, and of the instruments of 
 tillage, should be made proprietor of the field which he 
 cultivates. 
 
 It is of small importance whether, in this progress, 
 the state has begun with the establishment of a militia, 
 and afterwards trained that militia to the exact disci- 
 pline and ready array of standing armies ; or — what is 
 more new in practice and may be more willingly 
 adopted by monarchs — beginning with a standing army, 
 has proceeded gradually to extend its compass, and the 
 rotation of military services exacted, until, almost all 
 those persons are comprehended who would belong to 
 the plan of a militia established in the usual form, with- 
 out however detaching them from their rustic labours, 
 or interrupting that essential industry in any great 
 degree ; still the same union of the military character 
 with that of the peasant might be accomplished in the 
 greater number of the people, in nearly the same course 
 of time ; still the same facility and expediency will arise, 
 of communicating to each of this majority of the citizens 
 a competent share in the real property of the soil. 
 
 62. The state of a nation overwhelmed with debt 
 
Property in Land. 75 
 
 furnishes the most urgent motives to induce all classes 
 of men willingly to recur to those measures and schemes 
 by which the amount of the public stock may be most 
 effectually, and most expeditiously increased. Among 
 these schemes, the encouragement of improving agri- 
 culture, and the increase of an industrious population by 
 means of independent settlements must be allowed to 
 stand foremost. 
 
 It is indeed the landed property of the nation that is 
 ultimately and solely engaged for all national debts : 
 every other species of property may be concealed, 
 transferred, or withdrawn, when the demand for pay- 
 ment is apprehended. It is therefore to be wished, for 
 the security of public credit, and for facilitating the bor- 
 rowing of money on good terms, when necessity requires 
 that expedient to be pursued, that property in land were 
 exceedingly divided ; so that every person of the least 
 consideration for property of any other kind, for industry, 
 or for talents, had a share. 
 
 In that state of public affairs which renders the con- 
 tinual accumulation of national debt indispensable, it 
 becomes even the interest of the great landholders, that 
 such a distribution of property in land should take place, 
 and that every member of the society should, if possible, 
 have a share ; that so every member may be rendered 
 responsible for the public debt, and may have, though in 
 an inferior degree, the same sort of interest with regard 
 to it on every emergency which these great landholders 
 have. 
 
 Such general distribution of property in land, especi- 
 ally if the public creditors were for the most part pro- 
 prietors of land also, and in some proportion to the 
 property possessed by them in the funds, would tend to 
 
•j6 The Right of 
 
 unite in a great degree the interests and views of the 
 debtors and creditors ; and so prevent the danger of any 
 sudden great convulsion, and the perplexities which 
 might attend a temporary stoppage of payment. It 
 would give at the same time the highest facility of 
 employing the whole stock and force of the society in 
 great and useful enterprizes, when such presented them- 
 selves, without necessarily entailing oppressive taxes on 
 a future age.* 
 
 * The accumulation of a national debt must be acknowledged to be a 
 great evil ; yet is it possible that the nature of that evil may be in some 
 degree mistaken, and its distant terrors exaggerated. 
 
 The comparison which offers itself at first between the incumbrances 
 of a nation and those of an individual's fortune, is just only in a few par- 
 ticulars. Money borrowed by a nation is chiefly furnished by its own 
 subjects, into whose hands it is chiefly paid back for services performed ; 
 and the stock of the community, compared with that of its neighbours, is 
 lessened only by the amount of what is borrowed from subjects of a 
 foreign State. 
 
 Taxes imposed for defraying the interest of a large debt must, in 
 some degree, endanger the suppression of manufactures, and the loss of 
 foreign commerce. This is, perhaps, the only evil which may not be 
 separated from this accumulation of national debt ; nor ought this to be 
 accounted very formidable by a nation abounding with men, and 
 possessing wide tracts of waste or half cultivated land, in the improve- 
 ment of which the industry of these men may be employed. In such a 
 situation, a nation well informed of its true interests might despise the loss. 
 
 But if it is the established opinion of any people, that the public 
 prosperity depends on the flourishing state of their commerce with other 
 nations, that people ought, in consistency, to avoid the occasions of 
 contracting debt. 
 
 If a nation already encumbered with a great load of debt foresees 
 rather the necessity of augmenting than any possibility of diminishing 
 the load, that nation ought, beforehand, gradually to prepare those re- 
 sources by which the public opulence and the industry of the subjects 
 may be sustained, when foreign commerce shall have failed. 
 
 Whatever national advantages are aimed at by efforts requiring the 
 accumulation of public debt ; whatever evils are to be guarded against, 
 as proceeding from such accumulation, a minute partition of property in 
 land must be favourable to the measures of the legislature in either pursuit. 
 
Property in Land. yj 
 
 In order to establish, or at least to approach nearer 
 to this the most perfect state of public credit, certain 
 regulations might be introduced with happy effects in a 
 well constituted monarchy ; and perhaps without exciting 
 discontent, especially if any salutary agrarian law had 
 been established, or a pretty general distribution of 
 landed property been by any other means previously 
 obtained. It might be enacted, that at fixed periods a 
 certain considerable portion of the national debt should 
 be divided among the landholders, in proportion to their 
 property in land ; not obliging them to pay off their 
 proportion of the debt, but merely to advance the money 
 for paying it off, and so to become themselves the 
 creditors of the public (instead of being debtors to the 
 public creditors) and to receive the interests which they 
 formerly paid. 
 
 It may be accounted a service which the State is well 
 entitled to require from the proprietors of land, in return 
 for their being suffered to engross the whole original 
 value of the soil, that when the public is over-loaded 
 with debts, not imprudently contracted, they should be 
 obliged, not indeed to pay those debts, but to come 
 forward and interpose their private credit in support of 
 that of the public ; and to take their chance of such 
 payment of annual rents or capital as the public may 
 afford to make. Such an occasional partition of the 
 national debt must be acknowledged to be altogether 
 consonant to justice in those nations where the repre- 
 sentatives of the proprietors of land have alone consented 
 to, and authorized, the contracting of such incumbrances. 
 
 At least it seems probable that, whatever measures 
 may at any time be adopted for diminishing the public 
 debts of a nation, or for preventing those convulsions 
 
78 The Right of Property in Land. 
 
 which on critical emergencies may arise from the com- 
 petition between the interests of borrowers and lenders, 
 subjects of the same state, all such measures would be 
 greatly facilitated by the minute partition of property 
 in land, and a general distribution of it among the whole 
 body of the people. 
 
Section IV. 
 
 Of Public Institutions calculated for promoting a gradual 
 and salutary Change in the state of Property in Land. 
 
 63. A S a subsidiary help to all those regulations which 
 ■LX. might be devised for promoting the prosperity 
 of the lower classes, and, in particular, the independence 
 of the plough, it would not ill become the wisdom of an 
 attentive government to appoint a special Board, in- 
 trusted (under strict account) with the management of 
 considerable sums, to be applied for this essential pur- 
 pose, in the following or afty other plan of like effect : 
 
 To purchase such estates exposed to sale, as might 
 be had at a reasonable value (suppose from twenty-five 
 to thirty years' purchase) and to divide them into small 
 farms of a single plough only, to be given off in perpetual 
 property for a full reserved rent. The loss that would 
 be incurred in this transaction might be greatly 
 diminished by selling off these reserved rents, with all 
 the privileges of a landlord, to persons desirous of the 
 best security without the trouble of managing a land 
 estate. The purchaser to have a right of distraining the. 
 produce of the soil, together with collateral security on 
 the funds of the Board, and the same facility of trans- 
 ferring his property at any time, and suddenly, by an 
 assignation in their books, which the proprietors of stock 
 in the public funds of Britain now have. With these 
 advantages, it may be presumed, that such reserved 
 rents would be purchased eagerly by the timorous and 
 
8o The Right of 
 
 the indolent, and probably sell at an advanced value, so 
 as to reduce the loss on the whole transaction, to two or 
 three years' purchase money of the estate. The money 
 thus refunded to be immediately employed in similar 
 purchases ; in making which, estates of a large extent, 
 inhabited by a numerous and poor peasantry, ought to 
 be preferred to others of equal rent-roll. Estates 
 situated in islands, or along the sea coast, might likewise 
 deserve preference ; because, for the sake of navigation 
 and fisheries, it concerns the interests of the community 
 at large, that the common people in insular or maritime 
 situations should be brought into that state which is 
 most favourable to their increase of population, and 
 their thriving. 
 
 As the operations of such a Board would tend to 
 enhance the value of land when brought to sale, the 
 establishment, it may be thought, would be acceptable 
 enough to the great body of landholders. 
 
 To such a Board might be committed the office of 
 furnishing to the tenantry of estates exposed to sale 
 such assistance as they might stand in need of to enable 
 them to complete their schemes of a joint purchase, 
 founded on their right of redemption. 
 
 To the same Board might likewise be committed the 
 inspection of all lands devised and assigned to hospitals, 
 universities, and any other public or charitable founda- 
 tions, with a view to prevent that private abuse and 
 peculation, which too generally take place in the 
 management of such funds, when they are in a flourish- 
 ing condition, and more than sufificient for carrying into 
 execution the original intention of the founder. In these 
 cases, the Board, having first laid a satisfactory proof of 
 such redundance before the supreme tribunals of justice. 
 
Property in Land. 8i 
 
 should be authorized to interfere, atjd to turn this super- 
 fluity to the greatest advantage of the public, by dividing 
 the lands belonging to such foundations into separate 
 allotments of a single plough each, and giving them 
 away in complete property for a reserved rent. 
 
 The charitable foundations of one age may become 
 superfluous, nay, pernicious, in those that follow, as the 
 numerous hospitals and almsgivings of the Italian cities 
 are justly considered as no small obstruction to the 
 industry of their common people ; and for various 
 reasons, it cannot be unfit that the legislature of every 
 country should exercise a constant and supreme control 
 over all such establishments ; yet directed by a scrupulous 
 observance of the original intention of the founder, 
 excepting where it is no longer fit that these intentions 
 should be fulfilled ; in all which cases, the produce of the 
 funds ought to be religiously applied to those public 
 uses and charitable occasions which, it may be supposed, 
 the munificent spirit of the founders would have disposed 
 them, had they lived in the present times, to patronize 
 and prefer. 
 
 That bill which was brought into the British Parlia- 
 ment some years ago for enabling the governors of 
 hospitals, and the trustees of other charitable founda- 
 tions, to place in the public funds the estates intrusted 
 to their care, seems to have been meant as a very gentle 
 attempt to apply the redundant opulence of such 
 establishments to the support of public credit and the 
 general advantage of the State. It was an attempt 
 entirely consonant to the best principles of national 
 interest and of legislative superintendence, nor could 
 that vehement dislike by which the bill was rendered 
 abortive have arisen solely from poiblic considerations, 
 
 6 
 
82 The Right of 
 
 unless inflamed by the patronage of jobbing and secret 
 peculation. 
 
 64. It is not wholly in vain that premiums have 
 been distributed for the encouragement of various 
 improvements in agriculture and the arts. Great effects 
 cannot be expected to result from them, but a general 
 notification at least is made to the public of those things 
 which speculative men of enlarged views conceive to be 
 most advantageous and practicable. Trials made in 
 different places and under a variety of circumstances 
 ensue: and examples are exhibited, by which the 
 advantages and disadvantages of the proposed improve- 
 ments are subjected to general examination, in almost 
 every corner ; and other methods perhaps are suggested, 
 more profitable on the whole, or better adapted to 
 particular situations. 
 
 Trials and examples, it is presumed, are alone wanting 
 to recommend the general participation of property in 
 land to the favourable opinion and wishes of all ranks 
 of men. In such examples, the landholders might 
 perceive how small a part of their privileges and 
 emoluments need to be given up, for promoting this, 
 the greatest public good of the community, and what 
 new advantages will spring up in compensation for 
 those relinquished. The rulers of nations might per- 
 ceive how much they are like to increase the numbers, 
 and improve the character and virtues of their people ; 
 and the common people themselves can, from such 
 examples alone, be taught to know what improvement 
 their humble condition may receive, and with what 
 ardour they ought to endeavour to attain it. 
 
 With a view to produce such examples in different 
 
Property in Land. 83 
 
 parts of a wide country, the same plan might be adopted, 
 which in matters of far less importance has been pursued 
 with no inconsiderable success. A great premium, 
 either honorary or lucrative, might be held forth to the 
 nobleman or commoner of a certain ample fortune, or 
 possessing land estates of a certain great extent, who 
 should within ten years establish the greatest number, 
 not less than two hundred cultivators, settled in farms, 
 from twenty to forty acres, held in freehold ; or by 
 leases of long duration, three or four different forms of 
 which might be proposed, as equally admissible. Less 
 considerable premiums, yet such as only the treasury or 
 the public honours of the community could furnish, 
 might be offered to persons of different inferior degrees 
 of estate for proportional establishments. Since such 
 rewards and such marks of public approbation have 
 been held forth for the cultivation of the best sorts of 
 grain, and other profitable crops, why should it be 
 accounted preposterous to appoint suitable premiums, 
 if such can be found, for rearing and increasing the best 
 sort of citizens, that virtuous and laborious class of men, 
 of whom the severe Roman has said with delight that 
 they are viri fortissimi — milites strenuissimi — & niininie 
 male cosritantes ? 
 
Section V. 
 
 Of such examples and beginnings of Reformation, as 
 might be expected from the generous efforts of 
 private Persons acting singly. 
 
 65. ' I ""HE private interest of the landholders thoroughly 
 i- understood, and pursued on enlarged plans, 
 might incline them to adopt the same schemes of small 
 farms, and leases of long duration, which appear to be 
 so eminently favourable to the great interests of the 
 community. This expedience is more particularly 
 apparent in those large estates which are not in hazard 
 of being brought to market every other generation, but 
 may be expected to pass, as they have already done, 
 from one age to another in the possession of the same 
 family. On such estates, leases on improvement may be 
 introduced still more beneficial to the interests of the 
 proprietor's family than to those of the cultivator's, yet 
 even to them far more eligible than any lease of a less 
 permarient tenure. But if the present proprietor cannot 
 be induced, for the sake of distant advantages to his 
 family, and the general prosperity of those who are 
 employed in tilling his estate, to divest himself, or his 
 immediate successors, of all power of renewing leases ; 
 still, great advantage might arise from an arrangement 
 which would keep a certain proportion of the farms, as 
 every third or fourth farm up and down the estate, on 
 leases of very considerable duration ; these, when they 
 
The Right of Property in Land. 85 
 
 fell, to be replaced by others, so that the proportion 
 should be still the same. These permanent and valuable 
 leases would tend to bring about the accumulation of 
 stock on the estate, and the establishment of wealthy 
 farmers, by whose younger sons, or other relations, it 
 might be expected, that advanced rents would be given 
 for the adjoining farms, even on leases of much shorter 
 duration. 
 
 The English landholders seem to deviate more from 
 their own and from the public interest by the preference 
 they give to farms of large extent, than by any unwill- 
 ingness to grant leases of considerable duration. The 
 saving of expense in repairs seems in general to be 
 their inducement, and that very essential article ought 
 to be regulated, no doubt, and might perhaps without 
 difficulty be regulated in a better manner. Might not 
 the conditions of the lease be so adjusted as to give the 
 tenant an interest in keeping down the expense of 
 repairs, and seeing them well made, and without delay ? 
 Might not the houses on his farm (and these neither 
 too large nor too many) be delivered to him at his 
 entry by appreciation, to be received in the same manner 
 at the expiration of the lease — he receiving payment for 
 any increase of value within a stipulated extent ? 
 
 &6. The desire of transmitting their estates to a long 
 series of descendants arises very naturally in the minds 
 of men who have enjoyed ample possessions under 
 the protection of a well constituted government ; and 
 may, within certain limitations, deserve to be counte- 
 nanced and promoted by the wisest legislature. It 
 might be entitled, however, to more praise, as proceeding 
 from a liberal spirit, and to more countenance of the 
 
86 The Right of 
 
 laws, as highly favourable to the general welfare, if, 
 instead of securing superfluous opulence to one favoured 
 line of representatives, the plan of such a settlement in 
 tail had for its object to diffuse a moderate competency 
 among a numerous tribe or family of descendants, and 
 to provide that no one of the whole race shall be 
 reduced to penury, but through their own extravagance, 
 or indolent disposition. Both these intentions might be 
 combined in the same scheme, by securing the present 
 rent of the entailed estate to the lineal heir, at all events, 
 and giving at the same time to all other descendants of 
 the entailer, or of his ancestors, a right, when any lease 
 fell vacant (the leases not exceeding three lives), to claim 
 possession of it in full property, at the last rent ; or at 
 the old rent, with the chance of being exposed to future 
 claims of other descendants, regulated on the principles 
 of the progressive Agrarian law : these claims being to 
 take place only after all the farms of the estate had 
 been given off by the first rule of entail, each to a 
 particular descendant of the entailer or of his ancestors. 
 Those persons who having no near relations, or none 
 worthy of their inheritance, are led to bestow their 
 estates on hospitals and other public uses, might obviate 
 the murmurs of their remoter kindred, and the ungene- 
 rous insinuations to which the memory of such public 
 benefactors is sometimes exposed, by making such a 
 provision as this, in favour of persons descended from 
 the same ancestors with themselves. 
 
 Qj. In every opulent society there is gradually pro- 
 duced a considerable fund, which accumulates from time 
 to time in the hands of beneficent and charitable 
 persons, and is ready to be applied, chiefly in the way of 
 
Property in Land. 87 
 
 legacy and bequest, to the more urgent wants and 
 occasions of the community, and to supply what the 
 revenue of the State cannot be made to reach, or what 
 its attention has overlooked. Churches, monasteries, 
 universities, bridges, and hospitals of various kinds have 
 successively become the objects of this well intended 
 munificence in Europe, and corresponding foundations 
 have in like manner engrossed it among the nations of 
 the East. In some countries these objects are so fully 
 provided for that the bountiful stream of donations 
 seems almost to have ceased to flow : but the effect is 
 apparent only, not real ; the public wealth continuing 
 the same, the charitable fund will continue the same 
 also, if new and worthy objects are presented to its 
 bounty. Hereafter, perhaps, in enlightened nations, the 
 independence of the plough may be numbered among 
 these objects, as worthy to partake of such beneficent 
 endowments, after the demands of sickness, of declining 
 age, and deserted infancy have been in some reasonable 
 measure provided for. In such a country, he who would 
 have bequeathed his estate to a hospital, had hospitals 
 been wanted, may think of dividing it, in the first place, 
 into freehold allotments of a single plough each, and 
 bequeath the revenue thence arising, to be applied at 
 certain periods, to be portioned out in freehold in the 
 same manner. 
 
 68. Nor ought it to be supposed that some specimen 
 of this equal property in land, some example of what 
 good effects it might produce in a narrow district, is too 
 great an effort to be expected from the ordinary 
 liberality of private men, possessed of ample fortunes. 
 He who possesses six or eight manors cannot be 
 
88 The Right of 
 
 thought to deprive even his remotest posterity of any 
 great share of their inheritance, should he at the present 
 time divide one at least of these manors into small 
 farms of a single plough, assigning each of them in 
 perpetual property to the cultivator for such rent as he 
 would consent to give for this perpetual right. Or were 
 this one manor rendered subject to the options of a 
 progressive Agrarian law, the right of claiming settle- 
 ments being restricted to persons born on other manors 
 of the estate, such an institution could not fail to operate 
 as a premium in raising the value of the estate. But 
 honour alone, and the conscious satisfaction of having 
 made a public-spirited and laudable attempt, would 
 more than compensate, to men of such ample fortunes, 
 the loss that may be supposed to arise from some 
 diminution of a rent-roll. 
 
 In certain nations (though not in Britain) the Princes 
 of the blood are possessed of revenues equal to those of 
 sovereign states, without any civil or military establish- 
 ment to maintain ; and should they even neglect the 
 splendour of their retinue, and of their domestic court, 
 still the public reverence would wait on the dignity of 
 their exalted birth. Among these men, placed in an 
 intermediate situation between sovereigns and subjects, 
 exempted from the claims that are made on the iirst, 
 and from the family wants of the second, it might be 
 expected that liberal and illustrious schemes, conducive 
 to the good of mankind, might find patrons worthy of 
 them, whom the necessity of a great expense would 
 animate rather than deter. Men of noble minds might 
 rejoice in the occasion of expending their great revenues 
 on some more dignified object than that frivolous luxury 
 in which they are usually wasted ; they might rejoice in 
 
Property in Land. 89 
 
 the occasions of distinguishing themselves from the 
 vulgar herd of subordinate princes, whom the senti- 
 ments of mankind rate only as a sort of furniture, 
 pertaining to the state apartments of a great monarch's 
 court. 
 
Section VI. 
 
 Of such examples and beginnings of Reformation as might 
 be produced by the combined endeavours of private 
 Persons. 
 
 6g. nr^HE concurrence of liberal purposes with the 
 X power of carrying them into execution, is too 
 rarely to be met with in particular men. It is probable, 
 however, that in proportion as this important object 
 shall be attended to, canvassed, and more generally 
 made known, great numbers in various countries will 
 perceive that they are interested in having it elucidated 
 by experimental trial ; and what the wealth of indi- 
 viduals cannot afford to attempt, the joint contribution 
 of considerable numbers (as in many similar cases) if 
 expended on judicious plans, may accomplish with ease* 
 
 ' The outlines of a voluntary subscription scheme for promoting 
 the independence of agriculture, and securing the advantage to the sub- 
 scribers' families, might be delineated in this manner. 
 
 A hundred subscribers, at ;£ioo each, form a capital to be laid out in 
 the purchase of lands ; these lands, as the leases expire, to be divided 
 into allotments of a single plough each. All descendants of subscribers, 
 males or married females, to be entitled, if they require it, to an allot- 
 ment at a rent fixed by a jury, and on condition of residence and actual 
 cultivation. 
 
 The produce of these rents to accumulate, and to be expended from 
 time to time in purchasing lands to be divided in like manner. 
 
 Precedence of claims among descendants of equal propinquity to the 
 subscribers to be determined by lots. 
 
 All allotments after 50 years' possession to be subject to claims of 
 smaller allotments of six acres each, if any candidates disappointed of the 
 large allotments choose to settle on so small a patrimony. A jury must 
 
The Right of Property in Land. 91 
 
 70. Many societies are instituted in various parts of 
 Europe for the encouragement of agriculture ; but to 
 promote it, by the most effectual of all means, the 
 independence of the plough, seems far too arduous an 
 undertaking to be pursued by them even in the way of 
 trial and experiment alone, and far beyond the limits 
 of their finances. Yet the hearts of liberal men are apt 
 to expand in proportion to the greatness of the objects 
 which present themselves ; and the enthusiasm aroused 
 by engaging in schemes of the highest importance, not 
 without difficulty, is likely, above all things, to increase 
 the numbers, the vigour and influence of these very 
 laudable associations. 
 
 in that case determine what rent is to be paid to the fund, and what to 
 the first occupier of the allotments. 
 
 The usual subscription societies are formed to provide for widows or 
 children an annual payment during life, or a sum of money to assist in 
 beginning the world. The object of this one would be to provide for a 
 long and increasing race of descendants an inheritance, if they stood in 
 need of it, and that of the most valuable kind, being a fund on which the 
 most salutary industry may be comfortably exercised. 
 
Section VII. 
 
 Of a progressive Agrarian Law, which wight be made 
 the basis of all partial and occasional Reformation 
 respecting Property in Land. 
 
 71. T F in any nation of Western Europe the sovereign 
 -I- were desirous of introducing a system of pro- 
 perty in land, wholly consonant to natural justice,* and 
 
 * To all unbiassed reasoners it will probably appear that no right 
 whatever can be better founded than that which every man willing to 
 employ himself in agriculture has, to claim a certain portion of the dis- 
 trict in which he happens to be born, he becoming bound to make just 
 compensation to those by whose labour that spot of ground has been 
 fertilized. 
 
 It belongs to the community to establish rules by which this general 
 right may become definite, and to prescribe a method by which the dis- 
 tribution may be made and the compensation ascertained. 
 
 The rules adopted for this purpose may be more or less prudent and 
 equitable, and more or less favourable to the poor or to the rich, without 
 any heavy imputation on the spirit of the laws ; but not to recognise such 
 a right at all, not to have established any rules by which its claims may 
 be ascertained and complied with, ought to be accounted essentially 
 unjust. 
 
 Means may certainly be discovered by which this general right of the 
 community in the property of the soil may be so clearly and practically 
 ascertained that the private landholder shall have no occasion to be a&aid 
 of suffering injury, or material inconvenience, when any share of that 
 public right is claimed. 
 
 The plan of a progressive Agrarian law is an attempt towards the dis- 
 covery of such means ; but the problem is difficult, and the imperfections 
 of a first attempt may deserve to be excused. 
 
 Numberless are the variations which might be devised for accom- 
 modating the principles of a progressive Agrarian to the supposed rights 
 and legal possessions of the body of landholders. 
 
The Right of Property in Land. 93 
 
 favourable to the greatest happiness of the greatest 
 number of citizens ; and if in this undertaking he found 
 himself under no necessity of paying respect to the 
 prejudices and interests of the present landholders, or 
 any other body of men whatever, he would take for his 
 leading object to increase the number of independent 
 cultivators, and to bring into that favourable situation 
 as great a number of citizens as the extent of his terri- 
 tory would admit. In the accomplishment of which 
 purpose, he might see cause to enact a statute, not 
 very different from the plan delineated in the following 
 articles : 
 
 I. That every citizen aged twenty-one years or 
 upwards may, if not already in possession of 
 land, be entitled to claim from the public a 
 certain portion, not exceeding forty * acres, to 
 
 Suppose it enacted in any country that a progressive Agrarian shall 
 take place, in respect of barren ground at all times, but in respect of 
 cultivated lands only when the leases expire, excepting those farms which 
 exceed a hundred acres in extent. Thus the landholders would have an 
 option given them : if they did not choose to submit to the operation of 
 the Agrarian, they might avoid it by adopting leases of long duration and 
 farms of small extent. 
 
 * Or such extent of ground as may be cultivated to advantage by 
 one small plough and the ordinary family of a peasant, which may be 
 supposed a husband, wife, and three children of various ages. This may 
 be called the standard farm, ani ought to vary in its extent according to 
 the state of the country. In countries little cultivated and thinly in- 
 habited, it ought to be large (which does not exclude small options), to 
 encourage the cultivation of new land by those who are possessed of 
 some considerable stock ; where the country is well stocked with inhabi- 
 tants, it ought to be small, that each may have a share. Thus two 
 hundred acres may be no improper standard in North America ; from 
 sixty to twenty in Europe ; in Holland, Egypt, and Bengal from six to 
 two, which last is considerably larger than the original standard of 
 ancient Rome. 
 
94 The Right of 
 
 be assigned him in perpetuity for residence and 
 cultivation, in the manner and under the condi- 
 tions hereafter specified. 
 IL That the claimant shall have right to choose the 
 situation of his allotment on any farm, freehold, 
 or uncultivated common within his own parish, 
 if the same be not excepted by the other provi- 
 sions of this law. If there be no unexcepted 
 land in his own parish, he shall have right to 
 choose in any of the parishes contiguous to his 
 own ; and if in these there be no unexcepted 
 land, he shall have right to choose throughout 
 the whole district or county.* 
 
 III. This allotment shall be set apart, and its land- 
 marks fixed by the magistrate with the aid of an 
 assize, or of arbitrators chosen by the parties. It 
 shall be marked out in the manner most con- 
 venient for both the old and new occupier: it 
 shall approach to a square, or some other com- 
 pact form ; one of its sides shall run along the 
 boundary of the old farm ; and it shall have 
 communication with some road already patent. — 
 None of these circumstances to be departed from 
 without the consent of both parties. 
 
 IV. The ground thus set apart shall be submitted to 
 
 * If in any parish there have been no claims made for seven years, 
 and yet unexcepted land remain, all persons even from other counties may 
 enter their claims there. The tendency of these restrictions is to diffuse 
 the benefits of this law, together with the inconveniences which may 
 attend it, equally over the whole state. Perhaps a better regulation 
 might be that cultivated lands should be open to claims only one year 
 in ten, but uncultivated lands always, and to the claims of all persons 
 within that county, or from any other county in which the uncultivated 
 lands were already appropriated in small allotments. 
 
Property in Land. 95 
 
 the cognizanceof an assize,* or of arbitrators chosen 
 by the parties, who shall determine what reserved 
 perpetual rent the claimant must pay to the land- 
 lord, + and what temporary rent to the former 
 tenant (if any) in compensation of their rights. 
 V. The following farms are to be exempted from all 
 such claims : — (i) Every farm from which, if the 
 allotment claimed is taken away, less than forty 
 
 * Perhaps some additional precautions might be requisite in the 
 manner of constituting the assize. It ought to consist wholly of persons 
 versed in agriculture, and if possible one-half landlords, the other 
 claimants, or rather if that could be had (as after some years it easily 
 might) the whole to consist of persons who have already got the standard 
 farm and no more. Yet each party might be allowed to demand a refer- 
 ence to arbitrators rather than an assize ; these arbitrators to be chosen 
 by the parties, and paid after a certain handsome fixed rate. This would 
 induce some capable persons in every small district to distinguish them- 
 selves for honest and fair dealing in this line of business. 
 
 t The right of the landlord can only extend to the improved value 
 of the soil ; for he may still retain a farm of the standard extent, which 
 is to be supposed in all cases at least equal to his natural share of the 
 soil. It might be difficult, however, for an assize or arbitrators to separate 
 the original &om the improved value of the allotment to be given off, and 
 if they find an equivalent for both, no great injustice will be done the 
 claimant, provided the landlord remains alone liable to the land tax, 
 with all its additions : an equivalent for both they can easily find, as it 
 must be no other than a reasonable rent for the ground, on a short lease 
 of seven or ten years only ; for that which might be accounted a reason- 
 able rent for a longer lease would comprehend an equivalent for some 
 part of the improvable value ; to which, according to the principles 
 assumed, the proprietor can have no right. 
 
 The claimant ought to have his option of paying a reserved rent, or a 
 ready money price. The first will commonly be his choice, but if not, 
 the landlord may not be obliged to receive more than one-half the value 
 in ready money price. The reserved rent ought to be ascertained not in 
 money, but in the staple produce of the country, in justice to the land- 
 lord, who ought also to have a right of distraining in the most effectual 
 manner for his security. The claimant ought further to show that he is 
 able to stock his farm in a proper manner, or that he is possessed of three 
 times the reserved rent in goods or in cash. 
 
q6 The Right of 
 
 acres will remain to the first tenant. (2) The farm 
 or park belonging to the lord of the manor, the 
 same bearing a regulated proportion only to the 
 extent of his estate. (3) Every farm, of whatever 
 extent, that has not been ten years occupied by 
 the present tenant. (4) Every farm whose arable 
 ground has been diminished one-half by claims 
 founded on this law shall be exempted for 
 twenty years to come, if the tenant so desire. 
 (5) All farms of barren ground taken for the sake 
 improvement, under such forms and limitations 
 as may prevent the collusive evasion of this law. 
 VI. In case the claimant is not contented with the 
 rent affixed to his allotment, he shall not be 
 obliged to hold it, but to pay the occupier twice 
 the amount of any expenses incurred by him. 
 If the former occupier is not contented, a new * 
 valuation may be obtained by him, he de- 
 fraying all the expenses that may attend it. 
 Every such claimant may make four options, 
 and no more. If he has made two within his 
 own parish without holding, he cannot make a 
 third there, but may make his remaining two in 
 the contiguous parishes, or in the district at 
 large, as he shall choose, t 
 
 * Might not the former occupant or landlord, if he has any personal 
 objection to the claimant as a neighbour, be entitled to substitute another 
 in his room on the same terms ? In which case this attempt so dis- 
 appointed ought not to be reckoned as one of the claimant's options. 
 
 + The number of options is limited chiefly in order to prevent 
 vexation of the landholders in the beginning, when the number of 
 claimants must be very great. But perhaps there is greater danger of 
 the landlords contriving in every stage to defeat the just pretensions of 
 regular claimants. 
 
Property in Land. 97 
 
 VI I. The person thus acquiring property shall con- 
 tinue to reside upon his farm. He shall have 
 right to transmit it to his heirs or assignees in 
 full property, or under a reserved rent, but shall 
 not have nor transmit the right of alienating it 
 with reversion, i.e., of letting it, or any part of 
 it, in lease. If he sells it to another, who 
 shall not reside upon, but annex it to some 
 other farm, one-tenth part of the price, or 
 of the reserved rent, shall belong to the 
 public* 
 
 VIII. The lands acquired in this manner shall not be 
 transmitted by will, but according to the esta- 
 blished rules of succession to landed property, 
 the original lord of the manor being ultimus 
 hczres. The father, however, may choose to 
 which of his sons the farm shall devolve. 
 IX. No allotment shall be united to another by 
 succession.-f- The person who has right to 
 two in this way shall make choice of one of 
 them, and that which he relinquishes shall pass 
 to the next heir. By marriage they may be 
 united during the lives of the parties, and of the 
 longest liver, but to be separately inherited by 
 two of their heirs. 
 X. It shall not be lawful to break down any such 
 
 • The farm thus annexed shall be exempted from any new claim 
 for forty years. But no person shall accumulate more than four such 
 farms, nor shall' he who has alienated two farms in this way have right 
 to make any other option at all. 
 
 f This does not obstruct the increase of estates, by the accumulation 
 of reserved rents, to any extent. 
 
98 The Right of 
 
 allotment in order to divide it among children * 
 until in any county the uncultivated lands 
 are wholly exhausted ; at which time, a new 
 standard of farms shall take place, of six or eight 
 acres, suited to the spade culture ; and allot- 
 ments within that county may then be broken 
 down by will, purchase, or otherwise to that 
 standard. 
 XI. The property acquired in these allotments shall 
 not carry along with it any right of common of 
 any sort in the commons, moors, woodlands, 
 private roads, or other appendages of the manor, 
 excepting only in the nearest well and watering 
 pond, and in the bog or common for turf, if that 
 is the fuel of the country : this last right to be 
 regulated by the usages of the manor, as if the 
 allotment had been given off in lease only. 
 Neither shall any use, prescription, or connivance, 
 ever in course of time, procure the holder of such 
 allotment any right of common that is not 
 founded on, and ascertained by, express com- 
 pact.f 
 
 * Some doubt may be entertained of this article, as the allotments 
 are not limited by any minimum below which they must not fall. 
 
 H* The acquisition of such rights would render the future assignation 
 of settlements more difficult and complicated ; besides, it ought to be a 
 leading principle in every plan of reformation respecting property in land, 
 that the present possessions of landholders having been acquired hon& 
 fide, under the protection of established laws, ought not to be disturbed 
 or broke in upon, except just so far as natural justice and the greatest 
 good of the whole absolutely require, and no farther : from whence it will 
 follow that the persons, who are by this statute restored to their natural 
 claims, shall not be allowed to claim or possess, even for a time, any more 
 than the precise extent of such natural claims ; while, on the other hand, 
 those who are previously possessed of more than their just and natural 
 
Property in Land. 99 
 
 XII. Those who are in possession of farms at the time 
 of enacting this law shall not be entitled to get 
 any part of their farms converted into freehold 
 by its operation, until by the option of other 
 claimants these farms be reduced to an extent 
 of less than sixty acres.* 
 
 XIII. All who acquire property by the operation of this 
 law shall be obliged to perform double service in 
 the militia of their country. 
 
 XIV. In every competition that may arise, orphansj 
 and those that have served in the army or navy, 
 shall be preferred to all others, and to one an- 
 other according to the number of years they have 
 served, or the early age at which they have been 
 left orphans. 
 
 XV. Every person who has acquired an allotment of 
 land in this manner shall pay to the lord of the 
 manor certain aids and services of a feudal 
 
 right may be permitted to Iiold it until such time as a special claim, 
 founded in natural justice and ascertained by this statute, be set up 
 against their possession. The actual possessions of landholders are in 
 part congruous to natural equity, and in part not : even in those parts of 
 their extent which are not congruous to natural equity, no change is to be 
 made until a particular claim founded in that natural equity requires such 
 change to be made. On the other hand, in those parts of their posses- 
 sions which are congruous to natural equity, viz., the right to improved 
 value, such changes as the general good may require are to be made, in 
 the manner of holding or occupying their possessions; a just equivalent 
 being, however, given them for their rights and possessions themselves. 
 
 * No injustice is done to the farmers by this restraint. They are 
 already in possession of land on terms which they thought not ineligible : 
 it will prevent their entering into cabals to retard the progress of the law, 
 and to obstruct the breaking down of their farm by such claims ; they 
 will be rather concerned to promote a progress which enables them the 
 sooner to convert into property the most convenient part of their farm — 
 that, to wit, which lies nearest to their residence. 
 
icx) The Right of 
 
 nature, so regulated as to produce that degree 
 of connection and dependence which may be 
 expedient for preserving order and subordination 
 in the country without danger of giving rise to 
 oppression and abuse.* 
 
 72. Such might be the general outlines of a statute 
 which from the nature of its operation would not im- 
 properly be called a progressive Agrarian law. Other 
 more simple plans might no doubt be adopted by a 
 sovereign having the power and the inclination above 
 supposed. Many such might be proposed, by any of 
 which the present state of landed property in Europe 
 might be very much improved, and rendered more 
 consistent with natural justice and the best interests of 
 the greater number ; yet far less improved than might 
 be expected from the establishment of a progressive 
 Agrarian law, the plan of which seems to comprehend 
 the following advantages over every other Agrarian 
 law that has been attempted or proposed. t 
 
 * It is not impossible to devise such regulations, and though not 
 absolutely necessary, they may prove beneficial in some degree. Suppose, 
 for example, that on the death of any lord the vassals paid one year's 
 rent to his successor ; that on the death of a vassal, one year's rent was 
 remitted by the lord ; that during the minority of their lord, the vassals 
 paid one-tenth more rent, and during the minority of a vassal one-third 
 was remitted ; that the bachelor vassals paid one-tenth additional rent, 
 the bachelor lord received one-tenth less ; that the vassal having eight 
 children was exempted from the one-tenth of his rent, having twelve firom 
 one-fourth. 
 
 + Almost all of Agrarian laws have proceeded on the plan of restricting' 
 that extent of landed property which an individual may acquire, and not 
 the nature and the force of that right with which the landholder is invested. 
 Thus endeavouring to establish an equality of fortune, they have been 
 found impracticable, and, could they have been carried into execution, 
 they must have proved detrimental to the progress of industry and of 
 commerce. 
 
Property in Land. loi 
 
 (i.) It tends to unite the real benefits of that levelling 
 scheme which was the avowed object of the 
 Greek and Roman Agrarian laws, and which the 
 peasants of Europe, in a frenzy excited by 
 oppression, have sometimes seemed to aim at ; 
 with the known advantages of unequal fortunes, 
 and the free accumulation of real property, ex- 
 cluding at the same time the greater evils that 
 attend on each. 
 
 (2.) That its operation must proceed gradually and 
 gently, under the regulation of two principles, 
 the one acting as an accelerating force, viz., the 
 demand of the lower ranks for independent 
 settlements, the other acting as a retarding or 
 restraining force, viz., the inconvenience which 
 the present occupiers, at any given period of 
 time, must undergo. The opposite interests of 
 these two classes of men, this law tends to com- 
 promise on a plan the least unjust to the former, 
 and the least incommodious to the latter, accord- 
 ing to the circumstances of the country at every 
 successive point of time, with all the variations of 
 which circumstances the operation of this law 
 will, of course, vary. 
 
 (3.) That it provides for the easy gratification of that 
 propensity so natural to mankind, to fix their 
 settlements as near as may be to the places of 
 their birth, and to extend themselves de vicino 
 de vicinum, chiefly like the trees of the forest. 
 
 (4.) That it reduces no citizen to the alternative of 
 renouncing his inclination or his right. If he 
 does not incline to become a cultivator, or a 
 husbandman, he is not therefore deprived of all ^ 
 
102 The Right of 
 
 opportunity of becoming so, when change of 
 circumstances, or of his choice, shall so dispose 
 him ; when that time comes, he has free ad- 
 mission to an equal share of the soil of his 
 country. Provision, however, is made, that who- 
 ever in the meantime has occupied that share 
 shall not be dispossessed of it, with any circum- 
 stances of inconvenience, nor without a just 
 compensation for labour bestowed and improve- 
 ments made. In order to ascertain the amount 
 of this compensation, recourse is had to the best 
 expedient which the state of human affairs will 
 permit, an expedient which in similar cases has 
 been employed and found adequate. 
 
 (5.) That it may be so adjusted as to confer suitable 
 and effectual encouragement on the marriages 
 and increasing progeny of the lower classes of 
 men ; not merely honours, exemptions, and 
 prizes, which can fall only to the share of a few, 
 but real establishments proportioned to their in- 
 creasing wants, and consisting of the subject of 
 industry and the means of subsistence. 
 
 (6.) That by very easy variations it may be accom- 
 modated in a great measure to the municipal laws 
 of any country, and the interests of any prevailing 
 order of men, so as that very considerable and im- 
 portant branches of it, if not the whole, may be 
 engrafted on the established system, whatever 
 that may be, without any apparent violence or 
 much danger of exciting discontent. 
 
 73. There are three articles with regard to which 
 / these variations for adapting the progressive Agrarian to 
 
Property in Land. 103 
 
 established systems and prevailing interests may require 
 to be made : — 
 
 The lands which are made liable to claims of allot- 
 ment. 
 
 The persons to whom the right of making such 
 claims is given. 
 
 The nature of the right acquired in the allotments 
 thus assigned. 
 
 (i.) Natural justice and the greatest good of the whole 
 community would require that all lands whatever should 
 be subject to these claims until the whole country were 
 divided into farms not exceeding the established 
 standard. But this not being practicable, except in a 
 few rare cases, and on such occasions as a new settle- 
 ment or an absolute conquest, it might be expedient in 
 most countries to restrain these claims to uncultivated 
 lands alone, or to the forests and demesnes of the crown, 
 either of which would prove of great public utility. 
 This Agrarian law might be established with regard to 
 commons in general, restricting the right of making such 
 claims on each separate common to the children of those 
 who have a right of common in the same — a regulation 
 perhaps not impracticable in England. 
 
 In almost every country there are some classes of 
 men who, though they are allowed to possess property 
 in land, are yet not reckoned to stand on the same 
 footing with the bulk of the community, nor admitted to 
 any share of government or legislative power. Such is 
 the situation of Protestants in Roman Catholic, and of 
 Roman Catholics in Protestant, countries. Might not 
 such a statute be enacted in its full extent with regard 
 to the lands of these proprietors? Might it not be 
 
I04 The Right of 
 
 enacted in its full extent with respect to lands whose 
 proprietors are subjects of a foreign state? of which 
 there are frequent instances on the Continent, and in 
 most cases, these lands are subjected to double taxes, or 
 other burdens, far less equitable than any detriment 
 that might be incurred by the proprietor from the 
 operation of this law. 
 
 The estates of absentees of a certain description, and 
 still more the lands which at any time devolve by for- 
 feiture to the public, might be made liable to such an 
 Agrarian ; the right of making claims on these estates 
 being confined to natives of the same county or district. 
 
 If great proprietors are allowed to establish perpetual 
 entails, in opposition to the public interest, it ought only 
 to be on condition of rendering their estates subject to 
 such an Agrarian in its whole extent, by which the 
 public detriment arising from the entail would be fully 
 compensated, without defeating the private intention 
 (which is in itself laudable enough) of rendering a great 
 family permanent. 
 
 Even Jews might be permitted, without alarming 
 any prejudice whatever, to purchase lands in any 
 country, subject to the regulations of this Agrarian law 
 in favour of Christian cultivators, and without that sort 
 of dependence which is pointed out in the last article 
 of the plan. 
 
 (2.) Natural justice and the greatest good of the com- 
 munity would require that every man, arrived at the 
 years of maturity, should have such a right. It might, 
 however, without detriment, perhaps with advantage, be 
 limited to those who are married, and might perhaps 
 require at its first commencement to be limited to 
 
Property in Land. 10$ 
 
 thirty-six or thirty-two years of age, in order to prevent 
 too sudden a diminution of the number of day labourers 
 and hired servants ; this standard age, however, sinking 
 gradually, one year at a time, once in the two years, 
 tintil reduced to twenty-one. 
 
 However impracticable or inexpedient it may be in 
 most countries to extend this privilege to all persons 
 whatever of the legal age, there are in every country 
 certain useful and privileged classes to whom it might 
 be willingly enough communicated by the legislature, as 
 (i) those who have served a certain time in the army. 
 This regulation might be easily admitted in Prussia, 
 Austria, all over Germany, and indeed Europe in 
 general ; (2) those who have served a certain number 
 of years in the fleets, or on board the trading vessels of 
 their country. The prevailing eagerness for acquiring 
 commerce and maritime power might well recommend 
 such encouragement to this class of men everywhere. 
 In most countries they make but a small proportion of 
 the community, and where that proportion is large, there 
 they are most highly valued and cherished by the State ; 
 (3) the sons and sons-in-law of clergymen in Protestant 
 countries might be thought entitled to this privilege, if 
 at any time reduced to the necessity of claiming it ; (4) 
 the peasant who has eight children alive, Or six before 
 he is thirty years of age, might be entitled to it in all 
 countries ; (5) and so might those who have been left 
 orphans in their nonage, the daughters, when married, 
 conveying this privilege to their husbands. 
 
 (3.) As to the nature of the right acquired in the 
 allotments of land — according to natural justice, it ought 
 in all cases to be a perpetual tenure ; but if this may not 
 
io6 The Right of 
 
 be obtained in all, it ought at least hardly ever to be 
 departed from when uncultivated lands are allotted to 
 the claimant. If the lands have been already cultivated, 
 a long lease may suffice ; and if they are fertile, that 
 lease may be somewhat shorter, but ought in no case to 
 fall below thirty-one years, with a life. On the expira- 
 tion of every such lease, the tenant ought to have an 
 option of renewing it again on paying an additional 
 proportion of rent, as one-sixth, or such new rent as an 
 assize may affix ; but if that affixed rent shall not exceed 
 the old one in a certain proportion, as one-tenth, the 
 tenant ought in that case to forfeit his right of renewing 
 the lease. 
 
 By such variations may the principles of a progressive 
 Agrarian law be accommodated to the established insti- 
 tutions of various countries ; and justly may it be 
 affirmed that there is no country under the sun which 
 might not derive great increase of prosperity from 
 adopting one or other modification of such a law. 
 Certain forms of this law might indeed be proposed, so 
 > simple in themselves, so little inconvenient to the present 
 landholders, and yet so beneficial to the lower classes of 
 men, that no good reason could be assigned why they 
 ought not to be universally established in all parts of the 
 world. Suppose, for example, that a petition were 
 offered by the parties concerned, to any European legis- 
 lature, requesting, with due respect, the establishment of 
 the following regulation : — That soldiers, sailors, orphans, 
 should be entitled to make claims of uncultivated lands 
 within their parishes and counties, on the boundaries of 
 estates only, without acquiring any right of common, 
 and to be possessed for forty years and a life rent, under 
 such annual payment as an assize or arbitrators should 
 
Property in Land. 107 
 
 determine to be the present annual value of the soil. 
 What good reason could be offered for refusing so just 
 a requisition ? And were it flatly refused, what reason 
 would there be to hesitate in pronouncing that legis- 
 lature, whether monarch or senate, tyrannically oppressive, 
 and unfaithful to the first objects of a sovereign's trust ? 
 But as in all parts of Europe the good of the people 
 and the protection of the indigent and deserving, are 
 held forth by governments as the pretexts of that 
 authority which they assume, it could not well happen 
 that so modest, so reasonable a request would be re- 
 jected in any country whatever ; nor could it fail that 
 the introduction of this very circumscribed form of a 
 progressive Agrarian law, by showing an example of its 
 advantages, and making known also the very inconsider- 
 able amount of the inconveniences inseparable from it 
 (which, while unknown, may be dreaded too much), 
 would make way for its reception on a more extensive 
 plan, as communicating the right of making options to 
 various other classes of men, and in the cultivated as 
 well as the barren lands of the State. 
 
 74. It would furnish the matter of a very interesting 
 inquiry to examine what particular modifications of 
 such an Agrarian law might be accounted more especi- 
 ally suitable to, and most likely to find ready admittance 
 in, various countries with whose municipal laws we are 
 acquainted, and what peculiar branches of such law 
 might be adapted to various conjunctures which have 
 occurred, or may perhaps occur, in different states. 
 North America has lately enjoyed an opportunity of 
 new modelling the establishment of landed property, 
 even to theoretical perfection. Among the fundamental 
 
I08 The Right of 
 
 laws of their new constitutions a well-regulated Agrarian 
 ought to have found a place, and might have remained 
 unrescinded by the articles of any auspicious coalition 
 with the parent state, none of whose pretensions could 
 be supposed to be infringed by the internal arrange- 
 ments of such a statute.* Nor is that opportunity, 
 though not observed in the great crisis of their fortune, 
 wholly lost to countries where almost every citizen is 
 annually admitted to vote for his representative in a 
 legislative assembly, every member of which represents 
 nearly an equal number of the people at large. 
 
 The whole landed property of Bengal and the other 
 provinces which our East India Company has acquired 
 is now absolutely at the disposal of that company and 
 of the British Government. No nobler opportunity, no 
 equal fund for exhibiting to mankind the illustrious 
 pattern of a just and equal establishment of landed pro- 
 
 * In manufactures and commerce nations may be led to think that 
 their interest requires them to rival and obstruct one another ; with re- 
 spect to the progress of agriculture, it is hardly possible that they can 
 fall into such a mistake. 
 
 It is manifestly the interest of every nation, vifhose lands are not 
 cultivated to the highest degree, or, being encumbered by ancient rights, 
 cannot be brought into that state which is most favourable to the 
 highest cultivation, to wish for and to promote the establishment of 
 independent agriculture among its neighbours; for the cultivation of 
 that country having become stationary, it must owe any increase of pro- 
 sperity and population to manufactures and foreign commerce ; and the 
 more that other nations are occupied in cultivating their soil, the greater 
 quantities of manufactured commodities will they stand in need of, and 
 the less will they be able to furnish to themselves ; the more, therefore, 
 will they contribute to the prosperity of manufacturing nations near 
 them 
 
 To Britain, considered as a *manufacturing and commercial nation, 
 it might prove highly advantageous that regulations of the nature of a 
 progressive Agrarian were established throughout the continent of North 
 America. 
 
Property in Land. 109 
 
 perty, was ever by any conjuncture thrown into the hands 
 of a set of men very capable of perceiving wherein the 
 best use of such an occasion would consist. By making 
 a proper use of it, and by the firm establishment of a 
 beneficial landed property, some reparation might yet 
 be made to that unhappy country for so many wrongs, 
 and some testimony might be borne, amid so many 
 ambiguous appearances, to the ancient honour and 
 equitable disposition of the British nation ; and what 
 may be more directly regarded an additional security 
 might thereby be provided for the permanency of our 
 acquisitions in that part of thfe world. To establish a 
 just system of landed property, and to secure it by 
 introducing the trial by jury, are perhaps the only 
 innovations which Britain ought to make in the ancient 
 institutions of Hindostan.* 
 
 * Britain has derived considerable advantage from Bengal, Bahar, and 
 Orissa, as states, and proposes to continue to reap the same, if not greater. 
 
 The advantages and profits arising from trade are earned by the exer- 
 tions which that trade requires ; they are due to the persons by vs'hom it 
 is carried on, and into whose pockets they immediately enter ; and they 
 may be supposed in some measure reciprocal to both countries. But 
 what right can Britain, as a state, have to increase her own revenue by 
 large sums deducted from a revenue raised on the subjects of Bengal ? 
 How does it become her justice or her magnanimity, to receive such a 
 tribute, unless repaid by the communication of well-ordered laws, and a 
 reformed police ? 
 
 To transfer the whole code of English laws to Bengal is an attempt 
 not much less absurd than to transfer the laws of Bengal to England, 
 though probably some particular institutions of each country might be 
 beneficially transferred to, or copied by, the other. 
 
 But the administration of the English laws, and that happy plan 
 according to which justice is dispensed in this country, by the interven- 
 tion of a jury, in all cases of any importance, and the privilege of a 
 speedy trial, if the prisoner desires it, may no doubt be adapted to any 
 system of laws that has been established in any country ; it would render 
 the best still more beneficial, and the worst not intolerable to the people 
 living under them. 
 
no The Right of 
 
 The situation of Ireland during the peaceable years 
 of the present reign might perhaps have encouraged the 
 legislature of that country to establish some consider- 
 able branches of an Agrarian law (had it been suggested) 
 in the estates of the Catholics ; these regulations might 
 have been so devised, and so promulgated, as to operate 
 more effectually in attaching the common people of that 
 persuasion, than in disgusting the great proprietors.* 
 
 * The distresses of Ireland, whatever they may have been, must be 
 allowed by impartial observers to have arisen far more from the abuses 
 of landed property than from the restrictions of commerce, and to have 
 been aggravated by the want of an establishment for the maintenance of 
 the poor, similar to that which does so much honour to England, and in 
 consequence of which the domestic peace of that country is so easily 
 preserved, without curbing the bold and manly spirit of the common 
 people. 
 
 This establishment the legislature of Ireland will probably soon have 
 occasion to take under consideration ; and some benevolent men seem 
 already to have turned their thoughts on that object. 
 
 It will not become them to be deterred by the errors and embarrass- 
 ments into which England has fallen from attempting a scheme which 
 justice, humanity, and the tranquillity of their country seem equally to 
 require. It ought rather to animate their generous endeavours that 
 Ireland may hope to be the first nation that shall exhibit this most 
 humane and liberal of all municipal institutions in a state of improve- 
 ment, which may render it equally beneficial to the rich and to the 
 poor. 
 
 It must be much more difficult for England to reform the abuses of 
 her ancient establishment than it ought to be for Ireland, profiting by 
 the example of her errors to establish at once a new system of more 
 uniformly beneficial effects. 
 
 The vexation of settlement disputes might be avoided by throwing the 
 supernumerary poor of a parish on some county fund, and the super- 
 numerary poor of a county on the general funds of the nation. 
 
 The encouragement of idleness might be prevented by giving the 
 clergyman of each parish a negative on the disposal of the poor's money ; 
 by the interposition of which he might prevent its being given to the 
 undeserving, or too liberally to any. Nor ought it to be suspected that 
 the ministers of religion would abuse this sort of power. 
 
 After all, to lay open the uncultivated lands of the State to claims 
 
Property in Land. Ill 
 
 It seems not unlikely that the proprietors of exten- 
 sive grazings in the south of Ireland might be more 
 easily reconciled to the establishment of such an 
 Agrarian than the holders of arable estates to the same 
 value may be hoped to be ; as these proprietors of 
 grazings have so few people on their wide domains, 
 they would not be so sensible as other landholders to 
 the loss of influence and that degree of dominion over 
 men, which is no doubt one of the principal charms of 
 landed property. Their rents might probably be in- 
 creased by the innovation, for surely the free produce of 
 the ground might be greater under alternate tillage and 
 grazing than when kept perpetually in grass. Sup- 
 posing, however, that their rents were only kept up 
 (which they ought to be at least), they could have little 
 aversion to a few independent settlements on the 
 frontiers of their extensive estates ; or if they had such 
 
 made by the industrious poor for the sake of cultivation, will be found the 
 most solid foundation of any new establishment for the maintenance of 
 the poor, and the most effectual expedient for rectifying the abuses of an 
 old system, or moderating the demands for its support. 
 
 The practice of letting estates to intermediate tenants or middlemen 
 is one of those grievances under which the industry of the Irish poor has 
 laboured. That practice will gradually be laid aside ; but the change, 
 it may be apprehended, will not prove equally beneficial to the cultivators 
 and tq the landlords, as in all reason it ought to be. 
 
 Such is the influence of habitual modes of thinking that those who 
 exclaim most against the exorbitant profit of the middleman seem not to 
 perceive that it is unjust, because it has been squeezed fi'om the humble 
 industry of the cultivator without any equivalent given for it ; but think 
 that it is so, because it is kept firora being paid into the chests of rich and 
 indolent landlords, whose title is not better founded than that of the 
 other. 
 
 Suppose that an estate farmed by a middleman who draws from it a 
 profit equal to the rent he pays had been kept in the landholder's own 
 management, and the rent raised to the same degree as by the middleman, 
 wherein would there have been any difference in respect of the tenants 
 
112 The Right of 
 
 aversion, they could not apprehend that in parts of the 
 kingdom so thinly peopled the increase of these settle- 
 ments would advance very fast. 
 
 In the present doubtful state of that country,* it is 
 supposed that the volunteer corps, who have taken 
 up arms for obtaining a free trade, are for the most part 
 composed of persons who might derive advantage from 
 equitable regulations of property in land. Should these 
 men come to apprehend their own interest in that point, 
 and should they think of insisting on the establishment 
 of any such regulations in favour of themselves and their 
 posterity, or for the community in general, would not 
 their present ascendant enable them to accomplish this 
 desire, if not carried to any intemperate extreme ? 
 
 and cultivators ? Would they have suffered less injustice if deprived of 
 this great share of the produce and just reward of their industry by the 
 landlord, than if deprived of it by the middleman ? What right can the 
 landlord have acquired by purchase, which he cannot transfer to the 
 middleman during his lease ? 
 
 The middleman is described to be one whose business and whose 
 industry consist in hiring great tracts of land as cheap as he can, and 
 reletting them to others as dear as he can. iVIay not the landholder and 
 his ancestors be described as a race of men whose business and whose 
 industry have for successive generations consisted in buying up large 
 tracts of land as cheap as they can, and letting them to others as dear 
 as they can ? 
 
 It must be difficult to say what right the one set of men, more than the 
 other, can have to appropriate any share of the produce of additional 
 industry employed by the cultivator in improving the soil : the injustice 
 and absurdity of the landlord's claim to improvable value may appear 
 in the strongest light when considered in this delegated form. 
 
 Were the Sovereign of Ireland an absolute monarch, and did he inter- 
 pose when the middleman's lease becomes vacant, to prevent the land- 
 lord from exacting more rent than he formerly received, would not that 
 award be made in conformity to natural justice, and the best principles 
 of that public economy, according to which the rewards of industry ought 
 to be distributed ? 
 
 * September, 1780. 
 
Property in Land. 113 
 
 Would not this be a much more important object, and 
 more worthy of their generous enthusiasm, than that 
 almost nominal independence of Great Britain, which 
 they appear at present so eager to obtain ? Is it not at 
 the same time the interest of Great Britain that their 
 ardour should take this direction, — for avoiding the 
 threatened contest, for increasing the common strength 
 in the most effectual manner, for diverting the industry 
 of Ireland from an immediate rivalship in manufactures, 
 which, notwithstanding all suppositions to the contrary, 
 is very justly to be dreaded by Great Britain. Had the 
 minds of men been prepared in any degree for thinking 
 with freedom on the subject of landed property, and 
 could the times have admitted of any hazardous delay, 
 it might have been reckoned very liberal policy in the 
 British Minister to have undertaken the patronage of 
 the Irish common people against their own parliament 
 and landholders, and then at least, when he promoted 
 the bills relative to freedom of trade, to have annexed 
 to them conditions of regulation for landed property, 
 by which the freedom of agriculture might have been 
 established at the same time. 
 
 It is only in purely democratical governments, of 
 which there are very few, or in unlimited monarchies 
 during the reign of a sovereign endowed with superior 
 wisdom and capacity, that any sudden or effectual re- 
 formation of the abuses of landed property can be 
 expected.* Of all the absolute princes who have reigned 
 
 * The more unlimited that power is with which any monarch is in- 
 vested, the more it seems incumbent on him to attend with peculiar care 
 to the protection of the common people. Other ranks have their privi- 
 leges, their wealth, and acquisitions of various kinds, to protect and sup- 
 port them ; but the common people have none of these, and not having 
 
1 14 The Right of 
 
 in Europe for many ages, none has appeared so well 
 qualified as the present King of Prussia for conceiving 
 and carrying into execution, in the best and most 
 genuine form, any great and singular project of this 
 nature. Had the idea of reforming the constitution of 
 landed property presented itself to his mind, in the 
 
 representatives in any legislative council, as under limited monarchs, the 
 sovereign himself is in fact their representative, and cannot but perceive 
 that he ought to be in a more particular manner the guardian of this 
 helpless class of men. 
 
 Perhaps even the oppression of the taille, if it must not be removed, 
 might in some degree be alleviated, by communicating to the cultivators 
 a more permanent right in the soil which they cultivate. 
 
 The condition of Metayers, vifho pay a certain proportion, generally 
 one-half of the produce of their farm, might receive a very great improve- 
 ment, attended with great increase of profit to the landlords themselves, 
 if that payment was to be regulated by valuations of the produce made 
 at considerable intervals. 
 
 It is not probable that the narrow views of the landholders will per- 
 mit them to embrace such a general plan. Could the Sovereign authority 
 be employed to compel them, it would be a very glorious and beneficial 
 exertion of absolute power. 
 
 It may be received as a general maxim of very important application, 
 that if any rent, tax, taille, or tithe is to be levied firom the produce of 
 cultivation, and to bear proportion to the increase of that produce,, the 
 interest of the cultivators, and of the persons having right to the tax, will 
 be most effectually combined, not by an annual variation of its amount, 
 nor by a rate fixed for ever, but by a periodical valuation, returning after 
 fixed and considerable intervals. 
 
 Unlimited monarchs themselves, in resuming and regulating the im- 
 provident grants which their ancestors have made of Crown lands, forests, 
 and domains, find it requisite to use much tenderness, and to take many 
 precautions for avoiding odium, when these resumptions are to be made, 
 for the advantage of the treasury alone (see Compte rendu au Roi, par 
 M. Necker). But if the leading object of such resumptions was under- 
 stood to be a desire of accommodating the industrious poor of the 
 neighbouring districts with small independent settlements in full 
 property, such a benevolent measure, while it might be made to pro- 
 mote the increase of the revenue very much, could not fail to meet with 
 the national applause. - • , 
 
Property in Land. 115 
 
 earlier part of his reign, or had it been suggested by any 
 pf the philosophers whom lie called around his throne, 
 that penetration with which he discerns, and that royal 
 ■patriotism with which he steadily pursues the real 
 advantage and strength of his state, together with the 
 native generosity of his sentiments, must without doubt 
 have attached him very strongly to a scheme so magnifi- 
 cent and so beneficial. And however difficult the 
 execution might have proved to other princes, it is plain 
 that no material obstacle would have presented itself to 
 that high authority wherewith this monarch is accustomed 
 to regulate and to change the most respected establish- 
 ments of his kingdom. It may be deemed no slight 
 tonfirmation of the preceding speculations that this 
 sagacious prince, although it does not appear that he 
 has ever entered into any theoretical investigation concern- 
 ing the nature and just extent of the right of landed 
 property, has in fact practically adopted some of those 
 maxims which such investigations tend to establish. No 
 object is said to engage his attention more than the 
 protection of peasants from the power of their lords. 
 Amid the rigour of a military discipline by which 
 his armies are rendered superior to any that the 
 world has seen elsewhere, every native Prussian soldier 
 is accustomed to the domestic engagements of a citizen 
 and the industrious economy of a farmer or artizan ; and 
 during peace, one-half or two-thirds of them are dis- 
 missed to the cultivation of the fields, or other in- 
 dustrious occupations, for nine or ten months in the 
 year. 
 
 Posterity will probably applaud this happy com- 
 bination, and the very simple plan by which it 
 is accomplished, above all those manoeuvres of the 
 
ii6 The Right of 
 
 parade and of the field which his contemporaries 
 are so proud to imitate. As for the landholders, 
 so little is he influenced by partiality to them, or 
 any apprehensions of their discontents, that he actu- 
 ally levies a tax of thirty-three per cent, (and in 
 the case of noble tenures more) on the real, not the 
 supposed, rents of their estates. Is not this treating 
 them (in conformity to that idea of their just rights 
 formerly suggested) as merely trustees or bankers for 
 the public, to the full amount of the original value of 
 the soil ? 
 
 75. Still, it must be acknowledged that after setting 
 aside all objections arising from the interest of land- 
 holders, and the prejudices of established opinion, there 
 are not wanting others of a general nature which may 
 be opposed, and not without some appearance of founda- 
 tion, to the establishment of a progressive Agrarian 
 law. That uncertain and fluctuating state into which 
 all possession of land beyond the standard farm will 
 be thrown, may be apprehended to prove extremely un- 
 favourable to any spirited and vigorous cultivation, 
 which is chiefly to be looked for in extensive farms. 
 In the plan of a progressive Agrarian, more than one 
 clause is calculated to moderate this fluctuation ; greater 
 force may be given to these, and new clauses of corre- 
 sponding effect may be added. It might be provided, 
 for example, that none but barren and uncultivated 
 lands should be open to claimants at all times ; culti- 
 vated lands only one year in seven, or any longer 
 period that may be thought requisite for the security 
 of cultivation ; neither indeed ought uncertainty of 
 
Property in Land. 117 
 
 possession to damp very much the spirit of improve- 
 ment, while the improver is still secure of an ade- 
 quate reward for the pains he may have taken ; and 
 that reward is to be assigned him by the verdict of 
 an assize ; at the worst, in proportion as the spirit 
 of improvement may be damped in extensive farms, 
 it will be encouraged and excited in the smaller, 
 where possession and full property is rendered se- 
 cure ; and in these, improvements being carried on 
 under the immediate continual inspection, and almost 
 by the hands of the improver himself, they will be 
 accomplished with more economy, that is, with more 
 advantage to the public and to individuals than 
 commonly happens in extensive undertakings of this 
 sort. 
 
 The discouragement of established manufactures and 
 the increase of litigious contention are in like manner 
 objections which must be admitted to a certain extent, 
 yet not to that degree as to be accounted national 
 calamities, or to equiponderate the obvious and great 
 advantages likely to arise from a due regulation of 
 landed property. 
 
 It cannot be supposed that any great number of 
 men, educated to manufactures and accustomed to the 
 practice of mechanic arts, will be withdrawn from their 
 respective trades, even by the free opportunities of 
 engaging in independent agriculture ; but a competition 
 will take place with respect to the rising progeny of the 
 present race, and if the greater number shall attach 
 themselves to agriculture, it need not be regarded as 
 any detriment to the public, since, the number of 
 citizens remaining the same, they will be employed 
 in a way which they themselves prefer, and probably 
 
ii8 The Right of 
 
 to the advantage of their health and of their 
 
 manners, 
 
 * 
 
 With whatever violence the increase of litigation 
 may break forth in consequence of regulations so new, 
 so important, and not a little complicated, the duration of 
 that evil cannot be very lasting. In a few years doubt- 
 ful cases will be cleared up, and precedents of extensive 
 application will be established, and whilst the attention 
 of judicatories and of clients is engaged in settling these 
 new points, the influence of other causes by which 
 litigation is commonly produced will be in some degree 
 suspended. 
 
 As for the beneficial effects of such a statute, the 
 candid and intelligent are requested to estimate in their 
 own thoughts what these might prove in the district 
 
 * Even in Great Britain, although the whole legislative power rests in 
 the hands of the landholders, it is not too sanguine to hope that time 
 and favourable occasions, and general views of public good, which, in this 
 fortunate country, have sometimes triumphed in part over the strongest 
 partial interests, may give rise to some innovations favourable to the 
 independent settlements of the labouring poor. 
 
 At the conclusion of this or some future war, may not the in- 
 dulgence granted to disbanded soldiers be extended so far as to enable 
 them to make small settlements after the manner of the progressive 
 Agrarian law in the uncultivated lands of their respective parishes or 
 counties. 
 
 May not the present method of dividing and enclosing commons, which, 
 though favourable to cultivation, is known to curtail very much the inde- 
 pendent rights aud comfortable circumstances ot the lower orders of the 
 poor, be exchanged for some plan more allied in its aim to the provisions 
 of a progressive Agrarian. 
 
 If the present system of division is still retained, might not the com- 
 mon so enclosed be made liable to options similar to those of a progres- 
 sive Agrarian law, to commence after it has been fully improved, or fifty 
 years after the division ? 
 
 Might not persons possessing land in right of the Church be 
 enabled, under proper limitations, to grant leases of very considerable 
 duration on farms of a certain small extent ? Might not some plan 
 
Property in Land. 1 1 9 
 
 with which they are most particularly acquainted, and 
 to consider whether it would not very much improve 
 the condition and the prospects of the day labourer, 
 the hired servant, and the working manufacturer, with- 
 out imposing on the established farmer or the landlord 
 any unjust or even any considerable inconvenience? 
 Whether it would not lessen the number of the indigent 
 and the idle, and so reduce the rate of that tax by which 
 the rich are obliged to maintain them? Whether it 
 would not tend to promote cultivation and the fertility 
 of the soil, to favour the increase of population, and to 
 improve the manners and virtues of the great body of 
 the people ? After having made this estimate, let them 
 consider what might have been the present state of that 
 district had such a progressive Agrarian law or any 
 
 be devised by which the interest of the Church, of the present in- 
 cumbents, and of the industrious poor, might be consulted at the 
 same time ? 
 
 If ever England or Ireland should set to the other nations of Europe 
 an example of the highest prudence and advantage by establishing a 
 periodical valuation of tithes, it may be hoped that some provisions allied 
 to those of the progressive Agrarian may be made to enter into that plan, 
 for the sake of increasing the amount of that gross produce whose value 
 is to be periodically ascertained. 
 
 If ever any plan shall be carried into execution for a sale of Crown 
 lands and forests, it may be hoped that so favourable an occasion of con- 
 sulting the independence of agriculture, by providing for the labouring 
 poor opportunities of permanent settlements in small farms, will not be 
 neglected ; and that even the consideration of a little more increase of 
 the revenue which might arise from pursuing other measures will not be 
 put into comparison with it. 
 
 Ought not every estate which descends to heirs in tail to become 
 subject ipso facto to some branches of a progressive Agrarian ? 
 
 Might not the heir of such an estate be enabled to make void the 
 entail over one-third or fourth part of the estate, and to alienate it at 
 pleasure, provided it is broken down into small farms of a single plough 
 each, on leases of 300 years, or made subject to the options of a pro- 
 gressive Agrarian law, before this alienation takes place ? 
 
I20 The Right of Property in Land. 
 
 capital branch of that statute been established there one 
 hundred or even fifty years ago.* 
 
 * The wisest and most beneficial schemes are in some men's 
 opinions effectually turned into ridicule, when it is shown, or even 
 asserted, that they cannot be carried into execution. The consideration 
 of such plans may, however, put to shame the abuses of those which are 
 established, by showing how widely they differ firom what is beneficial 
 or wise. If the exhibition of such a contrast cannot remove pernicious 
 abuses, it may in some degree restrain the rapidity of their increase. 
 
 Various objects have engaged the enthusiasm and excited the efforts 
 of mankind in successive ages : schemes of conquest and settlement in 
 one age ; plans of civil and religious liberty in another ; manufactures 
 and commerce have now their turn ; and perhaps in some not very 
 distant age the independence of cultivation, established on a just regula- 
 tion of property in land, may become the favourite pursuit of nations, and 
 the chief object of public spirited endeavours. The present tendency of 
 men's opinions and inquiries, promoted by the actual state of the most 
 enlightened nations, seems to lead towards it. 
 
 " Sic poscere fata, 
 " Et reor, et si quid veri mens augurat, opto." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
INDEX. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Absentee Landlords, 104. 
 Africa, see Emigration. 
 Agrarian Laws — 
 
 Ancient systems of, 56, 100. 
 
 Advantages of Author's Plan, 100. 
 
 Benefits to the day labourer, the hired servant, and the working 
 
 manufacturer, iig. 
 Objections considered, 116. 
 Scheme of a progressive Agrarian : its probable effect if it had been 
 
 established 100 or 50 years ago, 54, 92, 119. 
 Would alleviate the burden of poor rates, 37. 
 Would benefit every country under the sun, 25, 106. 
 See also Birthright, Equal Share. 
 Agriculture — 
 
 Is the birthright and natural employment of the community, 10. 
 
 As a home industry, should be specially encouraged on the failure of 
 
 foreign commerce, 76. 
 Independent cultivation leads^to highest degree of happiness, 2r, 25. 
 Nations ought to compete for its encouragement, 24, 120. 
 Premiums for its improvement, 59, 82. 
 Progress of, depends on giving the cultivator the value of his 
 
 improvements, 12. 
 See also Board of Agriculture, Farms, Manufactures. 
 Allotments — 
 
 Are easily admitted in Prussia, Austria, Germany, and all over 
 
 Europe, 105. 
 Free sale and fixity of tenure, 97, 105. 
 Personal residence required, subdivision prohibited, 97. 
 Rent and boundaries fixed by an Assize, 94. 
 Rent fixed according to the staple produce of the country, 95. 
 The claims of soldiers, sailors, and orphans considered, 99, 105, 106. 
 The lands which are liable to claims of, 103. 
 
1 24 Index. 
 
 The nature of the right acquired, 103, 105. 
 The persons to whom the right is given, 103, 104. 
 Transfer of, by succession or sale, 97, 98. 
 See also Agrarian Laws. 
 America, North- 
 Compared to Europe, &c., 31, 93. 
 Could institute a proper Agrarian Law, 107. 
 New settlements of, 40, 47. 
 Should be independent of the pretensions of the parent State as 
 
 regards Agrarian Law, 108. 
 American Revolution, an occasion for establishing a right of Pro- 
 perty in Land, 67. 
 American War of Independence, its effect on the higher and 
 privileged ranks in Britain, 71. 
 Asia and the Islands of the East, 49. 
 Assize for fixing perpetual rents : how constituted, 95. 
 Athens, in Solon's time, 53. 
 Austria, see Allotments. 
 Bachelors, 100. 
 Birthright of Mankind— 
 
 The title to an equal share of property in land is a Birthright which 
 
 every citizen still retains, g. 
 Every State ought in justice to reserve for all its citizens the oppor- 
 tunities of entering upon, or returning to and resuming, their 
 Birthright, g. 
 Its restoration might renovate the strength and prosperity of a 
 
 nation, 41. 
 Scheme by which it may be claimed, 92, 93. 
 See also Equal Share, National Liberty. 
 Board of Agriculture — 
 
 For establishing small farms, 79, 80. 
 
 Functions of, with regard to hospitals, universities, &c., 80. 
 British Land Laws do not exclude the right of the community to claim 
 
 the land, 15. 
 British Nation, its ancient honour and equitable disposition, and its 
 
 injustice to India, log. 
 Charitable Endowments — 
 
 Bequests for the Independence of the Plough recommended, 87. 
 Lands belonging to, may be made into allotments of a single plough 
 each, with complete property to the cultivator for a reserved rent, 81. 
 Should be under the control of the legislature, 80, 81. 
 
Index. 125 
 
 Church, its duty to the laborious poor, 70. 
 
 See also Ecclesiastical Orders. 
 Church Dissidents, contending for religious toleration, might also wisely 
 
 advocate independence of cultivation, 68. 
 Church Lands should be let in small farms, for the mutual benefit of the 
 
 industrious poor and the Church, 118. 
 Church and Plough, Alliance between, 70. 
 
 Clergymen should help the labouring classes as the guardians of their 
 independence, in opposition to the opulent, the luxurious, and the 
 idle, who in too many cases domineer over them, 70. 
 Colotiies — 
 
 Equitable and beneficial land laws might be established in new 
 
 Colonies, 47. ♦ 
 
 Private property in land should not be allowed, 48. 
 Standard farms easily introduced, 103. 
 Comeliness and Strength mark the prosperity of a people, 20. 
 Commerce, see Manufactures. 
 
 Commons not to be appropriated except as allotments, 103, 118. 
 Compensation — 
 
 Assize to award compensation for improvements, 117. 
 Claim by landlord or tenant, if dispossessed, 15, 53, 92, 95, gg, 102. 
 Conquering Princes might establish equitable land laws, 45, 46, 68. 
 Conquests, 10, 45, 46, 103, 120. 
 Corn Laws impose an unjust tax on the industrious poor for the sole 
 
 behoof of the rich, 61. 
 Corsica, in regard to the dominion of France, 4g. 
 Courland's relation to the throne of Russia, 48. 
 
 Courtiers and Grandees enriched by the spoils of ecclesiastical esta- 
 blishments, 64, 
 Crime would be diminished if the opportunity for natural employment 
 
 were laid open to all, 3g. 
 Cromwell — his mistakes in Ireland, 65. 
 Crown Lands, &c. — 
 
 Allotments of, 61, 103. 
 
 Uncultivated lands should be given to the industrious poor, no, 118. 
 Cultivators of the Soil — 
 
 Became dependents through ignorance of their rights, 18. 
 
 Have no real perception of the injustice and oppression which they 
 
 suffer, 8, 40. See also Ignorance. 
 Ought to have the right of purchasing the freehold of their farms, 63. 
 Ought to be protected by the magistrate, 35. 
 
1 26 Index. 
 
 Despotic Governments of the East not so intolerable as landlord 
 
 oppression in Europe, 25. 
 Disputed Throne— the occupant of, or expelled candidate, might offer to 
 
 the people a just system of land laws, 68. 
 Divine Right of Mankind— God gave the earth in common to all 
 
 men, 9. 
 Ecclesiastical Orders — 
 
 Crisis regarding their temporal rights ; how to be avoided, 6g. 
 Should advocate the independence of the cultivators of the soil, 
 
 69. 
 Should guard against levelling and fanatic prmciple, 6g. 
 Their forfeited estates, 64. 
 Egypt - 
 
 Standard farm in, 93, 
 Value of land in, 14. 
 Emigration — 
 
 Benefits of, 39, 40. 
 
 Duty of legislatures in west of Europe in regard to the lower 
 
 classes, 40, 47. 
 Fields of, in South Africa, America, Australia, and Siberia, 47. 
 Is part of the plan pursued by nature in peopling the earth, 40. 
 Ought to be free, if not facilitated, while monopoly in land exists at 
 home, 39. 
 England — 
 
 Bold and manly spirit of its common people, no. 
 
 Cultivation by slaves in, ceased earlier than on the Continent of 
 
 Europe, 24. 
 Its domestic peace preserved on account of its poor laws, no. 
 Its laws, how far suitable for India, log. 
 Its uncultivated land, 23. 
 Owes its pre-eminence and power to the comparative independence 
 
 of its cultivators, 4, 24. 
 Value of land in, 14. 
 
 English landholders, their generous and humane character, 4, 5. 
 English landholders and farmers are superior to the same class in 
 
 other countries, 4. 
 English day-labourers and manufacturers should be advanced to the 
 comfortable independence of farmers, 5. 
 Entail, new scheme suggested, 85. 
 
 Entailed Lands ought to be subject to rules favourable to independent 
 cultivation, 60, 85, 104, ng. 
 
Index. 127 
 
 Equal Share— The Right to an equal share of the Soil- 
 Is a maxim of natural law, 12. 
 
 Is antecedent to municipal laws, and not to be abolished by them, 11. 
 Is confounded with the Right of Labour by speculative reasoners, 10. 
 Is derived from the right of general occupancy, 7. 
 Is not precluded by possession of others, 8. 
 Is not tacitly renounced, g. 
 Gives highest degree of happiness, 21. 
 Freedom and prosperity of lower ranks depend on it, 12. 
 Might be introduced by the ordinary liberality of men possessed of 
 
 ample fortunes, 87. 
 Ought to be reserved for every citizen, g. 
 Ought to be combined with the Right of Labour, 12, 13. 
 Princes might introduce the Equal Property in Land system as con- 
 ducive to the good of mankind, 88. 
 See also Birthright. 
 Equality of Rights, not equality of fortune, should be the basis of 
 Agrarian Law, 100. 
 Levelling and fanatic principle to be guarded against, 6g. 
 Europe — 
 
 Agrarian Law suggested to Sovereigns in Europe, loo. 
 Its actual state, and the condition of the lower ranks, 25, 26. 
 Its peasants aim at Greek and Roman Agrarian Laws, loi. 
 Land systems of, not founded on wisdom or justice, i. 
 The abuses and pernicious effects of its Land Laws, 25, 26. 
 Western nations of, and their legislatures, 53. 
 See also Property in Land, Allotments. 
 European Land Laws, their imperfection as regards the improvable 
 
 value of the soil, 27. 
 European System of Land Tenure — the domestic, the feudal, and the 
 
 commercial, 43. 
 "Farmer's Letters," quoted, 37. 
 Farms — 
 
 Established standard of, 52, g3, g8, 103. 
 Perpetual tenure of, g3, 105, 
 Small Farms — 
 
 Are more favourable to the interests of the community, 84. 
 Premiums for their establishment recommended, 83. 
 Can be improved with more economy, 117. 
 Would prompt agricultural labourers to save their wages, 37. 
 Fisheries, in regard to land purchase by Government, 80. 
 
128 Index. 
 
 Forfeited Estates should be given to the cultivators, subject to Agrarian 
 
 Law, 64, 104. 
 France — 
 
 Laws of, favouring the nobility, 59. 
 Two-thirds of soil cultivated by metayers (1780), 24. 
 Humane Prince of, 49. 
 Franklin, Dr., on uncultivated land in England (1777), 23. 
 Frederick the Great — 
 
 Best qualified of all European Sovereigns to deal with the Land 
 
 Laws, 114. 
 His magnanimity, talents, and benevolence, 49, 73. 
 His protection of the peasants from the power of their lords, 115. 
 His regulation of giving the soil to his soldiers to cultivate will be 
 
 applauded by posterity, 115. 
 Not influenced by the landlords ; he taxed them 33 per cent, (and 
 
 sometimes more) on the real rent, 116. 
 Practically adopted some of the principleslaid down by the Author, 115. 
 Treats the landlords in conformity to their just rights, namely, as 
 trustees or bankers for the public, 116. 
 Free-booter, 35. 
 Free Inquiry, j, 3. 
 Free Trade in Land, 28, 29, 30. 
 
 French Revolution of 1789, foreseen by the Author, 3, 41, 45. 
 Gavel-kind, Laws of, 52. 
 
 Germany, the ancient natives of, respected the natural rights of man to 
 the soil, 10. 
 Soil of, largely cultivated by villeins and slaves, 24. 
 See also Allotments. 
 Governments — 
 
 Attend chiefly to the interests of the higher classes, 40. 
 In all parts of Europe the good of the people, and the protection of 
 the indigent and deserving, are held forth by governments as the 
 pretexts of that authority which they assume, 107. 
 The common people should be protected by the sovereign, who is 
 their representative and guardian, 113. 
 Greatest Good of the Greatest Number, 21, 103. 
 
 See also Happiness, Public Good, Public Prosperity. 
 Greek Agrarian Law, loi. 
 Happiness — 
 
 And prosperity of a race of men are indicated by their strength and 
 comeliness, 20. 
 
Index. 129 
 
 And wealth, increase of, doubtful through other channels than 
 
 independence of cultivation, 21. 
 Is not always increased by increased wealth, dominion, or popula- 
 tion, 18, ig. 
 Of individuals is in proportion to their virtue, 19. 
 Of mankind, how it might be increased by a monarch, 50. 
 Of mankind invaded and restrained by monopoly in land, 27, 32. 
 The increase of public happiness is the primary duty of every 
 
 State, 18, 40. 
 The greatest happiness of the greatest number may be secured by 
 
 freedom and independence of cultivation, 21, 92, 93. 
 The happiest nation is the one having the greatest number of inde- 
 pendent cultivators, 21. 
 Hereditary Revenue of a great landholder is a public tax of the most 
 
 pernicious nature, 35. 
 Hindostan, Ancient institutions of, in regard to British reforms, 109. 
 Holland, Standard farm in, 93. New Holland, see Emigration. 
 Hospitals, Peculation and abuse of funds, how prevented, 80. 
 Hungary, Greater proportion of soil cultivated by villeins and slaves, 24. 
 Idleness — 
 
 Discouraged by giving the uncultivated lands to the industrious 
 
 poor, no, III. 
 Waste and mismanagement inseparable from Poor Rates, 37. 
 Ignorance of the Right of Property in Land, and the want of leaders, 
 have prevented the just claims of the people from being en- 
 forced, 7, 48, 67. 
 Improvable value of the soil being held by landlords, shows the imper- 
 fection of European laws, 27. 
 Independence of the Plough — 
 Commended, 57, 65, 79. 
 Agricultural societies might promote it, gi. 
 
 Gifts, legacies, and bequests might be given for establishing it, 87. 
 See also Church. 
 Independent Cultivation — 
 
 Leads to the highest public prosperity, 23, 24, 25. 
 
 Methods favourable to, 84. 
 
 Should be supported by bequests, gifts, and voluntary contributions, 
 
 86, 87, 90, 91. 
 Is superior to other plans of increasing happiness of the people, 
 
 ig, 21. 
 Prophetic remarks by the Author, 120. 
 
1 30 Index. 
 
 India — 
 
 British acquisitions there, how to be made permanent, log. 
 Bengal — 
 
 Noble opportunity of British Government in dealing with land 
 question there, 108. 
 
 Standard farm in, 93. 
 
 Value of land in, 14. 
 Indigent and Idle, Number of, reduced by Agrarian Law, 119. 
 Industrious Peasants groan in secret under oppression, 41. 
 Industry — 
 
 How robbed of its due reward by tithes and rents, 28, 34. 
 
 If relieved from taxation by means of the Single Tax would benefit 
 
 the State, 17. 
 Necessity considered as a spur to, 71. 
 
 Rewards of, stolen by Irish landlords from their tenants, 112. 
 The public good requires that every individual should be excited to 
 
 employ his industry in increasing the public stock, 34. 
 Invention and Machinery, 39. 
 Ireland — 
 
 Britain should have given Free Trade and Freedom of Agriculture to 
 
 Ireland, even against the Irish Parliament of last century, 113. 
 Doubtful state of, in September, 1780, 112. 
 Grazings, if cultivated, would yield more rent, in. 
 Had Cromwell established Agrarian Law, its beneficial effect would 
 
 have shown itself before now, 65. 
 Its distresses arose from abuses of landed property, no. 
 Reform of land system in, 61. 
 Scheme of poor laws, required on grounds of justice, humanity, and 
 
 tranquillity of the country, no. 
 The Free Trade movement of 1780 not so important as an equitable 
 
 property in land scheme, 112. 
 To raise rents on tenants' improvements is against natural justice 
 
 and the best principles of public economy, 112. 
 The ancient natives respected the natural rights of men to the soil, 10. 
 Volunteers of 1780, if they had demanded land reform, might have 
 
 got it, 112. 
 Value of land in, 14. 
 Irish Cultivator — 
 
 As well be robbed by a middleman as by a rich and indolent land- 
 lord, III. 
 The injustice and absurdity of the landlord's claim clearly exposed, 112. 
 
Index. 131 
 
 It is Great Britain's interest to grant freedom of agriculture to 
 Ireland, 113. 
 Islands and lands bordering on the sea deserve preference, in the case of 
 
 a Land Purchase Scheme, 79, 80. 
 Jesuits, Estates of, 64. 
 
 Jubilee in regard to land laws, 52. * 
 
 Judea, Agrarian regulations of, 25. 
 Justice — 
 
 In regard to the general good of the community, 10, 103, 104. 
 Supreme tribunals of, in regard to charitable foundations, 80. 
 Kings, Divine right of, 10. 
 Labour — 
 
 Is the basis of all individual right of property in land, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 
 It is the gift of nature to each individual, and should have a free and 
 equal market, 36. 
 Labouring Classes are more ready to listen vifith attention to rational 
 and sound doctrines than to the extravagances of enthusiasm or 
 superstition, 69, 70. 
 Land is the principal stock of every nation, 29. 
 
 Being analysed — consists of three parts : (i) the original, (2) the 
 
 improved, and (3) the improvable value, 13, 14. 
 It belongs to the community as regards the original and improvable 
 
 value, the improved alone belongs to the landholder, 15. 
 Its comparative value in England, Bengal, Lower Egypt, and 
 
 Ireland, 14. 
 Its value ; how ascertained, 95. 
 
 New systems respecting property in land considered, 2. 
 See also Property, Rent, Waste Land. 
 Land Purchase Schemes, 64, 79, 80. 
 
 Land Systems of former times are not suitable in a commercial age, 
 hence the most pernicious and flagrant oppressions arise, 8, 44. 
 It is the interest of every State to establish just land laws, 32. 
 Sudden and effectual reformation of, 113. 
 Schemes for partial reformation, 51. 
 The wisest and most beneficial schemes of reform are ridiculed by 
 
 callous observers of existing abuses, 120. 
 Old systems of landed property are, like systems of corrupted 
 religion, regarded with superstitious reverence, 57. 
 Landholders— 
 
 The situation of a landholder is more allied to that of a prince than 
 a merchant, 8. 
 
132 Index. 
 
 Should not be blamed for retaining rights which have never been 
 
 controverted, 8, 18. 
 The commercial landholder is of all citizens the most pernicious, 8. 
 Their claims must yield to the claims of the community, 15. 
 Their duties, in return for their affluence, are negligently performed 
 
 to the State, 34. 
 Their duty as legislators in regard to the claims of the labouring 
 
 poor, 118. 
 Their interest — how substituted for that of the nation and com- 
 munity, 22, 33. 
 Their large incomes are pensions and salaries of sinecure offices, 33. 
 Their love of dominion, in. 
 Their management diminishes the spirit and independence of the 
 
 common people, 58. 
 Their oppression is the bane of Europe, 25. 
 Their possessions not to be disturbed except for greatest good of 
 
 all — justice and equity considered — g8, gg. 
 Their prejudices and interests, 33, g3. 
 Their revenue, being wholly independent of their industry, is a 
 
 premium given to idleness, 35. 
 Their revenue increases in proportion to the industry of those who 
 
 cultivate the soil, 35. 
 Their rights not inquired into by former advocates of Agrarian 
 
 law, 100. 
 Their right to the soil must be founded chiefly in labour, 11. 
 Their situation — being born with such rights — prompts bad conduct, 
 
 and prejudices them in regard to the injustice suffered by the 
 
 farmers and cultivators, 8. 
 They are supported by a tax or impost {yent) collected from the 
 
 labour of other people, 33, 40. 
 They should be obliged to indemnify the public for their invasion of 
 
 the public good, 58. 
 Leases — 
 
 Essential articles of, 62. 
 
 Should be favourable to the beneficial interest of the community, 28, 
 
 61, 63. 
 Legislature or Magistrate is the public trustee, and can claim the land 
 
 at pleasure, 11, 15. 
 Levelling Scheme of Greek and Roman Agrarian laws aimed at by 
 
 peasants in Europe, loi. 
 See also Equality of Rights. 
 
Index. 133 
 
 Locke — 
 
 On right of property in land, g. 
 
 His followers and antagonists, 10. 
 Lower Ranks rendered mean-spirited and servile by landlord oppres- 
 sion, 27. 
 
 Should support whichever party is favourable to re-establish their 
 natural rights to the land, 67. 
 Manhood Suffrage gives power to enact Agrarian Law at any time, 108. 
 Manufactures and Commerce — 
 
 Encouragements to, profit the rich, 22. 
 
 Their encouragement in Europe, 24, 120. 
 
 Their progress stimulated by the progress of agriculture, 22. 
 
 When depressed, the soil should be laid open to the people for 
 employment, 72. 
 Marriages of the lower ranks, 31, 59, 102. 
 Middlemen, in, 112. 
 
 Milan, in regard to the dominion of Austria, 49. 
 Military Glory, national honour, &c., 71. 
 Militia, necessary for home defence, 73. 
 
 Prussian Plan considered — peasant-proprietor and soldier combined, 
 
 73. 74- 
 Minorca, in regard to dominion of Britain, 49. 
 
 Monarchs — 
 
 How to secure immortal renown, 46. 
 
 How they fail to protect the most useful order of men, 18. 
 
 The sovereign is the representative and guardian of the common 
 
 people, 114. 
 Absolute monarchs and princes of heroic minds might easily establish 
 
 just land laws, 49, 51, 113- 
 See also Conquering Princes, Disputed Throne. 
 Monasteries, Estates of, 64. 
 Monopoly in Land — 
 
 Affects the prime material of the most essential industry, 30. 
 
 Checks the progress of agriculture, 32. 
 
 Checks increase of population, 31, 33. 
 
 Controls the making of laws, 30. 
 
 Diminishes the wages of the poor, favours the rich, and fosters their 
 
 luxury, vanity, and arrogance, 32, 33. 
 Diminishes happiness, 32. 
 Europe, enlightened Europe, will not be able to endure it much 
 
 longer, 41. 
 
1 34 Index. 
 
 Has rendered the poor laws of England necessary, 36. 
 Is a lingering piecemeal famine, under which the individual 
 languishes, and the race becomes dwarfish, debilitated, and 
 deformed, 30. 
 Is exercised in a commercial age with artful and oppressive strict- 
 ness, 22, 23. 
 Is far more pernicious than the monopoly of manufactured com- 
 modities, 30. 
 Is inconsistent with feudal law, and cannot take place in any 
 
 country till the age of military services be past, 30. 
 Is most unfair to the cultivator of the soil, 29. 
 Is the cause of the poverty and destitution of the lower classes, 36. 
 Is the cause of barren wastes in old countries, 31. 
 Is the chief obstacle to rapid improvement in agriculture, 23. 
 Renders machinery for facilitating labour unpopular, 39. 
 Is the chief cause of unnatural severity in penal laws, 39. 
 Its abolition would excite higher vigour and prosperity among the 
 
 nations, 24. 
 An unlimited property in land should not be possessed by any 
 citizen, 24. 
 Mosaical Law — respecting property in land — 
 
 Is in favour of the rights of the community to the soil, 25. 
 
 Neglect of the common people to claim the advantages of Mosaical 
 
 Agrarian Law, 25. 
 Sovereigns, judges, and clergymen have made continual reference to 
 the Mosaical law to justify their claims, 25. 
 Municipal Laws — 
 
 Are the foundation of tithe rights, as well as landlord rights, 34. 
 Injustice of, is more permanent and more extensive than the act 
 
 of a despot, 34. 
 Should not be considered sacred or indefeasible, 11. 
 Their pernicious effect in Europe in regard to the exorbitant Right 
 of Property in Land, 26. 
 National Debt — 
 
 Is not due by landless citizens ; landlords alone are responsible for 
 
 it. 75- 
 A general distribution of the land among the people is necessary for 
 its security, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78. See also Taxation. 
 National Liberty and Independence may be secured by giving every 
 individual a share in the property of the soil, and training him to 
 the use of arms for its defence, 72, 74. 
 
Index. 135 
 
 National Vigour and Prosperity, how to be renovated, 71. 
 
 See also Birthright, Equal Share, Happiness. 
 Natural Law Maxim, that all improvements of the soil should belong 
 
 to the improver, 12. 
 Necker, M., his Compte rendu au Roi, 114. 
 Occupancy, Natural right of, 7, 11. 
 Oppression is chiefly caused by — 
 
 The submission and ignorance of dependents, the neglect of the 
 
 sovereign power, and landlord monopoly, 18, 27. 
 It is the oppression of the landlords and their agents which has ever 
 
 been the bane of Europe, 25. 
 See also Lower Ranks, Monopoly in Land. 
 Opulence, Increase of, contrasted with increase of happiness. 18, 20. 
 Orissa, Relation of, to Britain, log. 
 Orphans, gg, 105, 106. 
 Peasants — 
 
 Should be protected from outrageous oppressions, violent removals, 
 
 and the pretensions of the commercial landholder, 6z. 
 Those having a numerous family privileged, 105. 
 Pensions and Sinecure Places bestowed by the sovereign are not so 
 
 intolerable as the rents imposed by landlords, 33. 
 Plough, see Independence. 
 
 Poland, Great proportion of, cultivated by villeins and slaves, 24. 
 Political Reasonings indicate the nation's original right to the land, 33. 
 Poor Laws — 
 
 How the poor are deprived of their just reward and necessary 
 
 subsistence, 33. 
 The laborious poor are more in need of guardianship than the 
 
 mendicant poor, 70.' 
 Schemes for employing the poor profit the rich, 22. 
 Settlement disputes avoidable by having county and national 
 
 funds, no. 
 State waste lands should be given to the industrious poor, no. 
 The Poor Law of England acknowledges the right of every individual 
 
 to the territory of the State, 36. 
 The diminished number of small farms in England is the cause of 
 
 the increased Poor Rates, 38. 
 The Poor Rates may be reduced by reducing the number of the 
 indigent and the idle, iig. 
 Population- 
 Is rapidly increasing in America under freedom of cultivation, 31. 
 
1 36 hidex. 
 
 Is checked in Europe on account of monopoly in land, 31. 
 Increase of, may not lead to increase of public happiness, 18. 
 The waste of great cities, pT armies, navies, &c., how supplied, 
 ig. 
 Privileges of every Rank become insecure unless the numbers, the 
 industry, and the manly temper of the body of the people can 
 be kept up, 71. 
 Property — 
 
 Ought to be the reward of industry, 34. 
 Principles of, as regards (i) movables, (2) land, 1. 
 Property in I-and — 
 
 A just regulation of property in land is of all arrangements the most 
 
 essential for diffusing prosperity and independence, 53. 
 The people ought, above all things, to insist on a just regulation of 
 
 property in land, 29, 66. 
 An unlimited property in land ought not to be possessed by any 
 
 citizen, 24. 
 See also Monopoly in Land, Municipal Laws. 
 Prussia, see Frederick the Great, Allotments. 
 Public Calamities or dangers should warn the rulers of a state to reform 
 
 the land laws, 70, 72. 
 Public Good, The— 
 
 Requires that every individual should be excited to employ his 
 industry in increasing the public stock, or to exert his talents in 
 the public service, with the certainty of a due reward, 34. 
 Requires that the natural right to a share of the soil and the right of 
 labour should both be respected, 12. 
 Public Prosperity, Essential foundations of, 12, 71. 
 Public Right to the Land may be claimeti at pleasure by the legis- 
 lature, 15. 
 Public Utility- 
 Is the basis of the right of property in land, 18. 
 Should rule the fixing of rent, '28. 
 Reform of the Land Laws — 
 Is inevitable, 45, 120. 
 
 May be easily established in subordinate states, 48. 
 Reign of Law and Order gives rise to monopoly of land, 30. 
 Rent of Land — 
 
 Is a pernicious tax on industry, 28. 
 
 Ought to be fixed according to the real annual produce of the 
 soil, 63. 
 
137 
 
 Ought to be rej^dj^^^proportion to tie tenjft's family, loo. 
 Should |be fixedN^^din^tTlflE1**nl&«^|^ulations, 28, 29, 33, 
 
 St- 106. ^^.^^IWAGiEWJ 
 
 Revolutions give occasion foT" re-establishing the natural rights to 
 
 independence of cultivation, &c., 64, 65, 66, 67. 
 Rome, with regard to Agrarian law, 53, 66, 93, loi, 
 Russia, Soil of, largely cultivated by villeins and slaves, 24. 
 Sailors' claims considered, gg, 105, 106. 
 
 Security of Tenure leads to better cultivation of the soil, 23, 24. 
 Servility, cunning, fraud, and hypocrisy, &c., bred in lower ranks by 
 
 landholder oppression, 27. 
 Share of the Soil in full property to every citizen should be made 
 
 law, 53. 
 Siberia, 47. 
 
 Slaves, villeins, and metayers as cultivators of the soil in Europe, 24. 
 Soldiers, The claims of, considered, gg, 105, 106, ir8. 
 Solon's Laws promoted by the independence of his fellow-citizens, 53. 
 Spain neglected the interests of the cultivators, 65. 
 Speculative Reasoners have confounded the original right of equal 
 
 property in land with that which is founded in labour, 10. 
 Speculative views of reform should be rendered familiar to the under- 
 standings of men, 67. 
 Spenser — the land customs among the native Irish in his time, 10. 
 Standing^ Army not alone sufficient for national defence ; Prussian plan 
 
 commended, 72, 73. 
 Taxation — 
 
 A direct tax by the State would be less exorbitant than that imposed 
 
 on the cultivators by the landholders, 33. 
 A tax on all augmentations of rents would be most equitable and 
 
 most expedient, 58, 5g. 
 A tax on barren lands, so as to force the proprietor to improve them, 
 or resign them to the community, could not be deemed unjust, 58. 
 Landholders as legislators — their preposterous system of having no 
 
 land-tax at all ! 16. 
 Single Tax — 
 No scheme of taxation can be so equitable as a land-tax by 
 which alone the expenses of the State ought to be supported, 
 16. 
 The original value of the soil is a fund belonging to the public, 
 and may be justly applied to the public use until the whole be 
 exhausted, 16. 
 
 10 
 
13^ Index. 
 
 This fund should be treated as merely deposited in the hands of 
 
 great proprietors for the public good, i6. 
 The persons who have suffered their shares of the soil to be 
 deposited in the hands of the landholders may be allowed to 
 complain, if, before that fund is entirely applied to the public 
 use, they are subjected to taxes imposed on any other kind of 
 property, or any articles of consumption, i6. 
 The mortgage-holder should pay a proportional share of the land- 
 tax along with the landholder, 17. 
 The gross amount of property in land is the fittest subject of 
 taxation ; and could it be made to support the whole expense 
 of the public, great advantages would arise to all orders of men, 
 16, 17. 
 The proprietors of stock in trade, in manufacture and arts, would 
 escape taxation very justly and very profitably to the State, 17. 
 It accords with the best interests of the community that industry 
 
 should be exempted, if possible, from every public burden, 17. 
 A land-tax scheme cannot be avoided, and should not be delayed, 17. 
 Small tenements which do not exceed the proprietor's natural 
 share of the soil should be exempted, 16. 
 Templars, The estates of, 64. 
 Tiberius Gracchus, 66. 
 Tithes- 
 Considered as the reward of duties to be performed to the public, 34. 
 The foundation of tithes and rents is precisely the same, viz., the 
 
 improvident regulations of municipal law, 34. 
 England and Ireland should set example to Europe in establishing 
 periodical valuation of tithes, 118. 
 Traditionary Doctrines in regard to land, 3. 
 Trial by Jury considered suitable for India, log. 
 Universities, Lands belonging to, 80. 
 Virtue and happiness may be brought about by a just and enlightened 
 
 policy respecting property in land, ig, 35, 41, iig. 
 Wages of servants and day labourers, &c. — injustice and oppression of 
 restrictions thereon, 32, 33, 36. 
 How diminished, see Monopoly in Land. 
 Waste Land — 
 
 Belongs strictly and essentially to the public, 58. 
 Its monopoly by landholders, 31, 61, 76. 
 May be made a garden by superior cultivation, 23. 
 Should be given to the industrious poor, no. 
 
Index. 139 
 
 Wealth— 
 
 Of community depends on justice to the cuhivators, 12. 
 Real wealth of the public is promoted by the industry of the inde- 
 pendent cultivator. 19. 
 Zeal for the universal good might prompt the legislature to establish a 
 just regulation of property in land, 53. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 WITH SIDE ISSUES, BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 " See yonder poor, o'erlabour'd wight, 
 
 So abject, mean, and vile, 
 Who begs a brother ot the earth 
 
 To give him leave to toil ; 
 And see his \ori\y fellow-worm 
 
 The poor petition spurn, 
 Unmindful tho' a weeping wife 
 
 And helpless offspring mourn." 
 
 Robert Burns (says his brother Gilbert) " used to 
 remark that he could not well conceive a more morti- 
 fying picture of human life than a man seeking work ". 
 The life problem of the present day was clearly seen by 
 Burns more than a hundred years ago, and he then 
 pointed out that monopoly in land was the main source 
 of human misery. He looked up to heaven and called 
 as his witness — 
 
 "The Sun that overhangs yon moors, 
 Out-spreading far and wide, 
 Where hundreds labour to support 
 A haughty lordling's pride ". 
 
 This miniature sketch was drawn from real life in his 
 own country. Then, casting his eye beyond Scotland, 
 
 11 
 
142 Biographical Notes. 
 
 and seeing landlordism rampant everywhere, he ex- 
 claimed — 
 
 " But, oh ! what crowds in ev'ry land. 
 All wretched and forlorn ' '. 
 
 William Ogilvie, who was a compatriot of Burns, was 
 born in the year 1736, and was thus twenty -three years 
 older than Burns. The scenes from which Burns took 
 his pictures must have been familiar to Ogilvie. Both 
 were lovers of mankind, and there was a very strong 
 mental affinity between them. Ogilvie was known as 
 " the gentleinan an' scholar" but never (except within a 
 very limited circle") as a Land Law Reformer. This 
 is a regretful circumstance. It is equally regretful that 
 Burns is more known as ''a rhyming, ranting, roving 
 billie " than as a pioneer and great thinker, in regard to 
 reforms for the benefit of mankind. If we study his 
 epic of the " Twa Dogs,'' and his other writings in prose 
 and verse relating to the Land Question and Man's 
 Natural Rights, not only in the light of his own time, 
 but also in the fierce light of the present day, we shall 
 not be surprised at anything we find in Ogilvie's book. 
 Even the seemingly modern-looking SINGLE Tax pro- 
 position, so clearly laid down by Ogilvie, will not astonish 
 us. A look at the " Twa Dogs " shows us how Ccesar 
 was able to take a more advanced view of the situation 
 than Luath. No doubt if William Ogilvie had been a 
 poet instead of a philosopher, he would have expressed 
 the thoughts he has given us in sections i, 2, 28, and 29 
 of his book somewhat after the manner of the lines 
 above-quoted. 
 
 Ogilvie and Burns saw eye to eye ; but while Burns 
 roused up his fellow-men from the gutter of serfdom, 
 Ogilvie reasoned with them as to the causes which 
 
Biographical Notes. 143 
 
 brought them to such a low condition, and also as to the 
 means of reclaiming their natural rights. Ogilvie con- 
 sidered the whole question from a magnanimous, impartial, 
 and truly scientific point of view. He pleaded for "free 
 inquiry " ; he sought after truth ; he was not one of 
 those rough-and-ready reformers who would simply say, 
 "Abolish landlordism and all evils will vanish". No. 
 He looked upon modern landlordism not as a cause but 
 as an effect. The primary and fundamental cause of all 
 the evils under which humanity suffers is traced by him 
 to man's want of knowledge ; and landlordism, with 
 all its consequent evils, under which humanity groans, 
 according to him, is directly owing to man's ignorance 
 of his natural rights. It is this ignorance which begets 
 slavish submission and breeds oppression. Ogilvie 
 considered the situation logically. In his view IGNOR- 
 ANT HUMANITY MUST NEGLECT ITS RIGHTS, AND 
 WITHOUT ITS RIGHTS CANNOT PERFORM ITS DUTIES. 
 Rights and duties are co-relative. Ogilvie recognised 
 this very old maxim of Natural Law. He saw the dis- 
 honest and absurd position which the landlords take 
 up in every country. They first rob their fellow-men 
 of their natural rights, and then they add insult to 
 injury by accusing them of neglecting their duties. 
 They call them poor and lazy, while at the same time 
 they, as a rule, do no productive work themselves, and 
 their whole wealth consists of property created by the 
 labour of others. And these "freebooters," as Ogilvie 
 calls them, are styled noblemen and gentlemen, and have 
 arrogated to themselves the position of rulers and legis- 
 lators in almost every country under heaven. 
 
 The people's ignorance of their natural rights is not 
 only the primary, but it is also the sustaining, cause of 
 
144 Biographical Notes. 
 
 landlordism, " Keep the people ignorant," says the 
 tyrant to the priest, "and I'll keep them poor." In a 
 note to section i of Ogilvie's book, reference is made 
 to the ignorance of mankind thus : " In no article are 
 they more ignorant than in respect to property in land, 
 the established rules of which are in every country 
 accounted permanent and immutable ". The divine 
 right of kings was until yesterday accepted as an article 
 of faith, and we in Britain are still foolish enough to re- 
 cognise grants of land signed by authority of such 
 "divine" mandates! We do not now recognise the 
 right of living monarchs to do such things, and yet 
 we confirm, acknowledge, and practically homologate 
 the musty parchments of King Tom, King Dick, and 
 King Harry. " These be thy Gods, O Israel ! " Their 
 charters to the landlords, and the sub-charters by these 
 landlords to others, including conveyances for borrowed 
 money, are the only Sacred Writs recognised in our 
 Courts of Lazv. Mark the word " Law''. Justice has to 
 take a back seat whenever one of these Sacred Writs 
 is produced. 
 
 " All titles to land are fetishes. In this country they 
 are the fetishes of discarded and dead divinities. But such 
 is the power of ignorance and superstition when estab- 
 lished and maintained by Law AND Order that these 
 fetishes are held much more sacred now than in the so- 
 called dark ages. 
 
 Our Judges are specially paid, and sworn in, not to 
 question these Sacred Writs. Our National Clergy 
 are also specially paid, and sivorn in, to instruct us 
 about the sacredness of these Writs. There is no 
 water in the sea, and there is no bribery and corruption 
 in the British Isles ! No ! We thank Heaven that we are 
 
Biographical Notes. 14S 
 
 not governed like other countries, where, as in America, 
 bribery and corruption are sometimes investigated, 
 and even exposed and punished. Our " permanent 
 official " keeps all these things square ! We British are 
 a " Christian Nation " ! If " agitators " would only keep 
 away, the people would be contented and happy with 
 their hope of glory in heaven. Why should they care 
 about this earth — " this wicked world " ? Why should 
 they rebel against Law and Order ? If they do not 
 suffer oppression, misery, injustice, and poverty in this 
 world, where do they expect to go when they die ? 
 
 Somehow the rich do not act in accordance with a 
 belief in our Creeds and Catechisms, but they neverthe- 
 less support by endowments and otherwise the establish- 
 ment and spread of that ?<«earthly Gospel for the poor ! 
 Ogilvie, by the way, makes a mild suggestion about an 
 endowment for " the independence of the plough " — an 
 endowment leading to " virtue and happiness in this 
 world" . He believed a little in that sort of thing. 
 
 Knowledge is no longer a civil crime. We can, for 
 example, glance at the style of Fetish by which the land " 
 in Scotland was seised, 3.nd "by virtue of " which it is 
 now held by the landlords. It is called an " Instrument 
 of Sasine " or " Seizin," from the verb " seize". It begins 
 with the words: "In THE NAME OF GoD, Amen!" 
 and then narrates the sacred ceremony by which the 
 landlords required " to complete their title " ! The sole 
 purpose of this ceremony was to declare and promulgate 
 the doctrine of the " divine right of landlords " : a 
 doctrine which was superinduced upon Feudalism by 
 the aid of Priestcraft sometime during what we call the 
 dark ages. And it is more than probable that it was 
 during these dark ages that the same pernicious doctrine 
 
146 Biographical Notes. 
 
 was ingrafted upon the faiths of Christian Europe. It 
 was this that barred the doors and windows of men's 
 minds against the smallest possible ray of knowledge 
 "in respect to property in land," and hence the ignor- 
 ance and superstition of " the bulk of mankind in every 
 country," as Ogilvie truly states in his book (Note, p. 7). 
 The doctrine of the " divine right of landlords," when 
 fully established as an article of Faith in the minds of a 
 people, notwithstanding its ridiculous monstrosity, its 
 opposition to natural justice, and its poisonous effect on 
 the natural feeling of patriotism and love of one's home, 
 is as difficult to dislodge as any other article of Faith. 
 But let this doctrine stand alone, without the aid of 
 Priestcraft, and it will no longer be "accounted permanent 
 and immutable, as being fixed by the destination of 
 nature". 
 
 We get a very bright glimpse of Ogilvie's character 
 further on (section 38), where he deals with the "divine 
 rights,'' by which Landlords and the Clergy levy rent 
 and tithes. He puts these " divine rights " in one 
 basket, and thus disposes of them : " The foundation of 
 both rights, notwithstanding prejudices on either side, is 
 precisely the same, viz., the improvident regulations of 
 municipal law ". Not only was he before his own 
 time, but his views are about a century in advance of 
 even the present day. But we can see this only after a 
 careful study of his book, and by reading between the 
 deep furrows which he has turned up for us. He knew 
 from history that it is not by the sword that doctrines 
 and beliefs are instilled into the minds of men. William 
 the Conqueror introduced what is called Feudalism into 
 England, by the Pope's authority, "IN THE NAME OF 
 God, Amen!" His successor, Henry H., introduced it 
 
Biographical Notes. 147 
 
 into Ireland, by the Pope's authority, " IN THE NAME OF 
 God, Amen ! " It was somehow smuggled into Scotland, 
 whether by the Pope's express authority is not known, 
 but that it was done " IN THE NAME OF GOD," and that 
 the Priest said " Amen ! " there cannot be a doubt ; and 
 on that blasphemous and fraudulent basis it now stands 
 in Democratic, Presbyterian, and Protestant Scotland. 
 It took many centuries to develop itself in the little 
 country of the Scots. Strange to say, the overthrow of 
 the Church of Rome, and the establishment of Protes- 
 tantism at the Reformation, largely contributed to the 
 establishing of the doctrine of the divine right of land- 
 lords in the Scottish mind.* The Landlords then made 
 themselves the Patrons of the Religion of the people, 
 and they not only '' grabbed " all Church lands, but they 
 also "grabbed" all the tithes, allowing only a pittance 
 
 * Note also that another Reformation — the Revolution of 1688 — 
 was utilised in the same way by the Divine Party. The " False Argyll " 
 reported that the people of Glencoe refused to discontinue the ancient 
 Scottish tenure, and this was the excuse which led to the massacre in 
 1692. These little bits of history are carefully slipped over by the 
 majority of our so-called historians, like all other facts relating to the 
 people's right to the land. But the most extraordinary thing connected 
 with Scotland and the divine right of landlords is to be met with in 
 connection with the last Reformation — the " Disruption " of 1843, when 
 the Free Church was instituted. A very large section of the Scottish 
 people, and all the Highlanders, then revolted in regard to the landlord's 
 divine right of property in Church Patronage. The " Auld Kirk " was 
 deserted. But the clergy of the New (Free) Church have done more in 
 the Highlands of Scotland towards getting the doctrine of the divine right 
 of landlords to the land, into the minds of the people, than had been 
 done by all other forms of Priestcraft, from William the Conqueror's time 
 to 1843. This strange fact, and its sad consequences, will be referred to 
 further on. If these "dissidents" had taken up Ogilvie's cue of favouring 
 a just and independent land reform in 1843, the Free Church and Scotland 
 would be in a better position to-day. 
 
148 Biographical Notes. 
 
 to the clergy. The great bulk of the tithes are even 
 now pocketed by the Scottish landholders. These tithes, 
 Ogilvie tells us, belong to the public, and he hints that 
 the clergy have a right to be paid for " duties performed 
 to the public," whereas, on the other hand, considering 
 rents as the "salaries of sinecure offices" he sees no reason 
 in the world for continuing the payment of them. He 
 thus preached "THE NO-RENT POLICY" from the in- 
 vulnerable standpoint of historical truth, and wholly in 
 accordance with the principles of justice. 
 
 We should not forget that all grants of land were 
 originally given in trust for the people, and that 
 the rents were originally levied for public purposes. The 
 landlords were all public officers, but as they by degrees 
 became sole legislators they legalised the embezzlement 
 of all revenue from land. Then they taxed the landless 
 people. They schemed many taxes. But the SINGLE 
 Tax restored would put an end to all these ! 
 
 It is the right, the duty, and the interest of every 
 citizen to demand the just otcupation and taxation of 
 the land, and to insist that the dishonest and criminal 
 administration of private unlimited ownership of land 
 should no longer be tolerated. 
 
 The ignorance which deludes the people — the whole 
 people — from making this claim was seen by Ogilvie, 
 and he honestly and resolutely set himself to remove 
 it. He saw with disgust that "the farmers and 
 cultivators have no clear perception of the injustice and 
 oppression which they suffer ". Even those who thus 
 come in direct contact with landlordism (not to speak of 
 the outcasts in great cities), he says, " do not understand, 
 or dare not consider steadily, from what cause their 
 grievances take their rise ". 
 
Biographical Notes. 149 
 
 The declared object of his book, as stated in the 
 title, is to show how " property in land might be 
 rendered more beneficial to the lower ranks of man- 
 kind ". A somewhat dark, unwritten page in British 
 history relates the disgraceful fact that both author and 
 book were boycotted, and that up to this time (1889 !) 
 the lower ranks of mankind in England, Scotland, Wales, 
 Ireland, and the British Colonies never heard that such 
 a man lived, far less that he left them such a legacy. 
 " The worthy and humane English landholders," whom 
 he appointed* as his literary trustees, evidently neglected 
 their duties to the intended beneficiaries. We may guess 
 that the French Revolution gave these worthies a scare, 
 and that the author was regarded in those days as rather 
 a dangerous man. It would be said that he was dangerous 
 to the community, dangerous to society, and dangerous 
 of course to the nation — that is, the landholders. He 
 himself anticipated all that : see section 37 of his book 
 as to what constitutes " any nation '' ! But I must leave 
 the reader to find out for himself to what extent the 
 work is based upon truth and justice, and how much the 
 author was prompted by love for mankind as the ruling 
 spirit or chief feature of his character. 
 
 The facts known about Ogilvie's life are exceedingly 
 scanty, and would of themselves be of little importance ; 
 but when considered along with the conception we form 
 of the man as displayed on every page of his book, the 
 smallest scrap of authentic information will in these days 
 be of some interest, not only to " men of enlarged and in- 
 quisitive minds," but also to readers in general. It is in 
 the book, however, and in the book alone, that we meet 
 face to face with the author. Ogilvie instilled his soul into 
 
 * Introduction, page 5. 
 
150 Biographical Notes. 
 
 it, and he left us evidence that it was the chief aim of his 
 life. We, therefore, should as soon think of separating 
 the man Isaiah from the Book of Isaiah, as we should of 
 separating the man Ogilvie from the book of Ogilvie. 
 
 By way of cautioning the reader not to look for 
 a sketch of Ogilvie, necessarily made up of disjointed 
 fragments, it may be stated that the order in which 
 these fragments happened to unearth themselves 
 will be followed as far as possible.* The Scotch 
 newspapers and periodicals, published at the time 
 of his death, tell us the bare fact that he died. 
 The reasons for such neglect are obvious. In the 
 first place, Scotland is not peculiar in her dealings 
 with native prophets ; and, secondly, Ogilvie was too 
 advanced in his notions of reform to be considered 
 worthy of any notice in those days. England behaved 
 better. The Times oi 22,rd February, 18 19, in recording 
 the fact of Ogilvie's death, records also this : — 
 
 " Mr. Ogilvie was one of the most accomplished 
 scholars of the age. His talents were of the first order. 
 His taste was of the most refined and correct nature, and 
 the whole of his very prolonged life was passed in the 
 ardent pursuit of knowledge. He died universally ad- 
 mired for his valuable acquirements, and esteemed by 
 all who knew him in private life for the benevolence of 
 his heart and the faithful discharge of every social duty." 
 
 He is buried in the south transept of the Cathedral 
 in Old Aberdeen. A small tablet in the wall describes 
 him as " William Ogilvie, Esquire of Pittensear, in 
 the County of Moray, and Professor of Humanity in 
 the University and King's College, Aberdeen, who died 
 on the 14th February, 1819, aged 83 years ". This tablet 
 
 * A rough cairn is all that can be attempted. 
 
Biographical Notes. 151 
 
 is enough to make us think that we are unearthing the 
 wrong man. Here we have a landlord who is also a 
 University Professor. We know what landlords in 
 general are, and we also know what no less an authority 
 than Adam Smith said about Universities — that they 
 were "the sanctuaries in which exploded systems and 
 obsolete prejudices found shelter and protection after 
 they had been hunted out of every other corner of the 
 world ". When, however, we fin'd Ogilvie hurling this 
 very quotation at his fellow-professors in connection with 
 a University reform he advocated in 1786, and when we 
 also discover that his views and proposals regarding 
 such reform were fully as advanced as his schemes for 
 dealing with property in land, the doubts suggested by 
 the tablet become less formidable. 
 
 There was no expectation of meeting with any 
 direct evidence of the authorship of " The Right of 
 Property in Land," but luckily the discharged account 
 for printing the work was recently discovered along with 
 some of Ogilvie's private papers. The same bundle of 
 papers also contained the following letter from his friend, 
 Thomas Reid, the author oi An Inquiry into the Human 
 Mind :— 
 
 " Glasgow College, 
 •■ April 7, 1789. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " The bearer, Mr. George Gordon, a preacher, 
 wished very much to be introduced to you. As he has 
 been long of my acquaintance, and a young man whom 
 I esteem, I could not refuse him that favour. He is 
 much pleased with An Essay on Landed Property, and 
 cannot see a reason (neither can I) why it should go 
 about like a foundling without its father's name. Men 
 
152 Biographical Notes. 
 
 seem by degrees to improve in the notion of liberty, and 
 I hope likewise will in that of property. But though this 
 earthly globe should be monopolised by a few to the 
 exclusion of others, I hope the intellectual Globe will 
 always be common, and that those who possess the 
 largest share will be still ready to impart to such as are 
 willing to improve it. The bearer professes to belong 
 to this last category, and hopes to increase his stock by 
 a visit to Aberdeen. 
 
 " I am, with much esteem and affection, 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " Your very humble Servant, 
 
 " THO. REID." 
 
 Thomas Reid, it may be mentioned, was a Professor 
 of Philosophy in King's College, Aberdeen, previous to 
 his being chosen, in 1764, as the successor of Adam 
 Smith in Glasgow University. He met Ogilvie in 
 King's College first when Ogilvie was a student there, 
 and subsequently (from 1761 to 1764) as a fellow- 
 professor. 
 
 Let us look for a moment at Reid's letter in the light 
 of its own time. The French Revolution burst forth 
 within two weeks of its date. The fall of the Bastille 
 followed quickly on 14th July. The "father" of the 
 "foundling" was, no doubt, considered a very dangerous 
 man ! He advocated " free inquiry " 1 He stirred up, 
 and even predicted this Revolution. He pointed out 
 (p. 40) that the wrongs and sufferings of the cultivators 
 of the soil had reached a pitch never dreamed of in the 
 philosophy of those times. " But," says he (p. 41), " if the 
 intelligent, and the friends of mankind, will take some 
 pains to inquire into the nature and extent of that 
 
Biographical Notes. 153 
 
 oppression under which the industrious peasants groan 
 in secret, and the force of that exorbitant monopoly from 
 whence their grievances proceed ; and if such men will 
 employ the talents which nature hath given them, in 
 explaining these grievances, and the rigour of that 
 monopoly, to the whole world, Europe, enlightened 
 Europe, will not be able to endure it much longer ; and 
 the subversion — nay, even the abatement — of this 
 monopoly, with the abuses flowing from it, may well 
 deserve to be accounted the best and most valuable 
 fruit of all her refinements and speculations." 
 
 Ogilvie finished his Essay in 1781, eight years before 
 the French Revolution broke out. He was " well aware 
 that great changes suddenly accomplished are always 
 pregnant with danger," and he said so (p. 3), as a 
 warning to the " friends of mankind ". He studied the 
 question in his own careful way beforehand, and, as we 
 have seen, foretold what would happen. But the oppres- 
 sors and their tools turned a deaf ear to all warnings. 
 Every page of his book is full of humane wisdom, and 
 while he manifests great sympathy for the oppressed, his 
 feelings regarding the oppressors are mingled with a kind 
 of sympathetic pity, rather than pure indignation. His 
 very strong sense of justice was balanced and kept within 
 reasonable bounds by his knowledge of the world's his- 
 tory and his study of the Laws of Nature, and especially 
 his study of human nature. 
 
 The temptation to digress and quote is strong, but 
 must be resisted, and the reader is left to make his own 
 digressions in company with the author, and view such 
 collateral facts as the French Revolution, the reforms of 
 Frederick the Great, the conduct of Europe — not 
 "Enlightened Europe" — towards French Independence, 
 
154 Biographical Notes. 
 
 and especially the conduct of England in regard to that 
 crusade ; the condition of British India, the condition 
 of Ireland, the lessons of the American War of 
 Independence, and many other matters of history pro- 
 phetically suggested between the lines. 
 
 The present state of " Enlightened Europe," with its 
 growing evil of military despotism, its heaps of wealth 
 in the hands of a limited number of individuals or 
 syndicates, the terrible increase of public debts, the 
 growing struggle for existence, the appearance of old- 
 world evils in new countries, all mainly due to the 
 general neglect of the natural rights of mankind in this 
 matter of property in land, must suggest to the dullest 
 reader that we are still far from realising what the author 
 looked forward to in the last paragraph of his book, and 
 what his compatriot Burns prayed for, and prophesied 
 thus : — 
 
 " Then let us pray that come it may, 
 as come it will for a' that, 
 That man to man the warld o'er, 
 Shall brothers be for a' that ". 
 
 It is impossible to say that such a lover of mankind 
 as William Ogilvie kept himself willingly behind the 
 scenes during his whole life. It is perhaps more correct 
 to say that he did not ; and that it is only now that the 
 curtain of error and prejudice is being raised. When we 
 know that even Burns's bright star was almost totally 
 obscured in those dark days, what chance could the like 
 of Ogilvie have had? Burns died of hard work and 
 starvation. He carried about with him a broken heart 
 and a shattered frame from the time he was a mere boy, 
 when he was compelled to overwork himself at the 
 plough, at the scythe, and at the flail, trying to assist his 
 
Biographical Notes. 155 
 
 struggling parents to pay an impossible rent. He saw his 
 father murdered — sacrificed on the altar of landlordism, 
 in "Christian," "Bible-loving," "pious," but, then, laird- 
 worshipping Scotland. Burns never recovered from the 
 effects of this landlord oppression to which he was 
 subjected in his youth, and especially the shock of his 
 father's death. Scenes like the following picture of 
 wretched Scotland in those days may have prompted 
 Ogilvie to write his book. It is the "gentleman an' 
 scholar " speaking in the " Twa Dogs " : — 
 
 " L — d, man, our gentry care as little 
 For dclvcrs, ditchers, an' sic cattle ; 
 They gang as saucy by poor folk 
 As I wad by a stinkin' brock. 
 I've notic'd, on our Laird's court-day , 
 An' mony a time my heart's been wae, 
 Poor tenant bodies, scant o' cash, 
 How they maun thole afactor^s snash ; 
 He'll stamp an' threaten, curse an' swear, 
 He'll apprehend them, poind their gear ; 
 While they maun Stan', wi' aspect humble. 
 An' hear it a', an' fear an' tremble ! " 
 
 It was in 1775, when Burns was sixteen years 
 of age, that his soul was impressed by this painful ex- 
 perience. In his autobiography he says : " My father's 
 generous master * died ; the farm proved a ruinous bar- 
 gain ; and, to clench the misfortune, we fell into the 
 hands of a factor who sat for the picture I have drawn of 
 one in my tale of ' The Twa Dogs '. There was a 
 freedom from his lease in two years ; we retrenched our 
 
 * This is the language of serfdom. In the Court of Session {ultra 
 vires). Act of Sederunt of 1756, anent Evictions, the terms used are 
 ■ "masters and tenants". Thus qualified, the word "tenants" legally 
 meant serfs. The bond was called " a lease '■ Mark the words " free- 
 dom from his lease ". The " tenant-at-will " was a mere slave. 
 
IS6 Biograpliical Notes. 
 
 expenses and lived very poorly. A novel writer might 
 perhaps have viewed these scenes with satisfaction ; but 
 so did not I. My indignation yet boils at the recollec- 
 tion of the scoundrel factor's insolent, threatening letters, 
 which used to set us all in tears." These words were 
 penned in August, 1787, and the scene of 1775 was still 
 burning in the soul of the poet. In the interval Adam 
 Smith published his great work, The Wealth of Nations, 
 in 1776, and Ogilvie's book followed. But we should 
 also notice that another Scotsman was before them, 
 namely, Thomas Spence, who, on '8th November, 1775, 
 delivered a lecture before the Philosophical Society of 
 Newcastle, in which he declared, in the strongest terms, 
 that all men " have as equal and just a property in land 
 as they have in liberty, air, or the light and heat of the 
 sun " ; and for the printing of that lecture, the Newcastle 
 philosophers, he tells us, " did him the honour to expel 
 him " from their Society. 
 
 Burns and Spence belonged to what the world calls 
 the lozver orders, whereas William Ogilvie of Pittensear 
 was a born and bred patrician, and was lineally de- 
 scended from Gillecrist, who was the last Maor Mor of 
 Angus, one of the seven provinces of Celtic Scotland. 
 This Gillecrist, having in the reign of Malcolm Canmore 
 dropped the Celtic official designation of Maor Mor for 
 the feudal title of Earl, thus became the ist Earl of 
 Angus. His son Gilbride succeeded him as 2nd 
 Earl. Gilbert, the third son of this 2nd Earl, became 
 the progenitor of the Ogilvie family. On account of 
 having distinguished himself at the Battle of the 
 Standard in 11 38, he obtained from King William a 
 grant of the lands of Ogilvie and others in Angus, and 
 thence assumed the surname of Ogilvie. From this 
 
Biographical Notes. 157 
 
 Gilbert Ogilvie no less than three Scotch earldoms have 
 sprung — namely, Airlie, Findlater, and Seafield. The 
 Ogilvies of Pittensear belonged to the Findlater branch, 
 which branch originally held the two earldoms of 
 Findlater and Seafield. The Seafield peerage, on the 
 failure of males, passed, through a female, to the Grant 
 family in 181 1 ; but the Findlater peerage, being limited 
 to males, then became dormant. The kinship between 
 William Ogilvie and the Earls of Findlater and Seafield 
 was more real and substantial than a mere matter of 
 pedigree. It was through the Earl of Findlater and Sea- 
 field, he himself tells us, that he was appointed Professor 
 at King's College, Aberdeen. In writing to a friend at 
 the time (1761) he says : " I must not forget to tell you 
 that I owe it entirely to Lord Deskfoord, who is certainly 
 of all patrons the most unwearied and generous ".* Lord 
 Deskfoord was then Chancellor of the University and 
 King's College. He became the 6th Earl of Findlater 
 and 3rd Earl of Seafield on the death of his father 
 in July, 1764. Some letters between him and the 
 University authorities,f before and after this date, 
 contain several interesting biographical glimpses of 
 Ogilvie, and they also show the extremely careful 
 diplomacy which had to be exercised in those days in 
 regard to the introduction of any neiv light into 
 universities. 
 
 Ogilvie, like his more distinguished compatriot. Burns, 
 was by birth and lineage an anti-Whig, and, as a man, 
 he must have despised the wirepulling Scotch Whigs of 
 his time as " but a pack 0' traitor louns " ! He was the 
 only son of James Ogilvie of Pittensear, Morayshire, and 
 of Marjory Steuart of Tannachy, in the neighbouring 
 
 * Appendix, II. t Appendix, I., III., &c. 
 
 12 
 
158 Biographical Notes. 
 
 county of Banff. There is no authentic account of his 
 boyhood, but it may be assumed that he was brought up 
 in the little mansion-house of Pittensear, and that he 
 attended the Grammar School at the county town of 
 Elgin until he left home for College. Pittensear House 
 is within three miles of Elgin. 
 
 At the age of nineteen he entered King's College, 
 Aberdeen, as third bursar of his year, 1755-56. He 
 graduated in 1759, and was then appointed Master of 
 the Grammar School at Cullen. He remained in Cullen 
 only for a year. We find him attending the Glasgow 
 University during the winter session of 1760-61, and the 
 Edinburgh University during the winter session of 
 1761-62. In Glasgow, he studied under Dr. Joseph 
 Black, at the very time that eminent chemist was ex- 
 pounding his great discoveries regarding " Latent Heat 
 and Specific Heat," and when James Watt was busy in 
 his little workshop in the College buildings making his 
 great discoveries. We may safely conjecture that Ogilvie 
 paid many visits to that little shop along with Joseph 
 Black and other frequenters, and we may put it down as 
 a certainty that he did not miss the lectures of Adam 
 Smith (author of the Wealth of Nations^, who then oc- 
 cupied the Chair of Moral Philosophy. Among the 
 eminent professors in Edinburgh whose lectures he 
 presumably attended were Dr. Blair, Professor of Rhe- 
 toric, author of Lectures on Belles Lettres ; Dr. Adam 
 Ferguson, then Professor of Natural Philosophy, after- 
 wards of Moral Philosophy, author of an Essay on the 
 History of Civil Society, and a History of the Progress 
 and Termination of the Roman Republic ; and Dr. Cullen, 
 Professor of Chemistry, famous for being the first in 
 Britain to teach chemistry as a science. 
 
Biographical Notes. 159 
 
 Ogilvie was, on the 29th of November, 1761, 
 appointed an Assistant Professor of Philosophy in 
 King's College, Aberdeen, "upon the assurance which 
 the members (of the College) gave Lord Deskfoord that 
 he should be chosen into the first vacant office that 
 might happen of a Regent's place ". 
 
 'Yhs. first vacancy occurred on the i6th of October, 
 1764, when Thomas Reid, Regent and Professor of 
 Philosophy, resigned. A private letter from Lord 
 Deskfoord to Ogilvie * shows clearly that his Lordship 
 was by no means sure of the assurance' 2!oovq. referred to. 
 Careful diplomacy was still required, and Ogilvie had to 
 be warned how to go about getting this assurance ful- 
 filled. Lord Deskfoord was aware, by the time Ogilvie 
 had taught for two years as Assistant Professor, that he 
 had shown himself a little too much as a new light, not- 
 withstanding hints and advices from his Lordship and 
 others to keep himself as much as possible under a bushel, 
 until he became one of the members (or " Masters,'' as 
 the professors were then called) of the University. The 
 " Masters " ivere masters of the situation in those days ! 
 Like landlords and the managers of rotten burghs, they 
 exercised the sole power of appointing their successors. 
 Ogilvie did not begin to teach as a ".Professor of 
 Philosophy '' in King's College until November, 1762, 
 when an engagement under which he was at the time of 
 his appointment, as tutor to a Mr. Graeme, expired. It 
 was also his own desire '' not to leave Edinburgh " 
 during the winter of 1761-62 ; " and, further," says Lord 
 Deskfoord, " he apprehends that his attending the most 
 eminent professors at Edinburgh for this session may 
 
 * Appendix, VI. 
 
i6o Biographical Notes. 
 
 qualify him better than he is at present for teaching 
 afterwards in the College of Aberdeen ". 
 
 It was still the old system of teaching in Aberdeen, 
 and Ogilvie, as a " Professor of Philosophy," was 
 expected to teach the whole circle of the sciences — " the 
 sciences of quantity, of matter, and of mind". There 
 were no separate Professors of Mathematics ; of Natural 
 Philosophy, Natural History, Chemistry, or Botany ; of 
 Logic or Moral Philosophy, in King's College in those 
 days. The three Regents (who were generally styled 
 " Professors of Philosophy ") were expected to teach all 
 these subjects, and also to give lectures on Geology, 
 Meteorology, Astronomy, Natural Theology, Rhetoric, 
 Economics, Jurisprudence, and Politics.* The students, 
 under the old system, did not change from one professor 
 to another ; but each Regent, in his turn, took the second 
 year's class, and carried on the same students continu- 
 ously for three years. 
 
 In 1765, the year after Ogilvie's appointment as full 
 Regent, he exchanged offices with the Professor of 
 Humanity. This gave him greater scope, as all the 
 students attended the Humanity Class. A letter from 
 his friend the Earl of Findlater and Seafield (" the most 
 unwearied and generous of all patrons ") to the Principal 
 of King's College, dated i6th September, 1765, t con- 
 tains interesting information regarding this exchange. 
 This letter is another example of the chancellor's 
 
 * See Account of the King's College of Aberdeen, " drawn up for Sir 
 John Sinclair, in 1798," and " revised by the gentlemen of the College "- 
 Greek, after 1700, was taught by the fourth Regent to the first year's class. 
 
 N.B. — The reader is allowed to guess who the anonymous writer was. 
 The Account looks very like Ogilvie revised. 
 
 t Appendix, VII. 
 
Biographical Notes. 16 1 
 
 diplomatic influence over these Masters. The Chair of 
 Humanity was now raised from " merely teaching the 
 elements of the (Latin) Language," by the addition of 
 " lectures upon Antiquities, History — both Political and 
 Natural— and likewise upon Criticism and Rhetoric ". 
 On the 23rd of September, 1765, the Masters approved 
 of the proposed exchange, and from this date Professor 
 Ogilvie taught the Humanity Class until 18 17,* when, 
 at his own request, an assistant and successor was 
 appointed. " For upwards of half-a-century Prof. 
 Ogilvie was perhaps the most energetic member of 
 Senatus, his decidedly progressive views bringing him 
 not unfrequently into conflict with his more conservative 
 colleagues. The pages of the College Minutes during 
 his incumbency bristle with protests against, and reasons 
 of dissent from, the decision of the majority." t 
 
 During the period from April, 1759, to November, 
 1762, we may take it for granted that Ogilvie lost no 
 opportunity of acquiring such knowledge and accom- 
 plishments as he deemed a professor in those days 
 should possess. Besides his attendance at the Glasgow 
 and Edinburgh Universities, it is most probable that he 
 visited England and the Continent, and made himself 
 acquainted with the various systems of teaching carried 
 on in the principal seats of learning in Europe. He was 
 travelling tutor and companion to Alexander, 4th Duke 
 of Gordon, and the fact of the Duke's having visited 
 the Continent is well known, but there is an uncertainty 
 as to the precise date. It may be mentioned that 
 Adam Smith resigned his professorship in Glasgow 
 
 * See Appendix, p. 
 
 + Note by Mr. P. J. Anderson, Secretary to the New Spalding Club, 
 in Scottish Notes and Queries for June, i88g. 
 
1 62 Biographical Notes. 
 
 about the year 1763, on account of his engagement as 
 travelling tutor and companion to Henry, 3rd Duke 
 of Buccleuch, and as Gordon was Buccleuch's senior 
 by three years, it is not improbable that Gordon and 
 Ogilvie visited the Continent about the years 1760-61, 
 or '62. But be this as it may, the reader will not fail to 
 see from The Right of Property in Land that its author 
 not only visited the Continent of Europe, but that he 
 also made a special study of the condition of its 
 people about the latter half of the eighteenth century. 
 He saw the French Revolution coming, and the causes 
 leading up to it : " The widow is gathering nettles for 
 her children's dinner ; a perfumed seigneur, delicately 
 lounging in the CEil de Bcjeuf, hath an alchemy whereby 
 he will extract from her the third nettle, and call it rent ".* 
 
 He saw Real Misery — 
 
 " When man has reached the last extremity, he 
 comes, at the same time, to the last expedients. Woe 
 to the defenceless beings who surround him ! Work, 
 wages, bread, fire, courage, willingness, — all fail him at 
 once. The light of day seems to die away without, the 
 moral light dies out within ; in this gloom, man meets 
 the weakness of woman and childhood, and puts them 
 by force to ignominious uses. 
 
 " Then all horrors are possible. Despair is sur- 
 rounded by fragile walls, which all open into vice or 
 crime. 
 
 '' Health, youth, honour, the holy and passionate 
 delicacies of the still tender flesh, the heart, virginity, 
 modesty, that epidermis of the soul, are fatally disposed 
 of by that blind groping which seeks for aid, which 
 
 * Carlyle's Past and Present, inspired by Byron, see Age op Bronze 
 XIV. " The grand agrarian alchemy, high rent." 
 
Biographical Notes. 163 
 
 meets degradation, and which accommodates itself to it. 
 Fathers, mothers, children, brothers, sisters, men, women, 
 girls, cling together, and almost grow together like a 
 mineral formation, in that dark promiscuity of sexes, of 
 relationships, of ages, of infancy, of innocence. They 
 crouch down, back to back, in a kind of fate-hovel. 
 They glance at one another sorrowfully. Oh, the un- 
 fortunate ! how pallid they are ! how cold they are ! It 
 seems as though they were on a planet much further 
 from the sun than we." * 
 
 In Ogilvie's time landlordism was most rampant in 
 his own country. He witnessed the passing of the 
 Act 1747, by which military tenure in all Scotland, and 
 the ancient clan tenure in the Highlands, were re- 
 spectively abolished ; and he must have noticed with 
 much pain the establishment of serfdom which followed. 
 He saw oppression, poverty, and misery introduced by 
 "THE REIGN OF LAW AND ORDER "t which then pre- 
 vailed ; and, worst of all, he saw the Scotch peasantry 
 not only submitting to the lawless oppression of the 
 tyrant, but also cringing before the very parasites of 
 squirearchy. 
 
 The soul of Justice as well as the soul of Freedom 
 had fled from Scotland in Ogilvie's time, and he himself 
 was compelled to live as a sort of exile in his own 
 country ! Reader, do not, therefore, wonder that in his 
 book on the Land Question, while he referred to almost 
 every country in the world, he was obliged to draw his 
 pen through Scotland and its people. He refers to 
 England like an Englishman, to Ireland like an Irish- 
 man, and he even stands up as a patriot for Orissa and 
 
 * Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. t See page 30. 
 
164 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Bengal ; but he draws the line sharp and clear when at 
 p. 14 we find him referring to England, Bengal, Egypt, 
 Ireland, " or the northern counties of England " ! At 
 first sight, with the suspicion that Ogilvie was a good 
 old Radical, and certainly not a Scotch Whig whatever 
 he was, I thought that this was a sarcastic reference to 
 Scotland ; but, on consulting his compatriot and con- 
 temporary. Burns, I am satisfied that the omission of all 
 reference to Scotland proceeded from sheer disgust at 
 the utterly slavish condition of his countrymen at the 
 time he wrote. His only hope lay in the adoption by 
 Scotland of the English Revolution principles of 1688. 
 If the Scots, the Irish, and also the French had joined 
 in that Revolution and assisted the English in selecting 
 a Man, instead of a Prince, as chief trustee of those 
 rights and liberties which the Revolution gave birth 
 to, it would have been better for all. Peace and Reform, 
 instead of war and tyranny, would have followed. It was 
 the Prince of Orange that, in 1692, granted the warrant 
 for the Massacre of Glencoe. He, and the intriguers 
 who procured, and the savages who executed, the royal 
 mandate, ought to have been suspended. Scotland was 
 evidently denied English justice as well as English 
 liberty. The Revolutions of 171 5 and 1745 were natural 
 consequences. Some time after 1745, Scotland was made 
 a recruiting ground for an army and a navy used in 
 maintaining the slave trade, and also in fighting against 
 American Independence. Add to this the effect of 
 internal strife between creeds and factions, a corrupt 
 executive government, not to mention landlord oppres- 
 sion, and the words knavery and slavery will suggest 
 themselves as applicable to the condition of the in- 
 habitants of Scotland then. In Ogilvie's time many 
 
Biographical Notes. 165 
 
 thousands were forced to emigrate " in search of their 
 natural rights ". 
 
 On the 25th of June, 1794, Burns wrote to his friend 
 Mrs. Dunlop : " I am just going to trouble your critical 
 patience with the first sketch of a stanza I have been 
 framing as I passed along the road. The subject is 
 Liberty. You know, my honoured friend, how dear 
 the theme is to me. I design it as an irregular Ode for 
 General Washington's Birthday. After having men- 
 tioned the degeneracy of other kingdoms, I come to 
 Scotland, thus : — 
 
 ** Thee, Caledonia, thy wild heaths among. 
 Famed for the martial deed, the heaven-taught song. 
 
 To thee I turn with swimming eyes ; 
 Where is that soul of freedom fled ? 
 Immingled with the mighty dead, 
 
 Beneath that hallowed turf where Wallace lies ! 
 Hear it not, Wallace, in thy bed of death ! 
 
 Ye babbling winds, in silence sweep ; 
 
 Disturb not ye the hero's sleep, 
 Nor give the coward secret breath ! " 
 
 We may take it for granted that after Ogilvie " men- 
 tioned the degeneracy of other kingdoms," he also 
 turned to Scotland "with swimming eyes". His soul 
 and the soul of Burns harmonized regarding "that 
 hallowed turf": and can we doubt that an inward voice 
 said to him, " Disturb not ye the hero's sleep " ? As a 
 fact, he did obey a voice of that kind. Burns drew his 
 inspiration from facts. We shall see that his picture of 
 Scotland as the grave of Freedom is by no means a fancy 
 sketch. 
 
 Thomas Muir, Younger of Huntershill, a member 
 of the Scottish Bar, but better known as the "Political 
 
1 66 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Martyr of 1793," was on the 30th August of that year 
 tried before the High Court at Edinburgh, for the crime 
 of having attended one or two public meetings in con- 
 nection with the extension of the franchise, which was 
 then strictly limited to landlords. For this heinous crime 
 he was sentenced to fourteen years' transportation — to 
 death, it may be said, for the sentence directly led to a 
 premature grave. The trial was conducted in the most 
 insulting way possible, not to speak of the treasonable 
 manner in which a landlord judge and jury (a servile 
 Bar aiding and abetting) trampled the British Constitu- 
 tion under foot. As for justice, there was not even the 
 form, of it observed. The jury was a packed one. It 
 consisted of nine landlords, one bookseller, two bankers, 
 and three Edinburgh merchants ; and when one of these 
 merchants (Mr. John Horner) was passing the bench to 
 get into the box, Lord Braxfield, in a whisper, addressed 
 him thus : " Come awa, Maister Horner, come awa, and 
 help us to hang ane o' thae damned scoundrels ". The 
 same judge was in the habit of saying, when any 
 legal difficulty occurred in framing libels against such 
 criminals as Thomas Muir, William Ogilvie, or Robert 
 Burns : " Let them bring me prisoners and I'll find 
 them law ". 
 
 What a farce to sing Scots wha hae or Rule Britannia 
 in a country whose people would suffer the insolence of 
 an unhanged Braxfield for twenty-four hours. 
 
 I should have preferred not to soil these pages with 
 the name of Braxfield, but as I believe he betrayed 
 his knowledge of Ogilvie's book, by making the worst 
 possible use of it at Muir's trial, I am disposed to return 
 good for evil by doing his Lordship the honour of giving 
 a quotation from his speech on that occasion, and 
 
Biographical Notes. 
 
 167 
 
 placing it alongside Ogilvie as a first-rate argument in 
 
 favour of the Single Tax.* 
 
 Braxfield. Ogilvie. 
 
 " A government in every " It is indeed the landed 
 
 country should be just like property of the nation that 
 
 a corporation, and in this is ultimately aud solely en- 
 gaged for all national debts ; 
 every other species of pro- 
 perty may be concealed, trans- 
 ferred, or withdrawn, when 
 the demand for payment is 
 apprehended. It is there- 
 fore to be vsfished, for the 
 security of public credit 
 . . . that property in land 
 were exceedingly divided ; 
 so that every person had 
 a share. ... It becomes 
 even the interest of the 
 great landholders, that such 
 a distribution of property in 
 land should take place. . . . 
 So that every member {of so- 
 ciety) may be rendered re- 
 sponsible for the public debt" 
 
 (P- 75)- 
 
 country it is made up of 
 THE LANDED INTEREST, 
 WHICH ALONE HAS ARIGHT 
 TO BE REPRESENTED. As 
 FOR THE RABBLE, WHO 
 HAVE NOTHING BUT PER- 
 SONAL PROPERTY, WHAT 
 HOLD HAS THE NATION 
 
 OF THEM? What secu- 
 rity FOR THE PAYMENT 
 OF THEIR TAXES ? THEY 
 MAY PACK UP ALL THEIR 
 PROPERTY ON THEIR BACKS 
 AND LEAVE THE COUNTRY 
 IN THE TWINKLING OF AN 
 
 EYE, BUT LANDED 
 PROPERTY CANNOT 
 BE REMOVED."— The 
 Martyrs of Reform in Scot- 
 land, by A. H. Miller. 
 
 * The argument is also most relevant in respect to the National Debt. 
 It is now the rabble's turn to say: "What hold has the nation of ms.^" 
 Nay, more, they stand as Jirst and preferable Bondholders as regards all 
 interest already advanced by them on behalf of the Nation, on the security 
 01 " landed property " which " cannot be removed ". This applies to all 
 Britain. With regard to Irish land it should be made liable for the wages, 
 clothes, weapons, ammunition, &c., required by 14,000 Peons, together 
 with the extra expense of Regular Military force for rent collecting and 
 eviction purposes, over and above a share of the National Debt. 
 
1 68 Biographical Notes. 
 
 " When mention is made in political reasonings of the 
 interest of any nation " (says Ogilvie, p. 33), ''and those 
 circumstances by which it is supposed to be injured or 
 promoted are canvassed, it is generally the interest of 
 the landholders that is kept in view." How true ! And 
 ought we not to thank Braxfield for giving us such a 
 confirmation and admission of the truth stated by 
 Ogilvie ? Braxfield played the villain so well that the 
 dullest among the gods cannot now fail to understand the 
 Play of Landlordism. 
 
 It is interesting to note that Burns wrote his Revolu- 
 tion song, " Scots ! wha hae wi' Wallace bled," in Sep- 
 tember, 1793, immediately after the sentence of Thomas 
 Muir. On the 30th of the same month he presented to 
 the Subscription Library of Dumfries a copy of De 
 Lolme on the British Constitution, on which he inscribed 
 the following words : " Mr. Burns presents this book to 
 the Library, and begs they will take it as a creed of 
 British Liberty, until they find a better. — R. B." The 
 significance of this present at the time he composed 
 " Scots ! wha hae," and when Thomas Muir and other 
 worthy " sons " were in " chains," will be clearly under- 
 stood from the following passage which De Lolme 
 quotes, in Chapter XIV. of his book, from Blackstone's 
 Commentaries on the Law of England (Book I., Cap. I.), 
 in reference to the lawfulness of Revolution, whenever the 
 rights of the people are trampled upon. 
 
 Blackstone says : — 
 
 " And lastly, to vindicate those rights, when actually 
 violated or attacked, the subjects of England are en- 
 titled, in the first place, to the regular administration and 
 free course of justice in the courts of law ; next, to the 
 right of petitioning the King and Parliament for redress 
 
Biographical Notes. 169 
 
 of grievances ; and lastly, TO THE RIGHT OF HAVING 
 AND USING ARMS FOR SELF-PRESERVATION AND DE- 
 FENCE". 
 
 These were the principles of the English Revolution 
 settlement of 1688, and upon which the British Constitu- 
 tion was based. Considering the very complete know- 
 ledge of the legal rights of British citizens, that Burns 
 possessed through his study of De Lolme's admirable 
 book, and his own very keen sense of man's natural 
 rights, together with his extreme abhorrence at all forms 
 of injustice, and especially when such injustice is per- 
 petrated in the name of LAW AND ORDER, we need not 
 waste much time in speculating as to how he felt on 
 hearing the result of Thomas Muir's trial. It is enough 
 to say that he there and then composed a war song for 
 Scotland — a Marseillaise ! 
 
 He himself has not left us in any doubt. Here are 
 his words : — 
 
 " I showed the air (' Hey tuttie taitie ') to Urbani,* 
 who was highly pleased with it, and begged me to make 
 soft verses to it ; but I had no idea of giving myself any 
 trouble on the subject till the accidental recollection of 
 that glorious struggle for freedom, associated with the 
 glowing ideas of some other struggles of the same nature, 
 not quite so ancient, roused my rhyming mania".-f- Mark 
 
 * Pietro Urbani, an Italian musician, who met Burns at St. Mary's 
 Isle, the seat of Lord Selkirk, on 31st July, 1793, the day before Burns's 
 ride with Mr. Syme " in the middle of tempests over the wildest Galloway 
 moor," when " Scots wha hae" was thought, through the suppression 
 of the correct date, to have been composed. 
 
 t Letter, sending "Scots wha hae,'' to Mr. Thomson, dated 
 " September, 1793," received in Edinburgh on the 3rd or 4th, and replied 
 to on the 5th. Referring to the old air "Hey, tuttie, taitie," Burns 
 says, " There is a tradition, which I have met with in many places in 
 
I/O Biographical Notes. 
 
 the words, not quite so ancient, which Burns himself 
 puts in italics. Then let us ask ourselves whether this 
 soul-stirring Ode was not a real cry to arms against 
 Braxiield and Company ? Let us look at the Ode itself 
 and the short prayer to God with which it concludes, 
 and ask ourselves whether Burns had the English 
 Edward or the Scotch landlords in his mind's eye at 
 the time he wrote it, and let us not forget that he 
 thoroughly approved of adopting the English Constitu- 
 tion in Scotland, and that he by no means wished to 
 revive old national feuds. 
 
 " By Oppression's woes and pains ! 
 By your Sons in servile chains ! 
 We will drain our dearest veins, 
 
 But they shall be free ! 
 Lay the proud Usurpers low ! 
 Tyrants fall in every foe ! 
 LIBERTY'S in every blow !— 
 
 Let us Do — or Die !!! " 
 
 " So may God ever defend the cause of Truth and 
 Liberty as He did that day ! Amen ! — R. B." 
 
 Here we have Burns at bay. There were then only 
 2652 Parliamentary voters in Scotland.* This number 
 
 Scotland — that it was Robert Bruce's march at the battle of Bannockburn, 
 This thought, in my yesternight's evening walk, warmed me to a pitch of 
 enthusiasm on the theme of liberty and independence, which I threw 
 into a kind of Scottish ode fitted to the air, that one might suppose to be 
 the gallant royal Scot's address to his heroic followers on that eventful 
 morning." The words "my yesternight's evening walk," were changed 
 by Dr. Currie into " my solitary wanderings," and this error was not 
 discovered until shortly before Mr. Robert Chambers of Edinburgh 
 pubHshed his edition of Burns's works in 1857. Dr. Currie's edition was 
 published specially for behoof of Burns's widow and children, and many 
 * These were the Nation a la Braxfield ! 
 
Biographical Notes. 171 
 
 included all the landed gentry and their faggots. These 
 were undoubtedly the " proud usurpers " who caused the 
 "oppressions, woes, and pains," referred to by our patriot 
 bard. 
 
 We must not forget another circumstance. When 
 Thomas Muir was apprehended on 2nd January, 1793, 
 Burns was at that very time being court-marshalled by 
 the Board of Excise for a similar crime ! On Sth Janu- 
 ary, in a letter to his friend Mrs. Dunlop, he says : " The 
 political blast that threatened my welfare is overblown ". 
 On the same day he writes to Mr. Graham of Fintry, 
 who was mainly instrumental in shielding him from 
 that " blast,'' making the solemn promise — " henceforth 
 I seal my lips ". 
 
 What happened in the interval between the 5th 
 of January and September, 1793, the reader already 
 knows. He also knows that Burns broke his vow. 
 The soul of Burns could not be caged. The theme 
 of Liberty was a part of it, and death only could 
 
 things were suppressed through fear of being boycotted by the "classes". 
 It will be seen that the news of the brutal sentence passed on Thomas 
 Muir would reach Dumfries, in those days, on 31st August or ist 
 September, 1793. The "yesternight's evening walk" which produced 
 " Scots wha hae" must have been on Sunday the ist or Monday the 2nd, 
 and Burns must have despatched it on the 2nd or 3rd, more probably ths 
 2nd, as Mr Thomson says he read it to some friends in Edinburgh on 
 the 4th. 
 
 Mr. Thomson wanted Burns to alter this ode, but Burns refused. 
 He writes on 15th September, in reply to Mr. Thomson, stating that the 
 proposed alterations would "make it tame", "I have (he said) 
 scrutinised it over and over ; and to the world, some way or other, it 
 shall go as it is." The world's verdict is in favour of the poet. " So 
 long (says Carlyle) as there is warm blood in the heart of Scotchman or 
 man, it will move in fierce thrills under this war ode ; the best we believe 
 that was ever written by any pen." 
 
172 Biographical Notes. 
 
 close those lips. He was not a coward. The man 
 who wrote — 
 
 " Wha will be a traitor knave ? 
 Wha can fill a coward's grave ? 
 Wha sae base as be a slave ? 
 Let him turn and flee ! " 
 
 in September, 1793, meant what he said. He meant 
 Revolution. We must not go about the bush in stating 
 this. To do so would imply a cowardly slander on Burns. 
 Alas ! Caledonia — 
 
 " Where is thy soul of fi'eedom fled ? " 
 
 For nine weary months Burns waits in vain for a 
 response to his song of war : Scotland was no longer 
 the land of the free. To the eye of Burns it was now the 
 very burying ground of Liberty. The great soul of the 
 poet is then borne away on its own soliloquy : — 
 
 " Swiftly seek, on clanging wings, 
 Other lakes and other springs ; 
 And the foe you cannot brave, 
 Scorn at least to be its slave." 
 
 To HIS COUNTRYMEN HE BIDS THIS FAREWELL: — 
 
 " Avaunt ! thou caitiff servile, base, 
 
 That tremblest at a despot's nod, 
 Yet, crouching under the iron rod. 
 
 Canst laud the arm that struck the insulting blow ! 
 Art thou of Man's imperial line ? 
 Dost boast that countenance divine ? 
 
 Each skulking feature answers, No ! " 
 
 And he hails the Americans thus : — 
 
 " But come, ye sons of Liberty, 
 
 Columbia's offspring, brave as free, 
 In danger's hour still flaming in the van, 
 Ye KNOW, and dare maintain, the royalty of man ! " 
 
 These lines are quoted from the Ode to Liberty already 
 referred to, a stanza of which was sent by the poet to 
 
Biographical Notes. 173 
 
 Mrs. Dunlop in June, 1794. The remainder was 
 mMUlRED until 1872 (!), when Mr. Robert Clarke of Cin- 
 cinnati purchased the original MS. in London, and to 
 him the world is indebted for its first publication. This 
 Ode forms a key to the real intention, feeling, and pur- 
 pose of " Scots ! wha hae ". They should be read to- 
 gether. And if the reader wants to see further into the 
 soul of Burns, in regard to the theme of LIBERTY, 
 from and after September, 1793, he will find Scotland 
 dealt with precisely as in Ogilvie's book. His " Tree 
 OF Liberty," composed in 1794 (but boycotted until 
 1838),* ends with these lines : — 
 
 " Syne let us pray, auld England may 
 Sure plant this far-famed tree, man ; 
 And blythe we'll sing, and hail the day 
 That gave us Liberty, man ". 
 
 And in the eighty-four preceding lines, the word 
 " Britain " occurs twice, while, as in Ogilvie's book, Scot- 
 land is conspicuous by its absence ! But this is not all, — 
 precisely like Ogilvie, he draws the line sharp and clear, 
 thus : — 
 
 " But seek the forest round and round, 
 And soon 'twill be agreed, man, 
 That sic a tree can not be found 
 
 'Twixt London and the Tweed, man ". 
 
 * This and other Odes by Burns expressing similar sentiments are 
 still boycotted. W. Scott Douglas and A. Cunningham found fault with 
 Robert Chambers for publishing such Odes. Robert Chambers himself 
 says, that — "Is therefor honest poverty " embodies "all the false philo- 
 sophy of Burns' time, and of his own mind ". These cringing editors 
 have done much injustice to the ' ' honest fame " of Burns. They should 
 have seen themselves as others see them, in the Poet's letter of 13th April, 
 I793i to Erskine of Mar, where he says — " I have often, in blasting anti- 
 cipation, listened to some hackney scribbler, with the heavy malice of 
 savage stupidity, exulting in his hireling paragraphs ". These editors 
 knew about the real date of " Scots ! wha hae," as far back as 1839. 
 
 13 
 
174 Biographical Notes. 
 
 In the next verse a painful view of Scotland appears 
 between the lines : — 
 
 "Without this tree, alake this life 
 
 Is but a vale o' woe, man ; 
 A scene o' sorrow mixed wi' strife, 
 
 Nae real joys we know, man. 
 We labour soon, we labour late, 
 
 To feed the titled knave, man ; 
 And a' the comfort we're to get 
 
 Is that ayont the grave, man." 
 
 In the year 1795 the lessons of the French Revolution 
 were beginning to make some headway in Scotland. An 
 invasion was imminent. The NATION then evidently 
 saw that although " landed property cannot be removed" 
 the removal of the landlords presented very little diffi- 
 culty. What a pity the "rabble" did not see eye to eye 
 with the " Nation " at that time ! The rabble were 
 then invoked to defend their king and country. Mark 
 the words " their country ". Volunteer (?) corps were 
 formed in many districts in Scotland, Dumfries included. 
 Burns had to join, and was forced to incur a deathbed 
 debt in buying a uniform. In a ballad headed " The 
 Dumfries Volunteers," composed in 1795, Scotland is 
 again conspicuous by its absence : — 
 
 " Oh, let us not like snarling curs 
 
 In wrangling be divided, 
 Till, slap, come in an unco loon, 
 
 And wi' a rung decide it. 
 Be Britain still to Britain true, 
 
 Amang oursel's united ; 
 For never but by British hands 
 
 Maun British wrangs be righted." 
 
 These lines also form a key to " Scots ! wha hae ". 
 Numerous keys can be had. Take, for instance, the 
 
Biographical Notes. 175 
 
 following lines written by him in 1794 in a lady's pocket- 
 book : — 
 
 " Grant me, indulgent Heaven, that I may live 
 To see the miscreants feel the pains they give : 
 Deal Freedom's sacred treasures free as air. 
 Till slave and despot be but things that were ''. 
 
 These, it is obvious, were living miscreants, not the 
 followers of " Proud Edward," and it is to them, and them 
 alone, that he refers in September, 1793, when he uses the 
 words : — 
 
 " Lay the proud usurpers low ! 
 Tyrants fall in every foe ! 
 Liberty's in every blow ! 
 
 Let us Do— or Die!!!" 
 
 Burns, like Ogilvie, was a philosophical admirer of Eng- 
 lish freedom as well as an ardent believer in the Revolu- 
 tion principles of 1688. He was not the man to revive 
 Border feuds. The reference to Wallace and Bruce in 
 " Scots ! wha hae," doubtless was intended to rouse and 
 stir up the ''rabble" of 1793. The "woes and pains" and 
 " servile chains " have nothing to do with England or 
 " Proud Edward ". Burns was thoroughly loyal to the 
 British Constitution : at a volunteer festive gathering in 
 1795, when asked to give a toast, the following are the 
 concluding lines of it : — 
 
 " And here's the grand fabric, our free Constitution, 
 As built on the base of the Great Revolution ; 
 And longer with politics not to be crammed, 
 Be anarchy cursed, and be tyranny damned ; 
 And who would to Liberty e'er prove disloyal, 
 May his son be a hangman, and he his first trial ! " 
 
 These are brave words ; and we can almost see not only 
 
176 Biographical Notes. 
 
 the Dumfries gentry* but also the Edinburgh gentry, 
 " Old Braxy " included, cringing under the truth, justice, 
 and heroism which inspired the soul of the author of 
 " Scots ! wha hae ". In a country under tyrannical rule, 
 as Scotland was then, it was only natural that about one 
 half of the people should be Government spies and the 
 other half cowards. Burns, although he was an excise- 
 man at ;^so a year, and only £^$ when off duty on 
 account of ill-health, was not a spy. Various attempts 
 were made to coerce him to join the other party ; and 
 his faith was often put to the test in connection with 
 " Loyal " toasts. On such occasions he took the oppor- 
 tunity of trampling on the maggots and flies which 
 were then changing the British Constitution into a 
 veritable mass of corruption. These parasites gloried 
 in toasting '■^ King and Country I " Their Country ! and 
 their King ! Yet they expected the " rabble " not only 
 to respond to such toasts, but, when any battles had to 
 be fought on behalf of the " Nation," the " rabble" were 
 expected to do this also. Nay, the " rabble " were, 
 as a rule, coerced to fight the " Nation's " battles. 
 In the West Highlands, men were hunted, caught, and, 
 
 * " There is reason to believe that, in his latter years, the Dumfries 
 Aristocracy had partly withdrawn themselves from Burns, as from a 
 tainted person. That painful class, stationed, in all provincial cities, be- 
 hind the outmost breast-work of gentility, there to stand siege, and do 
 battle against the intrusions of grocerdom and grazierdom, had actually 
 seen dishonour in the society of Burns and branded him with their veto, 
 had, as we vulgarly say, cut him ! Alas! when we think that Burns now 
 sleeps 'where bitter indignation can no longer lacerate his heart,' and 
 that those fair dames and frizzled gentlemen already lie at his side — 
 where the breast-work of gentility is quite thrown down,— who would not 
 sigh over the thin delusions and foolish toys that divide heart from heart, 
 and make man unmerciful to his brother ! " — Thomas Carlyle, 1828. 
 
Biographical Notes. ITJ 
 
 if they refused to be sworn in, they were bound hand 
 and foot, and thrown into a dungeon in the laird's 
 house. They were dragged out of this dungeon once a 
 day, and the soles of their feet, after being first rubbed 
 with grease, were held up to a roasting fire. This re- 
 peated ordeal, as a rule, led to all the swearing-in required 
 even in the making of a dragoon. In the Eastern High- 
 lands (Aberdeenshire), " hanging by the heels " was 
 sometimes resorted to as a preliminary to swearing-in. 
 
 Auld Willie MacPherson of Loch Kinnord, an octo- 
 genarian, who died a few years ago, used to tell of a 
 widow's only son, who was murdered by the laird in that 
 way. An eye-witness had described to him '' what a 
 terrible thing it was to see the poor fellow hanging by 
 the feet, and the blood pouring out of his nose, eyes, 
 and ears ". This sight was, doubtless, intended to be 
 a " terrible " one. Yes, to serfs and cowards. But to 
 any human beings worthily called men or women, such 
 a sight would be revolting, and we may assume that 
 atrocious spectacles of that kind are possible only in 
 countries where, the inhabitants are brutalized by 
 tyranny, and the human soul is steeped in the ignorance 
 and superstition of priestcraft. We may safely conjec- 
 ture that the parish clergyman dined with the laird the 
 same day the murder was committed, and that he after- 
 wards visited the sonless widow, and lectured her from 
 The Larger Catechism " as to the great sin her foolish 
 and wicked son had committed in rebelling against 
 God's authority, of which the laird was only the instru- 
 ment ". 
 
 Burns and Ogilvie could not possibly be anything 
 else than Revolutionists. They were not, however, 
 tried before an Edinburgh jury ; neither was Moses tried 
 
178 Biographical Notes. 
 
 before an Egyptian Braxfield. Poor Thomas Muir did 
 not grasp the nettle firmly enough. He was only a 
 Reformer, and, being somewhat lamb-like in his ways, 
 he was considered a tender morsel by the " hounds 
 which growl in the Kennel of Justice," as Burns de- 
 scribes the Scotch Executive of Law and Order of his 
 time. 
 
 Thomas Muir wanted to extend the franchise— to give 
 people a paper vote — a phantom reform — which, com- 
 pared with Ogilvie's scheme, may be described as a system 
 of political tinkering, giving rise to disappointment on 
 the one hand, and dissatisfaction with increased dis- 
 contentment on the other. Ogilvie's equal-share-in-the- 
 land would carry with it, as the law of representation 
 then stood, not only manhood suffrage, but womanhood 
 suffrage also. And why not ? Take any man or 
 woman, and ask yourself, why either the one or the 
 other should be denied the right (so long as such right 
 is not forfeited by some misconduct or crime) of being 
 represented in the Council of the nation, in regard to 
 the ruling of the country, the making, altering, or re- 
 pealing of its laws ? 
 
 If A. makes a law, and coerces B. to keep it, B. 
 stands in the relation of slave to A. It is equally true 
 that if A. owns the land, and B. has to go to A. " seek- 
 ing work," or must "beg for leave to toil," B. is the 
 slave of A. We thus see the double relationship of 
 master and slave which existed between the landholder 
 and the people in Ogilvie's time — always keeping in 
 view that the landholder was also the sole legislator. 
 
 Ogilvie's single and simple remedy was quite ample 
 for sweeping away the double and compound evils of 
 modern landlordism, and we now see what a wise and 
 
Biographical Notes. 179 
 
 practical radical reformer he was. But how sad to 
 think, that we, in the British Isles, who boast so much 
 of our civilization, are still kept in ignorance of those 
 elementary truths regarding our natural rights. Yes, 
 kept I It seems to be the special duty of those who 
 " fatten on the wages of servility " to keep the people 
 as ignorant as possible. And until recently any 
 " agitator '' who dared to instruct his fellow-men, in re- 
 gard to their rights, was held guilty of high treason and 
 sedition. This, by the way, is still a crime, not only in 
 Ireland, but also in England and Scotland. Have we 
 not lately witnessed the degradation of these so-called 
 " free countries " by the arrest of Irish refugees on 
 British soil. These things act as a spur to the slow but 
 sure Revolution now going on in Ireland, and partly in 
 Scotland ; and no one can wisely grudge a little spurring. 
 The British Constitution is no longer " the glory of 
 Britons and the envy of foreign nations," as our 
 parochial essayists used to tell us. Even England — 
 "merry England" — the "home of freedom " — is not 
 now so merry or so free as she once was ; but it re- 
 quires no prophet to foresee that her time of waken- 
 ing up, and reverting to the Revolution principles of 
 1688 as a basis of restoring the Rights of her People, 
 and the happiness of their homes, cannot be far distant. 
 The England of 1688, and even the England of 178 1, 
 was held up by Ogilvie as head and shoulders above 
 all other countries " under the sun," in regard to Liberty 
 and Humanity ; and he pointed to the pre-eminence 
 and power of the English nation as the direct fruit of 
 such Liberty and Humanity. In his time, all Europe, 
 including the enlightened French and the bold Prussians, 
 tolerated that form of human slavery called serfdom. 
 
i8o Biographical Notes. 
 
 The Great Frederick, referred to by Ogilvie as a 
 capable land law reformer, was, after all, only a king of 
 serfs. 
 
 The law of. England, Ogilvie tells us, was derived 
 from the "same absurd and pernicious principles of 
 jurisprudence" that permitted serfdom on the Continent 
 of Europe; "yet," says he, "such has been the generosity 
 of English landholders, such their equitable conduct 
 towards their tenants and dependants, and such the 
 manly spirit of the lower classes, fostered by a sense of 
 political rights, that in England the comfortable inde- 
 pendence of the farmer and actual cultivator of the soil, 
 is established on as secure a footing as the most refined 
 system of property in land deduced from the genuine 
 principles of public good and natural right can propose 
 to render effectual and permanent". The just claims of 
 the " lower ranks of mankind " are not forgotten, as in 
 the case of recent Irish and Scotch land legislation. 
 He says : " It is to be regretted only that this comfort- 
 able independence which the farmers enjoy cannot be 
 extended to a still greater proportion of the community". 
 He stirs up the Continent, and also Ireland and 
 Scotland, to cast off serfdom, and points to the national 
 blessings which followed its abolition in England : 
 " English landholders and English farmers are superior 
 in all respects to the same class of men in other countries : 
 in their manly vigour, their plain good sense, their 
 humane virtues, consists the true basis of our national 
 pre-eminence. Their blood circulates in every rank of 
 society ; their domestic manners have given the tone to 
 the English character as displayed in all the various 
 departments of business and enterprize ; nor can any 
 wish be formed more favourable to the prosperity of the 
 
Biographical Notes. i8i 
 
 public, than that the numbers of this class of men may 
 be increased." 
 
 But he is by no means fully satisfied with the position 
 of the English tenant. He gives a quiet slap to the 
 EngHsh aristocratic form of government — a government 
 of landlords — which makes Land Law Reform more im- 
 possible than the absolute despotism of the notorious 
 Pharaoh. This is what he says : " To increase the 
 number of landholders, by advancing farmers to that 
 more independent situation, CAN NEVER BE MADE THE 
 OBJECT OF LEGISLATIVE CARE IN THIS COUNTRY, AS 
 IT MIGHT IN THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHIES OF THE 
 Continent ; but to increase the number of farmers, by 
 favouring the advancement of day labourers and manu- 
 facturers to the more animating and manly occupation 
 of cultivating a small farm for their own account, is an 
 object very similar to many branches of enlightened 
 policy which the British Legislature (more than any 
 other) has pursued with attention and success". 
 
 These words were penned by Ogilvie in the year 1781. 
 " Many things have happened since then ! " Serfdom 
 has been abolished in France, in Prussia, and also in 
 Russia. The natural result followed. These countries 
 have risen in pre-eminence and power corresponding to 
 the scale of freedom and justice which they respectively 
 adopted. 
 
 Where stands England now? 
 
 Consider the hundreds of thousands — the millions! — 
 of Englishmen and Englishwomen who are expatriated 
 from the soil, who are starving and worse off than the 
 slaves and savages of ancient times. In this Christian 
 country we require 1 1,000 policemen in London alone, 
 with a large military force in reserve. 
 
i82 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Compare the condition of her peasantry in former 
 times, when the farmer and the labourer dined together 
 every Sunday, with the present sad condition of the 
 English rustic coolie, with starvation wages of I2s. per 
 week ; is. 6d. of which he requires for house rent, and 
 los. 6d. is all he has to provide food and clothing for 
 himself, wife, and family. His life is a slow but sure 
 march to the workhouse and a beggar's grave ! 
 
 Let us now look at the contents of a small but interest- 
 ing MS. — interesting to the reader of THE RIGHT OF 
 Property in Land. It is unsigned, but it is undoubt- 
 edly in the handwriting of Professor Ogilvie : — 
 
 "PiTTENSEAE, September i2th, 1776. 
 
 "It seems highly probable that this distemper, what- 
 ever be its nature, will rernove me from the present scene. 
 
 " I ought surely to depart without reluctance and re- 
 pining, having abundant reason to return thanks for that 
 portion of life and that measure of good which I have 
 already enjoyed, which seems to have exceeded, at least 
 in tranquillity and contentment, the common standard of 
 what is allowed to man. I have only to implore that 
 some time may be allowed for the settlement of the 
 affairs I leave behind me, and, if possible, to reduce into 
 some form a synopsis at least of those contemplations 
 and schemes which have occurred at various times to my 
 mind, as of importance to the general welfare of mankind 
 and the improvement of their present state. 
 
 " It ought to be my care to apply with assiduity what- 
 ever time is given to these respective purposes, but with- 
 out anxiety or repining, because both these must neces- 
 sarily be left very incomplete ; to turn away my thoughts 
 from all that is probable to take place in my affairs 
 
Biographical Notes. 183 
 
 when I am here no more, except so far as may be use- 
 ful in suggesting useful direction to my nearest friends 
 to be left them in writing, but without subjection to any 
 positive commands. May it please that Sovereign 
 Power, from whom I have received so many good gifts, 
 to grant me now evdavaaia an easy and tranquil dismis- 
 sion from this mortal stage, or, if that may not be, at 
 least may He vouchsafe that amid the pain and agonies 
 through which I am to pass my patience may be sus- 
 tained and the use of my reasoning powers remain un- 
 disturbed to the last parting pang." 
 
 Pittensear, the reader already knows, was Professor 
 Ogilvie's ancestral home. The date suggests many digres- 
 sions which must be brushed aside. But one or two 
 may be glanced at. The 4th of July, 1776, had just 
 given birth to the great American Republic,* and the 
 news of the event was creating some stir in the Mother 
 Country. The domineering British landlords — the 
 Nation ! — were busy enlisting the sons of the British 
 "rabble"— 
 
 " To cowe the rebel generation, 
 And save the honour o' the Nation ! " 
 
 The ignorant "rabble" enlisted and agreed to cut the 
 throats of their cousins in America. It was Law and 
 Order, and they are sworn by all that's holy to fight 
 for their King and Country ! But in reality they fought 
 for the purpose of coercing the Americans to pay a tax 
 upon tea, imposed by British landlords, to enable them- 
 selves to pocket more of the rents earned by the culti- 
 vators of British soil. 
 
 * See Section 60 of the " Synopsis ". 
 
184 Biographical Notes. 
 
 " Safe in their barns, these Sabine tillers sent 
 Their brethren out to battle — why ?— for rent ! 
 Year after year they voted cent, per cent., 
 Blood, sweat, and tear-wrung millions — why ?— for rent ! 
 They roar'd, they dined, they drank, they swore they meant 
 To die for England — why then live ? — for rent ! " 
 
 From the year 1770 to 1782, the British landlords 
 increased the NATIONAL Debt ;^ 100,000,000! 
 
 " And will THEY not repay the treasures lent ? — 
 No : down with everything and up with rent ! " 
 
 The American War was begun and continued by the 
 British landlords, a Puppet-King, and the usual " Law 
 and Order " tail of political parasites which then, as 
 now, consisted of lawyers, clergymen, and the scum of 
 the pothouse. The jingoes existed then, although their 
 natural history was somewhat neglected until Lord 
 Beaconsfield's time. 
 
 " For little fleas have lesser fleas 
 Upon their backs to bite 'em ! 
 And these fleas have lesser fleas, 
 And so — ad infinitum ! " 
 
 A very clear idea may be formed of Ogilvie's character, 
 as a far-seeing practical politician, by reading sections 
 34, 41, 47, 57, and 74 of his book, where he refers to the 
 advantages of American freedom as compared with 
 European serfdom and oppression. And it is worthy of 
 notice that he warned the Americans against adopting 
 the Feudal System of European landlordism. 
 
 It is quite plain that the Wealth of Nations (published 
 in 1776) did not come up to Ogilvie's expectations in 
 regard to property in land. There is no doubt Adam 
 Smith was boycotted by the Law and Order of those 
 times, and coerced to modify and delete whole chapters 
 
Biographical Notes. 185 
 
 referring to the landlords, as being seditious and unfit 
 for publication. Ogilvie, as we have seen, had regard to 
 a higher " power '' than the Law and Order of a set of 
 petty tyrants, when he formed his resolution to publish 
 his " contemplations and schemes ". His book is a 
 monument of truth, wisdom, and courage. His magna- 
 nimity was unbounded ; his heart overflowed with love 
 and genuine sympathy towards mankind. Like Moses, 
 he set himself to free an enslaved people : enslaved, 
 because ignorant of their natural rights; powerless, 
 because wanting the source of all power — knowledge. 
 Like Moses, he advises mankind to take their stand, 
 upon the earth, by practically adopting the First Com- 
 mandment — Thou shalt have no other gods, dukes, earls, 
 lords, landlords, or other land-grabbers, coming between 
 you and the Creator of the earth, as regards the birth- 
 right of every human creature. He regarded not the 
 alleged heavenly rights of earthly kings or their vassals. 
 The golden calf of commercial landlordism he detested 
 even more than all the superstitious kingcraft and 
 priestcraft of ancient Egypt. 
 
 It is evident that The Right of Property in Land was 
 the great aim of his life. Nay, more, we can see that 
 it came forth from his soul as the fulfilment of a sacred 
 undertaking with " that Sovereign Power, from whom," 
 he acknowledges with overwhelming gratitude, he 
 " received so many good gifts ". He was then in his 
 fortieth year. His health had utterly broken down 
 through over-study and sedentary habits.* He re- 
 covered his health, and lived for upwards of forty-two 
 years after this. He, however, did not allow much 
 
 * Letter from his friend and colleague, John Ross, Professor of 
 Oriental Languages. 
 
1 86 Biographical Notes. 
 
 time to pass before he reduced " into form those contem- 
 plations and schemes which had occurred at various 
 times to his mind as of importance to the general 
 welfare of mankind and the improvement of their 
 present state ". The receipt for the cost of printing 
 " The Right of Property in Land . . . and The Regu- 
 lations by which it might be rendered more beneficial 
 to the lower Ranks of Mankind," is dated 25th 
 August, 1781. The title page of the reprint now 
 issued, bearing the date " 1782," is a facsimile of the 
 original publication. 
 
 It is interesting to consider the MS. and the " syn- 
 opsis " to which it undoubtedly refers. From the title 
 page we can go to the Introduction, and there we find 
 more of the Pittensear schemes " gradually unfolded ". 
 These schemes, it is of some importance to note, are the 
 result of the author's "own opinions, thinking freely and 
 for himself" . He tells us that " the leading principles 
 of that system, which he now holds, respecting property 
 in land have been coeval in his mind with the free 
 exercise of his thoughts in speculative inquiries; they 
 have recurred often, they have been gradually unfolded, 
 and for some years past he has been accustomed to 
 review them frequently, almost in their present form, 
 with still increasing approbation ". 
 
 Here we have a candid and straightforward author 
 whose opinions, he himself tells us, are new. " All that 
 he would request in their favour (and the candid will 
 readily grant this) is, that they may not be rejected on 
 a first disgust, and that those who cannot adopt the 
 opinions here advanced may at least bestow some pains in 
 ascertaining their own ! " 
 
 There is a gentle touch of humane irony in these 
 
Biographical Notes. 187 
 
 concluding words which is characteristic of the author. 
 Other gentle touches will be met with throughout the 
 work, but they are sometimes so very gentle that it is 
 even possible to misapply them, as in the case of the 
 
 words, " The poor you have always with you ". For 
 example, how seldom these words are interpreted thus : 
 
 Where there is priestcraft there is always poverty ; or 
 thus : Priestcraft and poverty always go together ; or even 
 thus : " The poor_y<?« have always with you . . . ". 
 
 In the year 1786 Professor Ogilvie took the lead in 
 an attempt to reform the system of higher education in 
 the North of Scotland. " There were then two Uni- 
 versities in Aberdeen, and there were also," it used to be 
 ludicrously remarked, " two in England ! " King's 
 College, founded by Bishop Elphinstone, was sanctioned 
 by a Papal Bull dated loth February, 1494. Marischal 
 College was founded by George, fifth Earl Marischal, 
 by charter dated 2nd April, 1593. 
 
 The older seminary regarded her younger sister as a 
 new danger, which might possibly disturb the ancient 
 foundations of Learning ! An unhealthy rivalry was 
 developed, from which both colleges suffered ; but 
 King's College, which had closed its gates against all 
 innovations, was the greater sufferer. In Professor 
 Ogilvie's time it was much afflicted with the evils of a 
 supposed state of perfection. Whenever such a state is 
 reached, in the case of any institution, it is an undoubted 
 sign that a very radical change is urgently wanted. 
 Nothing, for example, could have surpassed in perfection 
 the system of graduation which the Masters of King's 
 College carried on in Ogilvie's time. Three days before 
 the examination day, the questions, and also the anstvers 
 thereto, were dictated by the Masters to the students. 
 
1 88 Biographical Notes. 
 
 This scientific mode of incubation, together with th 
 laying on of hands and the incantation of the " gradua- 
 tion oath," could scarcely fail to bring forth a fully-fledged 
 M.A. from almost every egg in the academic nest. The 
 Professors had so little to do in those days that it was 
 perhaps found expedient to have such a gavelkind 
 system of distributing University honours as a sort of 
 make-show. In the year 1770 the number of students 
 in Marischal College was "near 120, and not above 
 half that number at the King's". This was equal 
 to an average of six pupils for each of the ten Masters 
 of King's College, or, more correctly, eight or nine of a 
 class for each teaching Master, when we leave out the 
 three sinecurists who were " never known to teach a 
 class ". 
 
 But Professor Ogilvie had other evils to put up with 
 as a member of King's College. His colleagues not only 
 alienated some of the lands belonging to the College, 
 but they misapplied and " misappropriated " College 
 funds. They also disposed of the patronage of no less 
 than fifteen churches, and, worse still, the right of 
 presentation to twenty bursaries. The great landlords 
 were the purchasers of these saleable commodities, and in 
 this way they became the private owners of rights and 
 duties which, until then, were held by the Professors in 
 trust for the public. The money received for Church 
 patronage has been accounted for, but the price of the 
 other articles of commerce was appropriated by the 
 Masters as their own private property. It became 
 " money in their purse " ! 
 
 The Masters who were guilty of these "dilapidations" 
 probably acted under a mistaken notion in regard to 
 their position. Ogilvie himself tells us that some of 
 
1 89 
 
 them were well knd^ffi^r^^P*^^^i^^^o{ their general 
 sentiments ". They a5n6fieis--fedteved that, 6j/ law, 
 they were the private owners of the University and all 
 its belongings, in the same way as some landlords now 
 believe that the land is theirs, and as some feudal 
 monarchs believed in days gone by that they were the 
 private owners of all they surveyed ! Whereas the 
 highest right that even a despotic monarch can have 
 is only a fiduciary right — a right which involves 
 guardianship of the people's property, as Ogilvie points 
 out : " The common people, not having representatives 
 in any legislative council, as under limited monarchs, 
 the sovereign himself is in fact their representative, 
 and cannot but perceive that he ought to be in a most 
 particular manner the guardian of this helpless class of 
 men" (p. 113). The Masters of King's College, like 
 all other human beings who assume despotic rights and 
 powers, thought it quite fair and proper to exercise these 
 rights and powers ; and in doing this they actually boasted 
 of being the guardians of Liberty. What is to happen to 
 rights and properties of all kinds, they would argue, if 
 their most sacred rights as Masters are interfered with ? 
 They objected to be tyrannized over by the Sovereign, 
 the Government, or the Legislature ! They forgot that 
 the Sovereign was the real as well as the tiominal chief 
 patron and head trustee of King's College. They, in 
 their zeal for liberty for themselves, forgot that the 
 University was instituted as the King's common high- 
 way to knowledge, for the special benefit of all the 
 " inhabitants of the highland country and northern 
 islands ".* They, however, converted it into a private 
 
 * Letter, King James IV. to the Pope in 1493. 
 14 
 
190 Biographical Notes. 
 
 academy solely for the benefit of the sons of the 
 " private gentry, the clergy, and the richer farmers ". 
 And notwithstanding that several bursaries were left by 
 the good and pious Bishop Elphinstone, the founder, for 
 \}as.free education and maintenance of indigent scholars, 
 the following advertisement used to be published annu- 
 ally in Ogilvie's time : — * 
 
 " The Masters, being determined to admit none as 
 candidates for the Bursaries but such as are above the 
 lowest rank, and can appear in a decent way, both as to 
 dress and behaviour, and have some reasonable prospect 
 of money and friends to enable them to prosecute their 
 education and bring them into some respectable proies- 
 sion in life, do give this public intimation of their reso- 
 lution and desire — that such as intend to be candidates 
 at the ensuing competition may bring proper certificates 
 for this purpose, without which they will not be admitted 
 tc trial ". 
 
 It is superfliuous to mention that Professor Ogilvie 
 was not a silent witness or a consenting party to such 
 proceedings. He was now in his fiftieth year, and find- 
 ing that he had protested in vain as a member of Senatus 
 for the long period of twenty-two years, he resolved to 
 carry his appeal to the bar of public opinion. 
 
 A paper which was printed and circulated at this 
 time (1786), bearing the title "OUTLINES OF A PLAN 
 for Uniting the King's and Marischal Universities of 
 Aberdeen, with a view to render the System of Education 
 more complete" contains strong internal evidence that it 
 came from Ogilvie's pen. It. set forth: "That two in- 
 dependent Universities, endowed with the amplest privi- 
 leges of teaching, and conferring degrees in all the 
 sciences, should be seated within a mile of each other, 
 
Biographical Notes. 191 
 
 must appear at first view somewhat absurd. It is still 
 more so that two sets of Professors should be employed 
 in these Universities, in teaching the same elements of 
 philosophy and of the Greek language to thin classes, 
 while other branches of science, generally accounted 
 necessary in academical education, are taught by no Pro- 
 fessor in either." It proposed various improvements, 
 and, among others, that all sinecures should be abolished. 
 There were no less than three sinecurists at this time in 
 King's College, viz., the Principal, the Professor of 
 Law, and the Professor of Medicine. These were never 
 known to teach a class, excepting in one instance, where 
 a Principal, who had been found guilty of having forged 
 a Charter and an Act of Parliament, and of having com- 
 mitted " dilapidations," or " peculations " rather, of 
 College revenues, was sentenced to lecture twice a week ! * 
 
 The plan further proposed " that the emoluments of 
 the professors should arise chiefly from the fees of their 
 classes, and so bear proportion to the assiduity they 
 choose to exert, and the reputation they may acquire ". 
 
 Special reference was made to a Botanic Garden, 
 which was to be " provided as soon as may be ". 
 
 It was also proposed to " make application to the 
 Crown for an appointment of visitors, by whose inter- 
 position all unreasonable obstructions might be re- 
 moved ". The plan was written in Professor Ogilvie's 
 most persuasive style ; and he states in conclusion, with 
 characteristic modesty, that it was " to be considered 
 merely as an outline, to be filled up, corrected, and 
 improved ". 
 
 The whole of the Professors of Marischal College were 
 
 * Evidence before Royal Commission of 1826. 
 
192 Biographical Notes. 
 
 favourable to the scheme, but seven out of the ten Pro- 
 fessors of King's College opposed it ; and the reforms 
 planned by Ogilvie in 1786 were not carried out until 
 i860; and even then not to the full extent. For 
 example, one of the most felt "WANTS OF THE UNIVER- 
 SITY" of Aberdeen at the present time is a Botanic 
 Garden. 
 
 Professor Ogilvie looked upon Universities as public 
 institutions, and he considered that Professors were 
 merely public servants as regards teaching, and Trustees 
 for the public as regards endowments, buildings, libraries, 
 &c. The Masters of King's College who obstructed the 
 proposed University reforms held very different views 
 from Ogilvie. They not only scorned the idea of being 
 considered public servants, but they unblushingly claimed 
 the University and its endowments as their own private 
 property. And why not ? The seven obstructionists 
 (of whom (7«/f three were sinecurists !) doubtless believed 
 that their position, as a whole, was more justifiable than 
 that of the landholders, who, as a rule, are all sine- 
 curists, but whose " pensions and salaries " are by law 
 established (p. 33). 
 
 As soon as Ogilvie and his party published their 
 scheme of Reform, the " seven wise Masters '' of King's 
 College (as they were called) published the following 
 " advertisement " in the Aberdeen Journal newspaper : — 
 
 "The Principal and six Professors of the King's Col- 
 lege of Aberdeen, having learned that a petition has been 
 for some time handed about, by direction of the mem- 
 bers of the Marischal College, to be subscribed by the 
 Noblemen and Gentlemen in this country, for procuring 
 an Union of these two Colleges, find it necessary to give 
 
Biographical Notes. 193 
 
 this public notice, that the said petition has been framed 
 and circulated without their knowledge, or any communi- 
 cation with them, they being still ignorant of its tenour ; 
 that the first intimation they had of it was a very few 
 days ago, that a single copy of a printed plan of the 
 Union, to which they suppose the petition to refer, has 
 been still more lately transmitted to them, long after it 
 had been communicated to persons much less interested 
 in it, a plan which they conceive to be in many respects 
 improper, impracticable, and attended with a very imper- 
 fect representation of facts relating to their conduct ; that 
 they cannot but consider this as an attempt to surprise 
 persons to whom the petition is presented, into a subscrip- 
 tion, on a representation by one party, or perhaps under 
 an idea of its being agreeable to the sentiments of both 
 Colleges ". 
 
 In answer to this " advertisement," Professor Ogilvie 
 wrote as follows : — 
 
 " Tuesday, July 25, 1786. 
 
 " Principal Chalmers having asserted, that six Pro- 
 fessors of King's College join with him in his advertise- 
 ment of yesterday, without mentioning their names, I 
 find it necessary for me to declare that I am not one of 
 that number. I know that neither Professor Ross nor 
 Dr. Dunbar can be included in it. There remain, there- 
 fore, just those six Professors, most of whose proceedings 
 of late, in College affairs, it has not been in my power 
 to approve. 
 
 " In nothing have I ever differed from them more 
 widely, than in that opinion they have just delivered 
 concerning the Plan of Union so lately submitted to the 
 public. 
 
194 Biographical Notes. 
 
 " They say, ii is improper : to me, it appears highly 
 beneficial ; in most of its parts unexceptionable, and far, 
 very far, to be preferred to that comparatively selfish and 
 illiberal plan, which the Principal, with four of his six 
 Professors, are known to have supported very strenuously 
 in I7SS. 
 
 " They say, it is impracticable : I hold it to be very 
 ■ easily practicable, if only 'the parties having concern 
 will lay aside their confined and interested views, and 
 give way to a more general and public good '. I quote, 
 with pleasure, the Principal's very pertinent expressions 
 in the beginning of his Memorial, dated Feb. s, 1755. 
 
 " These are certainly the only obstructions which have 
 prevented the proposed Union from taking place. Time 
 hath removed those prejudices, and confined views, which 
 formerly prevailed ; but interested views may, perhaps, 
 still remain. 
 
 " They add, tkat the plan is accompanied with a very im- 
 perfect account of their conduct. Agreed : many particu- 
 lars of their conduct, relative to the Union both in 1770, 
 and, of late, have been omitted ; and others seem to be 
 touched with a gentle hand ; probably, lest a more per- 
 fect account might give, to some of them, more vexation. 
 
 " The whole of this advertisement is calculated to con- 
 vey an idea that the two Colleges are, on this occasion, 
 entirely opposed to each other. This is not so : the Pro- 
 fessors of Marischal College are, indeed, unanimously 
 engaged, under the direction of their Chancellor and 
 Rector, in endeavouring to promote this desired Union. 
 But Principal Chalmers, with the six Professors who 
 oppose it, are a Party only. They are not the Univer- 
 sity of King's College. 
 
 "William Ogilvie." 
 
Biographical Notes. 195 
 
 It is right to explain that Professor Ogilvie did not 
 rush hastily into this Revolution. He perhaps delayed it 
 too long. Men as a rule do not improve by age in 
 matters of reform. Perhaps he was waiting nature's 
 usual plan of reform — namely, the removal of old fossils 
 by the kindly hand of death. If so, the Fates were 
 against him. He made his first move in 1764. In 
 September, 1785, it was thought that all the obstruction- 
 ists had been won over to the cause. It is on record* 
 that at a joint meeting of the Professors of the two Col- 
 leges, it was proposed by one of the anti-Unionists that 
 — "We should conclude the meeting like friends, with 
 drinking a bumper to the Union ; which was accord- 
 ingly done ". The reply.t made by Marischal College 
 
 * Defence of the Conduct of Marischal College. Published Oct., 1786. 
 
 ■\'^fuly 31, 1786. — The Principal andaH the Professors of Marischal 
 College are sorry to be obliged in this public manner to take notice of 
 an advertisement published in the last journal, in the name of some 
 Members of King's College, with whom they have ever been jdesirous 
 to preserve the most perfect harmony. 
 
 " Those Gentlemen complain that an attempt for obtaining an Union 
 of the two Colleges has lately been renewed, without their knowledge or 
 any communication with them. But can it be reasonably thought either 
 necessary or proper for the friends of the Union to consult about it with 
 those persons who had absolutely refused to have any further communi- 
 cation with them on that subject, had declared their determined opposi- 
 tion to it, and who have since taken every measure in their power to 
 defeat it ? 
 
 " It is farther said, that the printed Plan was attended with a very 
 imperfect representation of facts relating to their conduct. A minute detail 
 was not intended. Nothing however was advanced that is not true, but 
 many particulars were suppressed from motives which those present at 
 the meeting in September last ought rather to respect than censure. 
 
 " Lastly, in regard to the unhandsome charge of endeavouring to ob. 
 tain subscriptions by surprise, or perhaps under the idea of its being agreeable 
 to the sentiments of both Colleges; the printed plan, above alluded to, 
 with which the application was always accompanied, perfectly refutes 
 this accusation." 
 
196 Biographical Notes. 
 
 to the Advertisement above referred to, clearly shows 
 that Professor Ogilvie did not push his " Plan " of Uni- 
 versity Reform either rashly or prematurely. As to the 
 justice and wisdom of the " Plan," there is no longer any 
 doubt. It was a pure case of forlorn hope — a case of 
 now or never — on his part. 
 
 The obstructionists followed up their advertisement 
 by publishing two elaborate papers headed " MEMORIAL 
 from the University and King's College of Aberdeen" 
 and " Information from the Principal and Professors 
 of the University and King's College of Aberdeen''. 
 These papers contained a conglomeration of distorted 
 facts, and some assertions, which, if reversed (Ogilvie 
 said), might be admitted as true. 
 
 In the replies made by the promoters of the proposed 
 reform, there is no difficulty in recognizing the work of 
 Ogilvie's pen. The writer advocates the appointment 
 of a Professor of Agriculture. He touches the Memorialists 
 " with a gentle hand ". He tells them that the Professors 
 of both Colleges are the servants and trustees of the 
 public, and with regard to their objection to a visitation 
 by a Royal Commission, he states : — " That one of the 
 most frequent objects of Visitations is to overrule, and 
 break the force of majorities established by cabal. 
 Were such Visitations more frequent they would pre- 
 vent mistakes into which gentlemen are apt to fall, by 
 which they are led to speak of the endowments of a 
 College, as of their family estate, and of the patronage 
 annexed to offices, as of property, to be used like money 
 in their purse'' 
 
 The obstructionists maintained that they could deal 
 with the lands and funds belonging to the College as 
 their own private property, and that they were entitled 
 
Biographical Notes. 197 
 
 to do so in virtue of the Deed of the Founder. The 
 reply to this, from which the following quotation is 
 made, is evidently a touch from the same " gentle 
 hand," viz. : — 
 
 " They assert, that the rights of Colleges are as much 
 secured by law as those of individuals : no doubt they are 
 equally secured ; but they are not the same. The 
 individual has right to use or to abuse his property, as 
 he thinks fit. If he does no positive injury to others, 
 the public will not interfere : but a College has right 
 only to employ its endowments for the public service, 
 according to statutes and rules prescribed. If these 
 endowments are diverted to private interests, or no- 
 minally employed in a remiss execution of the public 
 trust, will not the Legislature interpose to rectify that 
 abuse, to supply the defects of the earlier institution, 
 and to accommodate the whole Plan to the more effectual 
 service of the Public ? 
 
 " It may, perhaps, be admitted, that ' the public are not 
 entitled to prescribe to a Founder, in what manner and 
 degree he shall contribute to the public good, nor to alter 
 his destination afterwards. They must accept his donations 
 on his own terms, or reject them altogether' . But the 
 endowments of King's College are not to be accounted 
 private donations. The original revenue and late acqui- 
 sitions are, for most part, public property, granted by 
 Kings and by Bishops, with the consent of Kings, and 
 of their own chapters. The power of distributing 
 that revenue, of appointing the Professors and others 
 who were to receive it, of filling up vacancies, and making 
 statutes concerning such matters, does not originate 
 with any private Founder or donor, but was granted by 
 
198 Biographical Notes. 
 
 James IV. to Bishop Elphinston, and his successors in 
 the See of Aberdeen ; and, that office being now abolished 
 by law, the power so conveyed must have reverted to 
 the crown without diminution, and may be exercised at 
 pleasure by the officers of state, or a special commission 
 of Visitors. 
 
 " The members of any University are only tenants 
 for life in endowments for public utility, which therefore 
 are not their freehold. I hold the University itself to be 
 the property of the public, and that they have a right to 
 model it so as to answer the main design of the institu- 
 tion, and general utility." 
 
 The reader will observe that this controversy between 
 Professor Ogilvie and his colleagues took place four years 
 after he finished The Right of Property in Land, and pro- 
 bably cr/i'er the work had been suppressed — a circumstance 
 which must have ruffled his temper. He was, however, 
 exceedingly good natured, and was able to conduct the 
 controversy with remarkable magnanimity. Like all 
 true lovers of mankind, Ogilvie had a considerable share 
 of wit and humour in his composition. And sometimes 
 these qualities came near the surface, in the shape of a 
 peculiar and kindly irony or sarcasm of the softest 
 possible fibre, by which he was able to handle dis- 
 agreeable truths in a straightforward manner without 
 torturing his opponents. His aims were just, and his 
 ways were benevolent. He used a sharp weapon, and 
 could afford to deal gentle strokes. ' And his pathetic 
 nature and most humane disposition accorded with the 
 advice of old Izaak — to handle the worm as if you loved 
 it, when putting it on the hook. The reader of The 
 Right of Property in Land has, perhaps, noticed how 
 
Biographical Notes. 199 
 
 very gently — as if he loved them — Ogilvie puts the 
 despotic monarch, the landholder, and the priest on his 
 hook. He, however, draws the line at the commercial 
 landholder, " who is of all citizens the most pernicious ". 
 The following five letters appeared at the time of 
 this controversy (1786-87) in \h& Aberdeen Journal. They 
 bear unmistakable marks of Professor Ogilvie's gentle 
 hand: the one from "A MEMBER OF King's COLLEGE " 
 admits of no doubt. They may be read as an autobio- 
 graphical chapter, although unconsciously penned as 
 such ; and besides their interest in this way, no one can 
 read them without being reminded of the sad ignorance 
 which even now prevails among the masses in regard to 
 Universities as Public Institutions . There is a corres- 
 ponding want of public interest, which to a certain extent 
 has developed into antagonism, as the direct offspring of 
 such ignorance. All the Fees paid by King's College 
 students in Ogilvie's time would not amount to two per 
 cent, interest on the value of the University Buildings. 
 This fact clearly proves that the private gentry, the clergy, 
 and the large farmers got free education at this public 
 seminary. We might say fraudulent, as well as free, 
 because the fact that it was free is not known to more 
 than one out of every ten thousand of the masses. The 
 total amount of Fees paid by the students of King's 
 College in 18 12 was only ;£^209 6s. There were then 156 
 attending the Arts' Classes. "Deducting the Graduation 
 Fees," says the Evidence before the Commission of 1826, 
 " there remains less than £\ for the average Fee of each 
 student." {Vol. III., p. 248; Vol /F., *pp. 216, 222, 
 292.) These facts, in connection with the free educa- 
 tion of the classes in the past, are of some interest in 
 regard to the present and future free education of the 
 
200 Biographical Notes. 
 
 masses ; and the facts which the reader may glean from 
 Professor Ogilvie's writings have not lost their interest 
 yet : — 
 
 "Sir, — While the members of the Universities are 
 adjusting their proposed Union, other gentlemen may not 
 improperly consider how far the country at large has 
 interest in these societies. 
 
 " In the Memorial from King's College, that com- 
 munity is said to be a more independent body than any 
 other College or University in Scotland. This boast 
 almost calls for an inquiry whether they do not possess 
 more independence than is good for the real interest of 
 a seminary of learning ; especially as this most indepen- 
 dent College is not in other respects the most flourishing, 
 and happens to be the least frequented by students of 
 any in Scotland. 
 
 " It is my opinion, that they possess too much power 
 in choosing their own members ; I do not say that they 
 have abused it, but, in so narrow a society, such power 
 must naturally tend to cabal, and this seemed the best 
 reason alleged for parting with the patronage of kirks. 
 Experience does not show that the best professors are 
 to be chosen in this manner. The most eminent in 
 Scotland have been presented by the crown, and by 
 town-councils. 
 
 " I find also, on inquiry, that the Founder of King's 
 College intended the country at large should partake in 
 the power of electing the Professors in his College. — 
 Four Procuratores Nationum, for Mar, Moray, Angus, 
 and Lothian, ought to vote in all the principal elections 
 along with an equal number, or only one more, of the 
 permanent members of the CoUegei These Procura- 
 
Biographical Notes. 20I 
 
 tors, or Representatives, ought not to be chosen, as at 
 present, on occasion of a vacancy, by the Professors who 
 are to vote along with them, which is ridiculous mum- 
 mery, but they ought to be annually elected according 
 to the practice of the University of Paris, and by all the 
 graduates of these provinces respectively. 
 
 " It need not be doubted, but Visitors, on a proper 
 representation, would restore this provision to its original 
 efficacy. A few regulations in point of form would be 
 sufficient. 
 
 " Might not such a procurator be annually chosen by 
 the Synods of Aberdeen, Moray, Angus, and Lothian ? 
 And might not the gentlemen who have taken degrees 
 be permitted to vote along with the Clergy, in such 
 election ? Or, if the election is annually held within 
 the College, might not the Graduates residing at a 
 distance be allowed to vote by written billets trans, 
 mitted in authentic form ? 
 
 " The Professors of King's College boast likewise in 
 their Memorial, that they are much more amply endowed 
 than the Marischal College. We might not readily 
 infer this, from the apparent expenses of the two 
 societies for public or literary purposes. 
 
 " But since the funds of King's College are so ample, 
 ought not their accounts to be submitted to the inspec- 
 tion of some persons without the society ? Is there no 
 provision in the Foundation which has this tendency? 
 If there is, will not Visitors, in all probability, revive it? 
 This seems to be one of those things which 'the common 
 sense of mankind will not deem a trifle '. Suppose 
 that these accounts were annually laid before the 
 Michaelmas Court, like other accounts of public money ; 
 or that Auditors chosen by that court had power to 
 
202 Biographical Notes. 
 
 examine these accounts, and to enter their remarks in 
 the College-records, for the information of future Visi- 
 tors ; — I am in my heart convinced that this would 
 promote the interest of the College itself, considered as 
 a seat of Learning. It would prove a very moderate 
 check to abuses, yet sufficient to keep the Professors in 
 mind that they are not proprietors of the College estate, 
 but Trustees only for the public with the privilege of pay- 
 ing their own salaries in the first place. It is very natural 
 that they should forget this, if the country does not keep 
 them in mind by proper attention. " D." 
 
 "Sir, — The Resolutions of the Gentlemen of Inver- 
 nessshire, relative to the Union of the two Colleges 
 here, are entitled to much attention. I beg therefore 
 that you will give them room, together with a few 
 observations, suggested by perusing them. 
 
 " The meeting, it seems, was a general one of the 
 Freeholders, Commissioners of Supply, Justices of 
 the Peace, and other Gentlemen heritors of the County 
 of Inverness : twenty-seven Gentlemen were present, of 
 whom, twenty-three disapproved of the proposed plan. 
 
 " 1st, Because, by the proposed Union, there will be a total stop put to 
 emulation betwixt the two Universities, which they apprehend to be the 
 best spur for promoting every establishment. 
 
 '' This emulation at present produces no effect, either 
 good or bad ; that it ever can produce good effects is 
 doubted : that it has produced bad effects is certain. 
 Some of these are remembered, others are on record, 
 and have given much trouble to Royal Visitors. 
 
 " The emulation of two neighbouring and Rival Col- 
 leges formerly subsisted at St. Andrews. Their Union 
 
Biographical Notes. 203 
 
 put an end to it, and since that time the University has 
 become much more flourishing and useful than before. 
 
 " 2nd, Because it would be of a very dangerous consequence, were the 
 Legislature to make any essential alteration in the donations made to 
 these Universities, or their franchises, as might prove a total check to 
 such endowments in future. 
 
 " The Legislature will have no occasion to make 
 essential alterations in the Donations made to these 
 Colleges, but merely to ascertain and authorize that 
 Plan by which they may be most beneficially applied to 
 the purposes intended by the Donors. The franchise of 
 these Communities will remain unimpaired, will become 
 more valuable to themselves, and more useful to the 
 Public, for whose sake it was originally granted. 
 
 " 3rd, That as population is upon the increase in this part of the United 
 Kingdom, it would be impolitic to clog the avenues to erudition, by 
 making any alteration in these Colleges, which have flourished for so 
 many years, when the several branches of learning were less an object of 
 pursuit than in the present age. 
 
 '• Instead of clogging or obstructing the Avenues to 
 Erudition, the object of the Union is to open and clear 
 them, and to provide for the Youth of this Northern 
 country, the same opportunites of Education which 
 Glasgow affords to the West. 
 
 " Many alterations have been made in the Colleges 
 since their Institution, and all which have been made by 
 the Legislature, or by Royal Visitors have proved bene- 
 ficial : others made in a private manner, have frequently 
 been corrected, and reformed by Visitation. 
 
 " 4th, The meeting particularly disapprove of having classes in the 
 same University at above a mile's distance from each other, as proposed 
 by the said plan, because it frequently happens that young men, either 
 from extraordinary capacities or limited fortunes, may find it expedient, 
 
204 Biographical Notes. 
 
 during the same session, to attend these separated classes. And the 
 meeting are rather inclined to think that if one College was deemed suffi- 
 cient for the town of Aberdeen, it would be more for the national good 
 that the same should be fixed at Old Aberdeen, as possessing better air 
 and better buildings than those of the Marischal College, and being at a 
 greater distance from such amusements as are frequently apt to divert 
 young men from a due attention to study. 
 
 " Much may be said, as to the preference of New or 
 Old Aberdeen, for the seat of an University : the dis- 
 tance of a short mile will not keep young men from any 
 amusements they wish to frequent, but may occasion 
 more loss of time in resorting to them, and may expose 
 them to more casual dissipation and irregularity. 
 
 " It is but a slight inconvenience for students, to at- 
 tend one Class in the New- Town, and another in the Old 
 Town, in the same day, should that become requisite. 
 The Old Town students frequently attend private 
 teachers in New Aberdeen at present. Even this slight 
 inconvenience may be almost wholly obviated by a 
 proper distribution of classes. 
 
 " And lastly, This meeting humbly apprehend that, in place of enlarg- 
 ing the salaries of the present Professors, or adding any unnecessary 
 classes to any of these Colleges, which appears to be the principal object 
 of the foresaid plan, that if it is thought expedient to annihilate one of 
 them, it would be also proper to dispose of the buildings of the other, 
 and to employ the price thereof and of any surplus, after bestowing proper 
 salaries on the Professors of the remaining College, in establishing an 
 academy in some centrical Royal Burgh in the Highlands, which would 
 prove of very great national importance, especially if the present scheme 
 of the fisheries succeeds. 
 
 " To enlarge the salaries of the present Professors is 
 not the principal object of the Plan : neither is it pro- 
 posed to add unnecessary Classes, but to establish 
 such as are wanting in this University, and are known 
 
Biographical Notes. 205 
 
 to be very flourishing and very useful in the University 
 of Glasgow, the model which it is proposed to adopt. 
 
 " Far less is it intended to annihilate either of these 
 Colleges, but to combine their operations, in such man- 
 ner as may render each more useful and more pros- 
 perous than in their separate state. 
 
 " If, in consequence of such combination, at present, 
 or hereafter, by the operation of the accumulating fund, 
 any surplus should arise, it might very fitly be employed 
 (and very much according to the liberal intentions of the 
 founders) in establishing an Academy, or Academies, at 
 Inverness, or in other proper situations in the North : 
 Such Academies being always considered as branches of 
 the United University, and subject to its laws. — This 
 suggestion, thrown out by these gentlemen, and treated 
 ludicrously by some, is in itself, rational, and liberal ; 
 perhaps in some measure, practicable ; at least, it is well 
 entitled to consideration, in the farther progress of 
 measures for accomplishing an Union. 
 
 "A." 
 
 "Sir, — I trust the arguments suggested by the County 
 and Presbytery of Inverness will prove decisive against 
 the Union of the King's and Marischal Colleges. Emu- 
 lation is so necessary to the progress of literature, and 
 division to emulation, that the argument is complete. 
 As the public are much indebted to the honourable and 
 learned gentlemen, who have made the discovery ; I 
 hope you will receive my mite in support of the same 
 principle, and communicate to the public a few pro- 
 posals for rendering it still more generally useful. 
 
 " 1st. I would humbly propose that the Colleges of 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow be divided each into two ; for 
 
 15 
 
2o6 Biographical Notes. 
 
 in their present situation, they are destitute of the grand 
 stimulus to a progress in literature, without which they 
 never can expect to arrive at that eminence and high re- 
 putation which the Colleges of Aberdeen have already 
 attained. As for the College of St. Andrews, the 
 learned heads of that University must have a mixture 
 of blockishness, with all deference be it said, to make 
 a voluntary sacrifice of what was so essential to their 
 credit and prosperity. 
 
 " 2nd. Let all fit means continue to be used to sow 
 dissension betwixt the Regents of the divided Colleges, 
 so that they may entertain a cordial hatred for one 
 another in private, and as opportunity offers, come to 
 loggerheads in print. This will infallibly guard against 
 that Union, contrived like the tricks of confederate 
 Gladiators or Mountebanks, to chouse the public out 
 of their money. It will likewise excite that spirit of 
 emulation, which, together with interest, are the best 
 motives for securing a due attention, in any Professor, 
 and will give an opportunity of displaying such talents 
 as cannot fail to collect a multitude of students from all 
 quarters. 
 
 " 3rd. Let the same prudent means be used to sow 
 dissensions betwixt the students of the divided Colleges 
 which the good example of their masters will very pro- 
 perly encourage. I am informed that some time ago, 
 the students of the two Colleges in Aberdeen profited 
 much by this spirit. But the degeneracy of these later 
 times has much wore away that laudable emulation. 
 In order to revive it, I would recommend to the students 
 of King's College to return to the good old practice of 
 carrying stones in the sleeves of their gowns, for which 
 they were originally contrived, and whenever one of 
 
Biographical Notes. 207 
 
 them accidentally meets a student of the Marischal 
 College, he may by a genteel and careless swing of his 
 sleeve hit the other a blow on. the head, which he as a 
 gentleman will resent, and collect his companions to- 
 gether for that purpose ; from lesser skirmishes they 
 may advance to greater, till the students of both Col- 
 leges join in regular pitched battles. Many are the 
 advantages of this scheme ; the spirit of emulation, 
 which is the grand spur to a progress in Literature, will 
 be once more brought to perfection by it. Besides that 
 it will have a happy effect on the morals of the youth, 
 being reared up in the practice of that cardinal virtue, 
 Fortitude. As this nation at large will profit by it, 
 when the seminaries of learning will produce the scholar, 
 the man of virtue, and the soldier at once. 
 
 " I might quote the laws of Lycurgus in support of 
 this scheme, but I flatter myself it has abundance to re- 
 commend it in its own intrinsic merit, so I shall save 
 you and myself the trouble. 
 
 " I am, your admirer, 
 
 " Democritus." 
 
 " Mr. Printer, — The opponents of the Union of the 
 Colleges have hitherto said but little of the evils to which 
 the public may be exposed, if that project takes effect, 
 although these be neither few, nor small, nor difficult to 
 be pointed out. 
 
 " The establishment of a Latv Class will increase the 
 number of pettifoggers, and encourage quarrels and 
 lawsuits ; for which there is no occasion, as we have the 
 character already of being sufficiently litigious. 
 
 " The Medical School will increase the number of prac- 
 titioners, and consequently the number of diseases, real 
 
2o8 Biographical Notes. 
 
 or imaginary : For it is the interest of every practi- 
 tioner to fill the minds of his acquaintance as much as 
 he can with the latter ; and by creating these in a pro- 
 per manner, he will soon produce abundance of the 
 former. 
 
 " In order to obtain chirurgical patients, the students 
 will stir up riots and bloodwits. 
 
 " A Chemical Laboratory is apt to catch fire, and 
 may involve half the town in a conflagration. 
 
 " The Botanic Garden will occupy ground at present 
 employed in the culture of cabbages, and raise the price 
 of that useful plant. Besides, noxious weeds and 
 poisonous plants are cultivated in these gardens ; the 
 seeds of which may disperse and propagate, and become 
 an insufferable nuisance to the country. 
 
 " From the number of practitioners in Law and 
 Medicine, the fees in these professions will fall. I am 
 astonished at the want of discernment in the Physicians 
 and Advocates, who give a very ample and unanimous 
 approbation to a scheme so prejudicial to their interest. 
 
 " It has often been remarked that education is toe 
 cheap in Scotland, and that many attend a College who 
 would be better employed at the plough. Why then 
 attempt to make it cheaper ? Indeed, as education at 
 our College is at present conducted, it does little harm : 
 For many a student (whose expense is perhaps defrayed 
 by a burse) returns from the College almost as fit for 
 the plough as if he had never been there. But if con- 
 ducted on a more extensive plan, and continued longer, 
 it will leave so effectual an impression, as to unfit him 
 for the plough for life. 
 
 "Vigil." 
 
Biographical Notes. 2og 
 
 " King's College, Jan. 6, 1787. 
 
 " Sir, — About three months ago, there appeared in 
 your Journal, an Information from the seven Professors 
 who opposed the Union, containing references to 
 charters, Acts of Parliament, and Acts of Visitation, 
 in the repositories of King's College. As some of these 
 seemed liable to suspicion, I resolved to examine the 
 documents themselves, together with other papers 
 relative to the same subjects. In this I have met with 
 great obstruction and delay. The gentleman in whose 
 custody these papers are, whose obliging disposition is 
 well known, has become on this occasion restiff and 
 dilatory to an amazing degree. Three or four messages, 
 sometimes six, are requisite to obtain the perusal of a 
 single paper ; some, quoted in the Information, are 
 refused, because they have not been deposited in the 
 charter chest : some are said not to be extant : the new 
 Erection it is pretended was destroyed in the beginning 
 of last century : yet it is largely quoted in the Informa- 
 tion, and Professor Ker was certainly in possession of a 
 copy. All inspection of the inventories is refused, with 
 a manifest intention of creating delay. 
 
 " From such circumstances, it appears, what opinion 
 these gentlemen entertain of their own cause, since even 
 to defend its outworks, they think it necessary to demean 
 themselves by such pitiful shifts. 
 
 " Instead of a full examination, I beg leave to offer to 
 any who may have read the Information, a few remarks 
 by which they may judge of the credit due to the asser- 
 tions it contains. The Information asserts, that the Act 
 of Parliament in 1633 ratifies the privileges of the College, 
 with express reference to the old Foundations in 1 505 and 
 
2IO Biographical Notes. 
 
 1527 ; whereas, the Act refers to the auld Foundations 
 dated in 1494 and 1497 : that is, it confirms the Papal Bull 
 instituting the University, and the Royal grant confer- 
 ring civil privileges, internal jurisdiction, and the 
 greater part of the endowments ; but it takes no notice 
 of the Foundation 1505, which contains the statutes of 
 the University, enacted by Bishop Elphinston, in virtue 
 of powers granted by the king for that purpose. These 
 statutes are not confirmed by Parliament, but left free 
 to be altered without the interposition of Parliament, by 
 the same authority which enacted them, that is, by a 
 commission from the crown. By such authority, they 
 have been at various times altered, suspended, and 
 restored. 
 
 "As the dates in the copy of the Act 1633 are fairly 
 written, these gentlemen can have been in no mistake ; 
 but it concerned their argument much, that the Founda- 
 tion of 1 505 should be thought to have received Parlia- 
 mentary ratification ; for this is the solemn deed which 
 they affect to hold in such absolute reverence, which 
 binds them (as they would have it thought) to oppose 
 every interference of the crown or legislature in their 
 affairs. 
 
 " I too hold it in much reverence ; and if these gentle- 
 men have never violated the tenor of this Foundation, 
 some credit may be given them for a mistaken, even 
 for a superstitious zeal in supporting it. But if they 
 have again and again departed from the literal meaning 
 of the deed, and the evident intention of its author — 
 another inference will be made. 
 
 " The Information asserts, that in Bishop Forbes's 
 Visitation, occasion was tdken from the Act of Parliament 
 in 161 7, to restore some of the suppressed oflSces. 
 
Biographical Notes. 2 1 1 
 
 There is not the smallest foundation for this in the 
 commission itself, or any acts they have communicated. 
 The Bishop proceeds with full authority from the crown ; 
 he takes no notice of any Act of Parliament whatever ; 
 and the occasion of his interference is declared to be 
 the mismanagement of Principal Rait, and the gross 
 dilapidations which he had committed, by improper 
 leases and sales of the College estate. 
 
 " In all their publications, avowed and anonymous, 
 they continually represent the Visitation of Colleges as 
 an unusual and extraordinary measure, of an arbitrary 
 nature, vexatious to individuals and injurious to the 
 communities visited. From what I know of the Acts 
 of Visitation in this and other Colleges, I am enabled 
 to' contradict such representations in the most positive 
 terms. 
 
 "Visitations are not unusual: from 1661 to 1706, and 
 from 1 7 16 to 1727, there appears to have been a series 
 of Commissions sitting, with hardly any interval, for 
 visiting the Universities in general, or some one of the 
 number in a particular manner. 
 
 " Their proceedings have not been arbitrary or vexa- 
 tious ; even in correcting delinquencies the greatest 
 lenity and m.oderation is shown ; the flagrant case of 
 Principal Rait is an example ; he is only compelled to 
 refund, and that not completely ; he is neither deposed 
 from his office, nor publicly censured, whatever his 
 shame and vexation may have been. 
 
 " It is much to be wished that the proceedings of 
 Commissioners of Visitation were better known. Their 
 zeal to promote the interest of the Universities, with the 
 advancement of learning and good education, joined 
 to much vigilance in preventing the abuses which so 
 
212 Biographical Notes. 
 
 naturally arise in PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS, do credit to 
 the character of the nation. It is a branch of the public 
 care, exercised in a peculiar mode, with singular- dis- 
 cretion and disinterestedness. 
 
 " It is still more to be wished that the regulations 
 they have established were better observed. I mention 
 as examples the restrictions relative to the management 
 of College Property, the Rules for teaching Courses of 
 Philosophy, those for examination of Candidates for 
 every Academical Degree, and the Method of filling up 
 vacant Regencies by Program and comparative Trial. 
 
 "Visitations have never been injurious to the com- 
 munities visited, but often beneficial ; they have given 
 occasion to the erection of new offices, and procured 
 more ample endowments of the old. King William's 
 Gift, and Queen Anne's Bounty, seem both to have 
 originated from the report of Visitors ; the Colleges 
 have been accustomed to apply to them for support 
 and assistance on emergencies. The predecessors of 
 these gentlemen have repeatedly made such application, 
 and no longer ago than 1720. What reason, then, can 
 they allege for their aversion to submit to Visitation in 
 the present times ? 
 
 " It will not be supposed that they are liable to re- 
 prehension on any account, except it may be the 
 management of the College Revenue ; and if their own 
 assertions are believed, they deserve much applause on 
 that head, for the accessions to their revenue ' have been 
 applied (they say) to every other purpose to which they 
 were by the foundation applicable, in s.far higher pro- 
 portion, than to the augmentation of the salaries of the 
 masters '. 
 
 " Many things are true which seem not very credible. 
 
Biographical Notes. 213 
 
 and so this assertion may perhaps be true ; but certainly 
 it has staggered the faith even of their particular friends. 
 As for me, I read it with amazement, for I conceive the 
 reverse to be -exactly true. To have applied these ac- 
 cessions of revenue to the other purposes, in the same 
 proportion as to the augmentation of salaries, is merely 
 their duty, and might be looked for ; but to apply them 
 to those other uses, in a_/«r higher proportion, is indeed 
 generous and disinterested beyond expectation. It is 
 marvellous, and to increase the wonder, they resist a 
 Royal Visitation, for no other reason that can be guessed 
 at, but to avoid receiving from the highest authority the 
 applause due to such liberal conduct. 
 
 " I understand, however, that this bold assertion is 
 hazarded in opposition to certain proposals of mine for 
 limiting the augmentation of salaries, for assigning some 
 share of the additional revenue to literary academical 
 purposes, and making better provision for Bishop El- 
 phinston's Bursars, in terms of the Foundation. 
 
 " On these heads, certain differences of opinion have 
 taken place between us for some years past, but wholly 
 confined to College meetings and records, before the 
 month of October, 1785, when an union of the Colleges 
 was proposed. The leaders of opposition to that measure 
 being greatly at a loss for pretexts to avoid entering into 
 treaty concerning it, bethought themselves suddenly of 
 this, and have contrived to interweave it with that 
 business in a very extraordinary way, which they only 
 can explain. 
 
 " In their Memorial, they have taken upon them to 
 say, that I pursue private purposes. While their Me- 
 morial was circulated in the neighbourhood only, I 
 despised the imputation : it seemed unnecessary to refute, 
 
214 Biographical Notes. 
 
 and still more so to retort the charge : those to whom 
 We are known could judge for themselves, whether the 
 author of that Memorial, or the person traduced, is most 
 accustomed to pursue private ends in College affairs. 
 But as their Memorial is now dispersed at a great dis- 
 tance, I call on them to make good their imputation, 
 and to show what those private ends are, which I am 
 supposed to pursue : and I propose that the Minutes of 
 College Meetings relative to our differences may be 
 printed, for the information of our respective friends. 
 An hundred copies may be sufficient, and I am ready to 
 defray one half of the expense. In making this proposal, 
 I offer them no small advantage ; for, using the privileges 
 of a majority, they have always inserted in these Minutes 
 whatever they thought proper, and have excluded, post- 
 poned, misplaced, and garbled much of what I wished 
 to have been inserted. 
 
 "The seven Professors will readily know, by whom 
 this offer is made, and shall have a private notification 
 beside : to others, it may be sufficient to say, that this 
 comes from 
 
 "A Member of King's College.'' 
 
 The seven Professors, instead of accepting an open 
 challenge, preferred to keep behind the double hedge of 
 Presbyteries and Landlords. Among the latter, it is 
 right to mention, a large majority of the great noble- 
 men warmly supported University reform. As to the 
 former, it was the boast of those who admired the con- 
 duct of the seven Professors to tell us that " Papers in 
 favour of the project were transmitted to a great number 
 of Presbyteries, but only in a single instance were they 
 
Biographical Notes. 215 
 
 received with approbation " .* Notwithstanding all the 
 difficulties Professor Ogilvie had to contend with, he 
 carried out his determination to inform the public of 
 the scandalous mismanagement of King's College. The 
 following Copy Memorials and Protests were published by 
 him in 1787, along with "A Complete Collection of the 
 Papers relating to the Union of the Kings and Marischal 
 Colleges of Aberdeen ". 
 
 Professor Ogilvie has supplied a characteristic Intro- 
 duction to these Memorials and Protests, — in the fourth 
 paragraph of which we find a true sketch, unconsciously 
 drawn by himself, which is worth volumes of made-up 
 biographical matter. His colleagues regard him as 
 "engaged in a determined opposition to all their mea- 
 sures". He regrets their conduct: " He still more regrets 
 that [his] love of tranquillity, and [his] personal esteem 
 for some individuals, should have so long restrained him 
 from entering into such opposition ". The Memorials and 
 Protests, together with an Extract from Letters, are here 
 given verbatim, as published in 1787 : — 
 
 COPIES of MEMORIALS, and REASONS of PROTEST, 
 inserted in the RECORDS of KING'S COLLEGE, in 
 the years 1784 and 1785. 
 
 THE seven Professors who oppose the union of the 
 Colleges have introduced into their memorial an 
 oblique and not very candid account, of certain differences 
 of opinion which have arisen in their society previous to any 
 mention of that plan ; and they insinuate that one of their 
 colleagues has acted from private and party views. 
 
 Being called upon to make good this assertion, and to lay 
 
 * Pamphlet by Graduates of King's College, 1839. 
 
2i6 Biographical Notes. 
 
 before the public the minutes of College meetings relative to 
 these affairs, they refuse to comply. 
 
 It seems requisite, therefore, that the person thus alluded to 
 should vindicate himself from their intended aspersion. For 
 this purpose he commits to the press the following papers con- 
 taining the substance of every dispute he ever had with any of 
 his colleagues before the plan of union was brought forward; — 
 excepting only, that, disliking very much the manner in which 
 Academical Degrees in Arts, in Medicine, and Divinity are 
 usually conferred in this College, he has for some years de- 
 clined taking any concern in such transactions. 
 
 The seven Professors are pleased to say that he is engaged 
 in a determined opposition to all their measures. — To those 
 only of which he cannot approve : He regrets that they are so 
 many, and still more he regrets that love of tranquillity, and 
 personal esteem for some as individuals, should have so long 
 restrained him from entering into such opposition. 
 
 He forbears to make any comment on the following papers. 
 If the gentlemen shall at length publish their very long and 
 elaborate answers inserted in the College Records, he means 
 immediately to subjoin those short replies which they as a 
 majority of the College meeting refused to receive. — Finding 
 that all their skilful industry could not avail to darken or 
 perplex so clear a subject, they thought it expedient to cut 
 short the debate, in a manner which betrays want of confi- 
 dence in their cause, while it secures some unfair advantages 
 on that side. 
 
 The candid and impartial, who pay attention to these con- 
 troversies, may judge for themselves, whether he who urges the 
 following proposals, or they who, forgetting ancient animosities 
 and some recent jealousies beside, have joined together to 
 reject them, and now refuse to produce the Reasons of their 
 conduct before the public, are most probably guided by private 
 and interested views. 
 
Biographical Notes. 217 
 
 They are the very same persons who have since joined 
 together in opposing an union of the Colleges : acting from 
 the same principles no doubt. However sordid and illiberal 
 these principles may ' appear to the friends of Learning, it is 
 to be supposed that the seven Professors have their own 
 approbation : and yet this supposition wants not its 
 difficulties in respect of those among them who are men 
 of Letters, and who in other cases, and on former occasions, 
 have shown good inclinations to promote the interests of 
 Learning. 
 
 No. I. Representation to the College Meeting, February 16th, 
 
 1784. 
 
 Mr. Ogilvie represents to the meeting that he has many 
 objections to the proposed sale of the washing-green and 
 croft, and wishes to call their attention to one in particular. 
 
 That spot of ground is uncommonly well adapted for a 
 Botanic Garden, by the variety of soil it contains, its com- 
 mand of water, its sheltered situation, and its nearness 
 to the College. 
 
 Although we are not able, or willing to set a Botanic 
 Garden on foot at present, our successors will probably soon 
 find it necessary to have one. 
 
 It is not the pecuniary interests of the College which 
 ought to be regarded in this matter, for that is a trifle, but its 
 interests and accommodation as a seminary of Learning, and 
 the reputation of its present members. 
 
 Certainly it will be accounted great ignorance of the pro- 
 gress of Science in the present times, or great disregard of 
 what other learned Societies are pursuing for an University, 
 having the property of a spot of ground so singularly well 
 adapted for a Botanic Garden, and so contiguous, to part 
 with that property, either for money or for favour. 
 
2i8 Biographical Notes. 
 
 No. II. Reasons of Protest against the proposed Bargain with 
 Mr. Hugh Leslie* given in on April Tph, 1784. 
 
 (1st.) It tends to the disadvantage of the College — 
 
 By stopping a very convenient road which communicates 
 -with the country on the south-west side, and leads directly 
 from the new houses to the open fields ; 
 
 By shutting up a well of excellent water, better than any 
 in the neighbourhood, and which continues during the summer 
 months, when they are apt to fail ; 
 
 By giving away a more convenient washing-green than any 
 that can be provided in its stead ; 
 
 By giving away ground which, lying so near at hand, may be 
 much wanted by the inhabitants of the new houses, and of 
 those which are afterwards to be built, for additional gardens, 
 for pleasure ground, or pasture; 
 
 By depriving the College of the command of a spot of 
 ground, which, by its variety of soil, its command of water, its 
 sheltered situation and vicinity, is so remarkably well adapted 
 for a Botanic Garden, which some time or other the College 
 will have occasion to establish. 
 
 (2nd.) It is contrary to the intention of our Founder, who 
 has taken no small pains in uniting so many pieces of ground 
 adjacent to his College, and would have been more disposed 
 to purchase the tenement opposite to its gate, and separating 
 
 * This Mr. Hugh Leslie, was a son of one of the Professors. He got the 
 ground in spite of Professor Ogilvie's protest, and his representatives still 
 hold it seemingly unchallenged. It is somewhat amusing to note that 
 about the year 1808 Mr. Leslie and the Professors of King's College had 
 3. desperate quarrel about a road, which led to their taking criminal pro- 
 ceedings against him. He in return published a work of 335 pages Svo, 
 bearing the title " The Doctors outwitted" in which they are painted with 
 touches from Rabelais, and as black as ink could make them. He wished 
 theni all ' ' kicked out of their situations, with the exception of Professor 
 -Ogilvie, who," he adds, " seldom takes part in their deliberations ". 
 
Biographical Notes. 219 
 
 the Canonist's glebe from the Mediciner's than to suffer any 
 part of either glebe to be annexed to that tenement according 
 to the bargain now in agitation. The alteration of times has 
 made us depart very far from the literal meaning of his institu- 
 tions, and we ought therefore to be more scrupulous of departing 
 from their spirit, and violating his purposes and intentions even 
 in the smallest affairs. 
 
 (3rd.) It is an evil precedent. — About 15 years ago we 
 first began to feu off land within the College bounds; about 
 two years ago part of the Humanist's glebe was feued off, a 
 third alienation seems now to be determined upon, and 
 others are thought to be in contemplation ; these instances 
 follow so fast on each other, that it is time to stop and con- 
 sider where the practice may end. 
 
 Had our predecessors thought themselves at liberty to feu 
 off the College glebes, they would not have wanted persons 
 willing to receive them on easy terms, and we should have 
 been much worse accommodated than we are : our successors 
 will not want persons, whom they may be inclined to oblige in 
 the same manner ; and this precedent, if admitted, may be 
 alleged in justification of the most pernicious dilapidations. 
 
 (4th.) The bargain is unequal. — Little notice might have 
 been taken of this, had it not been extolled as extremely ad- 
 vantageous for the College, and had not that reason been 
 alone given for concluding it so unadvisedly. Let us see then 
 how the matter stands. — Land lying within a hundred yards of 
 a street derives value from its situation whatever be its quality. 
 Some part of this is very good, and the whole very tractable : 
 ;^4 per acre is a moderate average rent of land lying so near 
 the Old Town street on leases of 19 years. Thirty years' pur- 
 chase is the lowest price which a proprietor of land will accept 
 when he is not constrained to sell. Thirty years purchase of ;^4 
 converted into a feu-duty gives ;£,(i ' per acre instead of ^^3 los. 
 *£4X30 = £i20@5% = £6. 
 
220 Biographical Notes. 
 
 as the simple value of the ground, without taking into con- 
 sideration the conveniences which the purchaser acquires, and 
 the inconveniences to which the sellers have submitted. In 
 this case the purchaser acquires a desirable addition to his 
 pleasure ground, and gets rid of a troublesome road; the 
 sellers are deprived of a commodious access to the country, of 
 an excellent well, and ground very valuable to them for acade- 
 mical purposes and others. These considerations ought to 
 have raised the price far above the moderate feu-duty proposed. 
 Everyone must see this : Mr. Leslie with . great candour 
 acknowledges that his son gets the ground somewhat below its 
 full value, and mentions lo or 20 shillings a year as the abate- 
 ment. The mere loss of this value may be accounted a trifle, 
 but the stopping a road, the shutting up a well, and depriving 
 the College of ground which may be so much wanted for 
 purposes the most creditable for an University, are considera- 
 tions of some importance. — In some smaller circumstances 
 (which it is not necessary to insist on) the interest of the 
 College is manifestly overlooked. 
 
 (5th.) It is at least doubtful whether we can legally alienate 
 for ever lands lying within the precincts of the College. 
 
 A proposal having been made to take the opinion of 
 lawyers on this point, it may be thought extraordinary that 
 four members of the College meeting, in opposition to three, 
 should determine to proceed without delay : especially when 
 that proposal was supported by referring to a transaction in 
 this very College, which being brought before the Lords of 
 Session, it was found (according to L. Bankton's account then 
 read to the meeting) "Deeds granted by the Principal and 
 Members of an University or College are not effectual against 
 their successors in office, but so far as they were for onerous 
 causes tending to the good of the University" (M'Dowal's 
 Institutes i. p. 9). 
 
 But whatever our powers shall be found to be, it certainly 
 
Biographical Notes. 221 
 
 behoves us to keep at a distance even from the suspicion of 
 abusing them. 
 
 With regard to this transaction, in which we act as life- 
 renters and trustees for our successors, it will perhaps be asked 
 whether the majority would have feued off these subjects to a 
 stranger on the same terms, or almost on any terms whatever. 
 
 It may likewise be asked whether any individual of the 
 Society, if proprietor of the new houses and the subjects in 
 question, would have allowed the road to be stopped, and the 
 well to be shut up, or consented to part with that piece of 
 ground on these terms, or almost on any terms whatever. 
 
 No. III. Representation to the College Meeting, May nth, 1784. 
 
 Mr. Ogilvie requests that the meeting will take into con- 
 sideration the state of the Library, which is extremely deficient 
 in various branches of science and literature, particularly in 
 the more valuable books published at home and abroad since 
 about the end of last century. It appears that the fund is at 
 present so much reduced as not to furnish any reasonable 
 supply: during eight years preceding Martinmas, 1782, after 
 defraying the necessary annual expenses, not more than ;Qt, or 
 £6 a year has been afforded for purchasing books. 
 
 He proposes, therefore, that as the ^dilis fund has been 
 from time to time augmented by assigning annual payments 
 from the Procuration fund, so the Library fund, being so much 
 reduced, and wholly inadequate to its purpose, may receive 
 augmentation by an annual payment of the same kind. 
 
 He will not take upon himself to name any sum, for he 
 cannot doubt that his colleagues will see the expediency of 
 supporting this branch of academical expense in a very liberal 
 manner. 
 
 Other methods of improving the Library fund have been 
 mentioned, but they are precarious, scanty, and liable to 
 various objections : that now proposed is easy, certain, may 
 
 16 
 
222 Biographical Notes. 
 
 be considerable, and the more considerable it is, the more 
 credit it will do to the Society : it is altogether conformable to 
 precedents repeatedly set in the case of the ^dilis fund : the 
 late improvements of the College revenue will admit of it ; and 
 as the library ought undoubtedly to partake of these improve- 
 ments, such an augmentation of its fund must appear exceed- 
 ingly proper, or rather indispensable. 
 
 No. IV. Proposals given in to the College Meeting, November 
 2oth, 1784. 
 
 The College meeting of July 7 th having refused to aug- 
 ment the Library fund by an annual payment from the Pro- 
 curation, the following proposals for procuring some additional 
 funds for purchasing books are now submitted to consideration. 
 
 (ist.) That the dues payable on degrees (the principal branch 
 of the Library fund) be increased one half, i.e., the degree of 
 Master of Arts 3s. gd., and the degree of Doctor in any of the 
 Faculties £2. los. Other circumstances being considered, the 
 candidates will probably not grudge this additional expense. 
 It is almost a century since these dues have been raised, and 
 perhaps the neighbouring University might concur. 
 
 (2nd.) Though it is far from expedient to impose any new 
 payments on the students, it might be proper enough to 
 transfer to the Library certain dues, which are at present 
 exacted from the bursars on very antiquated pretexts, and to 
 give them in compensation more frequent and advantageous 
 access to the books which it contains. The dues alluded to 
 are 2s. 6d. yearly for the use of silver spoons, which they never 
 see, and one shilling yearly for a dinner, at which they are 
 never asked to be present. These taken together may amount 
 to about ;^i2 sterling. 
 
 (3rd.) That compensation be made to the Library fund for 
 those sums which at the time of fitting up the new Library, 
 and since,- have been taken from it to defray expenses properly 
 
Biographical Notes. 223 
 
 belonging to the ^dilis fund. By a rough calculation these 
 amount to ;^i2o or ^^130; and as the Library fund is not to 
 receive an augmentation from the other funds of the Society, it 
 seems but just that it should not be pillaged for their behoof. 
 
 An immediate augmentation of the Library from the Pro- 
 curation fund will no doubt be more effectual and more 
 creditable for the College than any, or all of the above pro- 
 posals; but the Society have declared that buying books for 
 the library is no legal burden on the funds, because it seems 
 there is no mention of it in the foundation ; nor is there in 
 the foundation any mention of dividing annually among the 
 masters any accrescing revenue which might afterwards arise ; 
 on that ground, therefore, this annual division might be de- 
 clared fully as illegal as buying books for the Library, and to 
 those not concerned it might appear somewhat more so. But 
 it is more reasonable perhaps to admit that as both are 
 academical purposes, and in some degree necessary, though 
 not expressly authorised by the foundation, they may, under 
 proper limitations, be accounted not inconsistent with its spirit 
 and intention. 
 
 I mean not to make any further mention of applying our 
 general funds in purchasing books, as that is so unacceptable 
 a proposal, but I take this occasion of suggesting to the Society 
 two things which seem requisite to render our annual division of 
 the accrescing revenue less exceptionable than it appears at first 
 sight, and not irreconcilable with the spirit of the foundation : — 
 
 (Firsi.) That those eleemosynary payments which the 
 founder has specially appointed should be made to partake of 
 the improvement of the revenue, or at least be kept up to their 
 original value. By the foundation. Bishop Elphinston's 
 bursars are entitled to lodging and education gratis with an 
 annual payment of 12 merks. By Ruddiman's table and 
 other documents it appears, that in the reign of James V. 12 
 merks were at least equivalent to 12 bolls of barley or meal; 
 
224 Biographical Notes. 
 
 but £i 8s. sterling, the sum which the bursars now receive 
 (after all deductions), is hardly equivalent to six bolls at the 
 lowest valuation. 
 
 {Second.) That in the management of the general revenue of 
 the Society, an accumulating fund should be established, similar 
 to that whose good effects are so familiar to us in the manage- 
 ment of particular mortifications. We owe it no doubt to our 
 successors to make some provision for their having still the 
 same or a more ample accrescing revenue to divide. 
 
 For this end it is proposed that instead of dividing the 
 whole amount of the accrescing revenue every year, a certain 
 proportion of it, as one tenth part, should be appropriated to 
 an accumulating fund, to be kept separate from others and 
 improved at compound interest by the procurator. That it 
 shall not be allowable to touch any part of this fund, until its 
 annual produce shall have been on an average of ten years equal 
 to the accrescing revenue annually divided among the masters. 
 That when this shall come to be the case, either by the in- 
 crease of the one fund, or the falling off of the other, it may be 
 allowable to transfer to the procuration any part of the ac- 
 cumulating fund not exceeding a certain proportion, as two 
 thirds, the remainder being left to go on accumulating as 
 before. — If the principle is not rejected, the particular con- 
 ditions of such a scheme may be varied at pleasure. Had 
 such a fund been established when the annual division of 
 accrescing revenue commenced, it might by this time have 
 amounted to j^iSoo, and in 17 years after to ;!^6ooo, at which 
 time if the average of the accrescing revenue had not risen 
 above 300/. an addition of 4000/. to the procuration fund 
 would have taken place ; if the accrescing revenue had risen 
 higher, such addition would have been less necessary.* 
 
 * Instead of adopting this scheme, his colleagues went on increasing 
 the college debt at the rate of £go annually, besides swallowing ;£'i5ooo 
 of additional Government Grants, &om 1807 to 1826. — Report of Royal 
 Commission, i8z6. p. 310. 
 
Biographical Notes. 225 
 
 No. V. Reasons of Protest against the Resolutions of the College 
 Meeting, April s^ih, 1785. 
 
 (ist.) Because the majority have rejected my proposals as 
 improper, without venturing to deny the reality of those abuses 
 to which they refer, and without suggesting any less improper 
 in their stead. 
 
 I have asserted that the revenue of the library is so 
 scanty, that no more than ;^6 is annually expended on buying 
 books, and that this revenue has been improperly reduced by 
 transferring considerable sums to the ^>dilis fund. I have 
 asserted that the payments made to Bishop Elphinston's 
 bursars have fallen far below their original value, while the 
 salaries of the masters payable out of the same funds have 
 risen far above it. — I have asserted that our present method of 
 dividing the whole accrescing revenue annually among our- 
 selves is neither strictly justifiable nor very decent. The majority 
 have not contradicted any of these assertions, nor can they. 
 
 The remedies I proposed are very possibly far from the 
 best that may be devised. I meant by proposing them chiefly 
 to express my own wishes, and to rouse the attention of my 
 colleagues, several of whom I know to be more equal to the 
 task. I was by no means attached to these proposals as mine, 
 and would gladly have consented to any moderate remedies, 
 which the Society in their discretion might have chosen to 
 adopt. But all remedy whatever is, it seems, to be withheld. 
 The strange maxims I have heard asserted (inconsiderately as 
 I thought) are to be maintained in practice, and defended as 
 usual by evasions and forms. 
 
 (2nd.) Because, by requiring that hereafter all Reasons of 
 Protest should be communicated to a College meeting previous 
 to their insertion, the majority have prescribed a form, which, 
 if it is not frivolous, must have a pernicious tendency. 
 
 They have also found that the insertion of my last protest, 
 by my own hand, was irregular. How could I suppose any 
 
226 Biographical Notes. 
 
 irregularity in that which is so consonant to the practice of the 
 Society? How many minutes are there inserted by private 
 members, in their own hand, without any formal notification 
 to a meeting ? No later than the very gentleman 
 
 who moved for those resolutions against which I protest, in- 
 serted with his own hand, and without the least communication 
 to the College meeting, a minute purporting to be their resolu- 
 tions, and assigning certain payments of money in their gift. 
 If it be competent to a private member to insert minutes in 
 this manner, how much more must it be so to insert his own 
 Reasons of Protest, Reasons, over which, if communicated, 
 the Meeting can have no power to alter or reject them. For 
 that they have, even this majority will not assert. 
 
 Amid their zeal for frivolous and pernicious forms, let them 
 be reminded of that facility, with which on a late occasion they 
 chose to trample under foot forms truly salutary and essential. 
 I mean those forms which require that all our resolutions on 
 business should be recorded in the minutes at the time, and 
 signed in presence of the meeting. 
 
 I am but little acquainted with forms, and much disposed 
 not to trespass against them. Of both these circumstances 
 my opponents have profited. It gives me satisfaction, however, 
 and seems a good omen, that men so well acquainted with busi- 
 ness, and of such sound judgment as some of them are, choose 
 manifestly to defend their present cause by formalities and 
 fetches for delay, and seem to shun as with horror all free 
 discussion of essential points. 
 
 WILLIAM OGILVIE. 
 
 iV.^.— In the College meeting April i2th, 1784, Mr. 
 Ogilvie proposed that the opinion of the Crown Lawyers 
 should be taken on the two following Questions : 
 
 (i.) Whether the feuing out of land, lying within the 
 
Biographical Notes. 227 
 
 College precincts, is a lawful administration, except in cases 
 of necessity? 
 
 (2.) Whether a Feu-charter of the subjects now in ques- 
 tion will bind our successors, in case they should want these 
 subjects, for any purpose tending to the advantage or reputa- 
 tion of the College, as for a Botanic Garden ? 
 
 This is the proposal mentioned in No. II. 
 
 The protest mentioned in No. V. was taken in the College 
 meeting, held Jan. 31st, 1785, on account of the majority's 
 delaying to insert in the minutes the proposals given in Nov. 
 20th, 1784. 
 
 Reasons of Protest. 
 
 (ist.) Because on this occasion an inconsiderable majority, 
 viz.. Dr. Gerard, Dr. Chalmers, Professor Gordon, Professor 
 Leslie, arrogate to themselves a power which cannot belong to 
 any majority, however numerous or respectable. 
 
 Will they presume to say that any member has not a right 
 to make in the College meeting such proposals as he thinks 
 may tend to the advantage of the Society, and to have them 
 inserted in the minute as part of the Res Gestx of that day ? 
 Or will they say that matters of a frivolous nature were sug- 
 gested to their attention, when it was proposed that the scanty 
 income of the Library should be improved by increasing the 
 fees which are now usually paid on degrees ? 
 
 That the spoon money and money for the annual dinner 
 (if continued to be collected) should be applied to the Library 
 for the particular advantage of the bursars, from whom it is 
 now collected on obsolete pretexts. 
 
 That the Library fund should receive compensation for 
 certain sums which had been improperly taken from it. 
 
 That the payments to Bishop Elphinston's bursars should 
 be made equivalent to their real value at the time of the 
 foundation; or rather be made to partake of the late im- 
 
228 Biographical Notes. 
 
 provement of the College funds. And that a certain propor- 
 tion of the accrescing revenue, now annually divided, should 
 be set apart for an accumulating fund, to be improved at com- 
 pound interest, and not to be broke in upon until its annual 
 produce shall have become equal to the sum annually divided 
 among the masters. 
 
 (and.) Because of late a system has been adopted of eluding 
 inquiries, and suppressing all free discussion of questionable 
 points. On various occasions this system has betrayed itself, 
 and in the meeting of Oct. 23 it was pretty openly avowed. 
 The present resolution of the majority manifestly flows from it, 
 and being of small importance in itself is probably intended to 
 form a precedent. In that light it seems important and per- 
 nicious, and deserves to be resisted to the utmost. 
 
 WILLIAM OGILVIE. 
 
 Extract from Letters to a Gentleman in the Country written 
 by a Member of King's College.* 
 
 King's College, Oct. 21st, 1786. 
 
 You must have read with surprise that part of the 
 memorial from King's College, in which it is alleged, that 
 I had started the proposal of a visitation, with a view to 
 bring forward private and party complaints. I am far less 
 acquainted with party cabals than some of these gentlemen are, 
 and not much accustomed to complain. On this occasion 
 nothing can be farther from my thoughts than to bring any 
 complaints whatever before the royal visitors, were they 
 already appointed. I might perhaps take the liberty to lay 
 
 * These Letters were written by Professor Ogilvie to (we may safely 
 assume) his friend the Earl of Findlater and Seafield, the Chancellor of 
 King's College. 
 
Biographical Notes. 229 
 
 before them some proposals, relative to the improvement of 
 education, and the better management of our funds, but, 
 without any mixture of complaint, and with as little reference 
 as may be to any thing that is past. 
 
 As to the matter of private or personal complaint, I have 
 none. We have differed only in questions of a public nature 
 respecting the intentions of the founder, and the proper 
 application of the College revenue. 
 
 I have proposed that the augmentation of salaries should 
 be limited to a definite sum : that a due share of the surplus 
 revenue should be set apart for literary academical purposes : 
 that the practice of borrowing sums of money, and leaving 
 them as perpetual burdens on our successors, should be laid 
 aside ; and that an accumulating fund should be established 
 on a suitable plan. 
 
 They have rejected all these, and I confess I felt the dis- 
 appointment of their rejecting the accumulating fund. It is 
 but lately that the wonderful effects of such accumulation have 
 become the objects of belief. In the afifairs of great nations 
 they must be precarious ; but in the affairs of small com- 
 munities it may be hoped that they would proceed under the 
 protection of municipal law, for a long series of generations, 
 with all the certainty of calculation. Believing that my col- 
 leagues might be made to attend to this, and being extremely 
 desirous that an establishment of that nature might have 
 commencement here, I renewed my proposals ; suggesting 
 that 5 per cent., or even 3 per cent, of the surplus revenue, 
 might be sufficient. Supposing this last to amount to ;£io per 
 annum, I stated, that if applied to the payment of debts, it 
 would in 44 years clear off ;^i5oo of those for which provision 
 ought to be made : if suffered to accumulate, it might, in a 
 space of time equal to what is past since the last visitation, 
 produce an increase of two thirds to the surplus revenue : if 
 suffered to accumulate for a century, a period which may 
 
230 Biographical Notes. 
 
 reasonably fall within our calculations, since the community 
 has existed in safety for three centuries, it would produce a 
 fund equal to all that the Founder or private donors have 
 bestowed on the College. 
 
 Even this moderate scheme could obtain no regard. In 
 the last page of their memorial it is asserted that the 
 members of King's College have extended their care to the 
 improvement of the revenue in a more effectual manner than 
 by an accumulating fund. The very measures to which they 
 refer, to wit, the valuation of teinds and the sale of superiori- 
 ties, have a manifest tendency to advance the income of the 
 present incumbents, at the risk of diminishing the value of the 
 funds in remoter times. But a proportional, well regulated 
 accumulating fund might render such transactions unexcep- 
 tionable, and equally advantageous, to the present incumbents, 
 and their successors, at any time whatever. 
 
 They are pleased to renew the encomium on their good 
 management in their Information, where I have just read with 
 amazement that "the accession to the revenue has been 
 applied to every other purpose to which it was by the Founda- 
 tion applicable in z.far higher proportion than to the augmenta- 
 tion of the salaries of the masters ". 
 
 Were this assertion reversed, I might admit it as true. I 
 know well their dexterity in the use of words, and how much 
 they excel in elaborate ambiguity : to couch four different 
 meanings in one short sentence, or by the help of Italics, two 
 meanings absolutely contradictory in another, are ordinary 
 exertions of their skill : but though I have studied the ex- 
 pression and even the Italics here with the utmost attention, I 
 find it impossible to divine by what evasion, by what sophistry, 
 they can hope to reconcile this assertion with the facts. An 
 example will show the difficulty of the case. 
 
 By Bishop Elphinston's Foundation, the eight masters now 
 remaining on the establishment have 205 merks for their 
 
Biographical Notes. 231 
 
 salaries; the twelve bursars 144; and 40 merks are set apart 
 for the ^dilis fund. 
 
 Since the late improvement of the revenue, the bursars 
 have got an addition of ^20 sterling, the ^dilis fund of ;^3o, 
 and the eight masters receive annually, at an average, £,2^0 of 
 augmentation. 
 
 Were this sum of £^21^0 sterling divided in the same pro- 
 portion as by the Foundation, the Bursars should have about 
 £,\\o and the masters only ;^i5o. Whereas the Bursars get 
 hardly one fifth part of their due, the ^Edilis fund nearly its 
 due, and the masters considerably more than theirs. This 
 accession to the revenue seems therefore applied to the aug- 
 mentation of salaries in a far higher proportion than to other 
 purposes. 
 
 An explanation of this will be soon required, and then, if 
 not declined, we shall see how the Author of this Information 
 will avail himself of that art in which he is allowed to excel, 
 and in which he counsels his associates to put their trust. 
 "We must say strong things," is the watchword inculcated on 
 his party. 
 
 Of all the strong things they have ventured to say, the pro- 
 fession of respect for the College oath is, with regard to some 
 of them, far the strongest. Can you believe that they under- 
 stand it in the sense which they pretend ? I do not even be- 
 lieve that they have taken the oath which they have published. 
 That which I understand to have been in use ever since the 
 year 1684, and perhaps long before, is essentially different. It 
 binds to the observation of the first Foundation Nisi forte 
 aliter Cancellario Universitatis aliisque legitimis superioribus 
 visum fuerit. 
 
 Now what must be thought of men who, having twice 
 consented to an union of the Colleges on narrow and selfish 
 plans, refuse to consent to a more liberal, scheme, and try to 
 cover their real and pretty obvious motives by pretending 
 
232 Biographical Notes. 
 
 reverence for an oath, the obligation of which could prove 
 no check when a considerable augmentation of salary was in 
 view? 
 
 Still further, what must be thought of them if, to persuade 
 the pubUc that such is their motive, they circulate in print, and 
 in their private correspondence, copies of this oath altogether 
 different from that which has been administered to them on 
 their entrance to the Society ? 
 
 In common men, in all but those of whom we wish to 
 think very tenderly, such conduct would be ascribed without 
 hesitation to a base and flagrant hypocrisy. 
 
 Certainly the professor who circulated that copy of the 
 College oath has more reason to be ashamed of his leger- 
 demain than even of that foolish promise to sing doggrel 
 verses, with which it was accompanied, and which he has 
 never been able to perform. 
 
 Amid all these angry controversies no means are neglected 
 which may dispose these gentlemen to free conferences and 
 an amicable compromise. 
 
 Application has been made in particular to one of their 
 number, who is much respected by us all. The liberality of 
 his general sentiments is well known. His opinion was ex- 
 plicitly favourable to the last plan of union, and cannot be 
 supposed unfavourable to this, although his connections may 
 have led him along so far. 
 
 If he can be prevailed on to assume the office of a mediator, 
 all differences will soon be adjusted. If he can be prevailed 
 on merely to withdraw from active opposition, and to embrace 
 that neutral pacific part which another respectable member of 
 King's College has chosen, the best consequences will probably 
 ensue. Deprived of his countenance, the other six, being such 
 as they are, will hardly choose to stick together alone in so 
 notorious a cause. 
 
 However that may be, this gentleman certainly has it in 
 
Biographical Notes. 233 
 
 his power to effect an union of the Colleges if he thinks fit. 
 It is hoped he may consider how much he owes it to his own 
 sentiments, and to the general voice of the intelligent public. 
 Perhaps he may recollect that the friends of union have some 
 claim on him, for that deference to his sentiments, and con- 
 nections, which induced them to relinquish the last plan in 
 silence and rather prematurely. 
 
 These Letters and Extracts furnish the only instance 
 in Professor Ogilvie's life, where w^e find him revealing 
 himself in his true character, as defender of the rights 
 of the people ; excepting another glimpse in 1 764, 
 when his name prominently appears in connection with 
 a scheme for a Public Library in Aberdeen, which was 
 to embrace the libraries of the Universities. With the 
 exception of these two glimpses, Professor Ogilvie, as far 
 as known, never disclosed his name to the public in 
 connection with anything he did, or attempted to do, 
 during the whole course of his long life. He loved 
 tranquillity, and avoided publicity. It is not improbable 
 that, after due deliberation, he came to the conclusion 
 that his contemplations and schemes for the general 
 welfare of mankind would have more effect if published 
 anonymously than otherwise. His Right of Property in 
 Land was read on the continent of Europe, as the work 
 of an Englishman, who advocated the abolition of 
 serfdom, and who was able to say : " Look at us English, 
 how we have prospered since we became a free people, — 
 you French, Germans, Poles, Russians, etc., want a 
 revolution very badly, we had our last one in 1688 ; you 
 are a full century behind us ". 
 
234 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Professor Ogilvie must have rejoiced in the abolition 
 of serfdom in France. The Revolution of 1789, ghastly 
 in some respects, was only the natural outcome of what 
 preceded it. Its ruffians were the immediate offspring 
 of serfdom, bred and trained in the schools of tyranny, 
 oppression, corruption, and cruelty. The renowned 
 Charles James Fox, speaking in the British House of 
 Commons, on 5 th May, 1791, in reply to a gentleman 
 who attempted to burke the real facts which gave rise to 
 that Revolution, said : " He considered the Revolution 
 in France to be the greatest event for the happiness of 
 the world that had happened since the Creation ". 
 
 Professor Ogilvie also lived to rejoice in the still 
 more sweeping land tenure reforms carried out in Prussia. 
 " Nothing, probably," says the late Professor Fawcett, 
 " has so powerfully contributed to promote the extraor- 
 dinary progress of Prussia as the reforms which were 
 carried out in her system of landed tenure, at the 
 commencement of the present century, by Stein and 
 Hardenberg. A feudal tenantry was transformed into 
 cultivating proprietors, who have, probably more than 
 any other class, contributed to the social and material 
 advancement of Prussia."* These reforms were doubtless 
 planned by Frederick the Great, and no reader of The 
 Right of Property in Land would be surprised to learn 
 that a copy of that work, marked '' with the author's 
 compliments," was found inter alia in the repositories 
 of that famous monarch. Such a discovery would not 
 be more surprising than that Professor Ogilvie had some- 
 thing to do with the land tenure reforms carried out by 
 Lord Cornwallis in lower Bengal, in the year 1793. The 
 
 *Manual of Political Economy, London, 1874. p, 201. 
 
Biographical Notes. 235 
 
 reader of TJu Right of Property in Land knows the 
 interest manifested by the author in that " unhappy- 
 country '' — India. Addressing himself to our " East 
 India Company " and the " British Government " in 
 1780-81, he says: "No nobler opportunity, no equal 
 fund for exhibiting to mankind the illustrious pattern of 
 a just and equal establishment of landed property, was 
 ever, by any conjuncture, thrown into the hands of a set 
 of men very capable of perceiving wherein the best use 
 of such an occasion would consist " (p. 108). 
 
 The following memorandum, in the handwriting of 
 Professor Ross, found among Professor Ogilvie's papers, 
 gives us a suggestive glimpse : — 
 
 " yune I^tk, 1790. 
 
 " Mr. Ross has got some Calaitta Gazettes which he 
 will send to Mr. Ogilvie in a day or two hence. The 
 Calcutta publications were stopped at the India House, 
 but Dr. Dunbar says that they will be sent to Mr. Ross 
 soon. When he receives them he will send them to Mr. 
 Ogilvie, at whose desire Colonel Ross sent them." 
 
 Dr. Dunbar has been alluded to already as one of 
 Professor Ogilvie's radical colleagues. He was the 
 author of Essays on the History of Mankind, published 
 by W. Strahan, London, in 1780. He was also the 
 author of a Latin pamphlet on the American War of 
 Independence ; and, for having taken the side of the 
 Americans, he is described as " being somewhat impru- 
 dent in politics ".* Colonel Ross was evidently a brother 
 of Professor Ross, and very probably, either an old pupil 
 or a fellow-student of Professor Ogilvie. 
 
 The following letter gives a fuller glimpse of Professor 
 
 * Personal Memoirs by Pryse Lockhart Gordon, London, 1830. 
 
236 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Ogilvie's connection with the Regulations which Lord 
 Cornwalh's * attempted to carry out, but which the " per- 
 
 * Lord Cornwallis wanted to give the Khoodkhast Ryots — that is, 
 the original cultivators, or their descendants — a proprietary right. They 
 got Fixity of Tenure and Fair Rent hy his Regulations. The Zemindar, 
 or Landlord, could not evict them, or extort from them a higher rent than 
 the Pergunnah neerik, i.e., the rent common in the district. This Law, 
 however, was generally violated, and the following is a flagrant example 
 of such violation : — " The Zemindars of Rungpore, Bogra, Mymensing, 
 Dinagepore, and other surrounding jute districts have raised the rates of 
 land rent on jute crops from one rupee per Beegah to seven, eight, and 
 ten rupees". Dacca News, 12th June, 1858. 
 
 Other Ryots, who were only tenants at will, were the victims of 
 extortion, or eviction, at all times. The Khas (Government) Ryots of 
 Madras were not better oif than the Ryots under the Zemindars of Bengal. 
 "Madras," says the D.N., " we believe maintains an army of 45,000 
 Cormorants and Vultures under the name of ' Rent collecting peons '." 
 The Company boasted that the Khas Ryots of Madras had equality. So 
 they had; but it was like the equality of "frogs under a flagstone"! 
 " The Company's servants resembled the French nobility." The Sepoy 
 revolt of 1857 was in obedience to Natural Law. The British Govern- 
 ment realised this, and the Company was wound up in September, 1858, 
 Those who had the use of their eyes saw the end coming. Dr. Duff, 
 the famous Indian Missionary, was at the time promoting a scheme for 
 the education of the natives, and when the Company rejected it, he was 
 heard to mutter to himself: " This is the last kick 0/ an expiring ass". 
 
 The Land Company of Ireland, it is to be hoped, is having its last 
 fling now. A Conservative Government " Relief Bill " for landlords is 
 not a bad sign. But two things are necessary for the purpose of 
 accelerating Irish reform:— (i) The Battering Ram should be used, not 
 here and there, but all along the line, and the British Soldiers engaged 
 at evictions should always get the word of command—" Don't hesitate 
 to shoot ". (2) The Priests of Ireland should trust Heaven, and stay 
 away from evictions. They should give Natural Law a fair chance for 
 once— when it would be seen whether It or The Castle would in the end 
 rule the hearts, and direct the bullets, of British and Irish Soldiers. 
 
 The Land Company of Scotland carried out the "clearances" in 
 the Highlands and Islands chiefly by the aid of the Protestant and 
 Presbyterian clergy. These oracles said to the people : " This is God's 
 own work " ; and the people succumbed, as they used to do when told 
 
Biographical Notes. 237 
 
 manent official " took very good care to render, not only 
 useless, but in many cases, oppressive and tyrannical, 
 until the misery of the Native cultivator could find a 
 comparison nowhere on the face of the earth, except tn 
 Ireland : — 
 
 " Aberdeen, 
 '•4th jfnly, 1792. 
 
 "My Dear Sir, 
 
 " On my return from the country last night, I 
 had the pleasure of your letter of the 2nd inst, together 
 with the books. Your remarks on Mr. Law's book 
 seem to me perfectly just. Some of them occurred to 
 myself on reading it. If you will take the trouble to 
 
 that God sent a plague. Innocent children wondered, deluded women 
 wept, and men otherwise brave behaved like sheep. To rebel against 
 God was considered not only sinful, but utterly hopeless, and the 
 power of describing the vengeance which would await such rebels in 
 the next world, was recognised as a heavenly gift among the clergy of 
 those days. The British Oracle, be it admitted with shame, too often 
 acted, and, in many cases, still acts as 
 
 ■' the sullen frumpish fool, 
 
 Who loves to be Oppression's tool." 
 supporting Landlordism and Slavery even from the pulpit, whereas all 
 that can be, said of the vast majority of Irish Priests is, that they 
 unwittingly supported the traditional enslaving policy of Henry II. of 
 England, who, with the Pope's authority, introduced Landlordism into 
 Ireland. But since the date of the Plan of Campaign Rescript, the 
 Nation, the Priests, and the Orangemen are fast becoming one loyal 
 Ireland, and "loyal Ulster " is being eclipsed by the general spread of 
 its own light. Of this, let all ancient Primrose Dames (especially those 
 of the other sex !) take a note ; and let Ulster, which preserved the leaven 
 of reform (its Tenant Right), have its due share of national glory in 
 regard to the improved Land Laws of Ireland. The question is also 
 taking root in Britain. The soil of England, Scotland, and Wales will 
 very soon be declared to belong, by birthright, to the whole people, and 
 not to a handful of so-called landlords. A very remarkable declaration 
 in this direction by our present Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, will be 
 found in Section X. of the Appendix. 
 
 17 
 
238 Biographical Notes. 
 
 send me a copy of the remarks you mention, along 
 with your extracts from the Essay on Property in Land, 
 I will take the very first opportunity of forwarding 
 them to my brother. I know he will be very happy to 
 receive any communication of that sort, and, perhaps, 
 if Lord Cornwallis remains in India long enough to 
 consider them deliberately, they may be productive of 
 good effects to the peaceable, industrious inhabitants 
 of Bengal. In the meantime, it occurs to me, that as 
 you are so much master of the present state of that 
 country, and of the proposed plans for the management 
 of it, you might give to the public a short essay on the 
 subject, which I am certain would be well received, and 
 might be very useful to those who wish to render the 
 numerous inhabitants of Bengal independent and happy. 
 Your suggestions and ideas might be put in execution 
 there, under a wise and steady government, and in my 
 opinion, it is the only country in the world, at present, 
 in which trials might be made, either on a small or 
 large scale, according to circumstances. 
 
 " You know I am, with invariable esteem, 
 
 " Entirely yours, 
 
 "John Ross." 
 
 The "short essay," if published, remains to be 
 unearthed. Meantime the brief diagnosis of the 
 distresses of India and Ireland which the author gives 
 in his Right of Property in Land, coupled with the re- 
 medies he suggested, may be accepted as a miniature 
 sketch of a true lover of justice, whose principles, 
 although rejected and despised by the wiseacres of his 
 time, were based upon wisdom and truth. His foresight 
 
Biographical Notes. 239 
 
 suggests to us wide and accurate knowledge as well as 
 the possession of a very remarkable intellectual crucible. 
 
 Ireland, poor Ireland, whose sons, Ogilvie tells us, 
 " even in Spenser's time," respected the original right of 
 equal property in land (p. 10), is still labouring under 
 the same curse as in "September, 1780." He then 
 suggested an Agrarian Law, and he unhesitatingly 
 states that "the distresses of Ireland, whatever they 
 may have been, must be allowed by impartial observers 
 to have arisen far more from the abuses of landed 
 property than from the restrictions of commerce" (p. 
 no). What Ogilvie saw with extreme clearness in 1780 
 is only now (1890) becoming visible to the eye of the 
 ordinary British Politician. 
 
 Pryse Lockhart Gordon (the author of the Me- 
 moirs above referred to), was a son of the minister 
 of the parish of Ardersier, in the county of Nairn. 
 He entered King's College, Aberdeen, in the year 
 1776. We are indebted to him for the following 
 interesting sketch of Professor Ogilvie. He says in 
 his Memoirs : — 
 
 " We attended the lectures of Mr. Ogilvie, Professor 
 of Humanity, three times a week. He was esteemed 
 the most elegant scholar in Scotland of his day; and 
 his translations of Horace and Virgil have, perhaps, 
 never been surpassed ; they ought to have been printed 
 in usmn Delphini. Ogilvie was also a man of great 
 general erudition and critical knowledge, especially in 
 Natural History and the fine Arts. He was a profound 
 antiquary and medallist, though his opportunities of 
 acquiring this taste were so limited. He had, however, 
 collected a little museum, and was rich in rare prints, 
 especially portraits of eminent persons. 
 
240 Biographical Notes. 
 
 "On my return from Italy in 1 800, I paid my old 
 master a visit ; and though then at a very advanced 
 age, he was in complete possession of his mental 
 faculties, but a cripple with gout. I presented him 
 with a few Greek and Roman coins, which I had picked 
 up in my travels, and also some fragments from 
 Pompeii, and a small genuine Greek vase. It was 
 delightful to see how the eyes of the old antiquary- 
 sparkled (or rather squinted), when I laid before him 
 these treasures as a ricordanza, and the pleasure with 
 which he examined them. I was much surprised to 
 find in our conversation the minute acquaintance which 
 he had of every work of art in Italy, the correctness of 
 his taste and wonderful memory. 
 
 " He shewed me a large collection of castes in 
 sulphur, which my uncle, Mr. C. Morrison, had 
 presented to the college where he had been educated. 
 They probably would never have seen the light, had 
 they not been committed to the especial care of 
 Mr. Ogilvie. 
 
 " Many years afterwards, Mr. M., who died at 
 Rome, left by will to this Royal University, the most 
 curious gallery of pictures ever amassed by an indi- 
 vidual, 300 specimens of all the great Italian masters. 
 
 " Since poor Ogilvie was gathered to his fathers, 
 no attempt has been made, so far as I know, for the 
 recovery of these lost treasures." 
 
 The recollections of this pupil, it is right to explain, 
 were unearthed after the first portion of these Notes was 
 printed off. It seems that he had not the faintest idea 
 of Professor Ogilvie's advanced views on politics. If 
 he had, he, with the filial regard of a devoted pupil, 
 conceals, what to his understanding, was seemingly a 
 
Biographical Notes. 241 
 
 dark spot — " imprudent in politics " — on the otherwise 
 unblemished character of his favourite professor. He 
 mentions that the 4th Duke of Gordon visited Italj' in 
 1761, and stayed for a considerable time in the country 
 of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany* Professor Ogilvie, 
 who, as already mentioned, was travelling tutor to the 
 Duke of Gordon, had then a right royal time of it, and 
 it is no longer a matter of conjecture how he utilized 
 his continental rambles. 
 
 The Rev. Donald Sage, of Resolis, in the county of 
 Ross, who knew several of the students who studied at 
 King's College, has left us the following notice of Pro- 
 fessor Ogilvie : — 
 
 " Wm. Ogilvie, the renowned Professor of Humanity 
 and Natural History at King's College, was fresh in the 
 memory of all my contemporaries at Aberdeen College. 
 They never wearied talking of him, and of his unrivalled 
 tran.slations of Virgil's Eclogues. It is much to be 
 regretted that these were not published. He devoted 
 nearly every third hour of his literary life to the stutly 
 of these magnificent specimens of ancient pastoral 
 poetry." f 
 
 * Cosmo the 3rd Duke of Gordon, was called Cosmo, in compliment 
 to Cosmo de Medici III., Grand Duke of Tuscany, " with whom his 
 father was on the closest habit of friendship ". 
 
 At p. 81, we find Professor Ogilvie referring to the pernicious effect 
 of the " hospitals and almsgiving of the Italian cities " In the ruins of 
 the house of Medici he must have read an object-lesson of deep interest. 
 The last branch of that renowned family " found Tuscany a prosperous 
 country where art, letters, commerce, industry, and agriculture ilourished, 
 and left her (in 1737) poor and decayed in all ways, drained by taxation, 
 and oppressed by laws contrary to every principle of sound economy, 
 downtrodden by clergy, and burdened by a weak and vicious 
 aristocracy". 
 
 t Memorabilia Domcstica, Wick, 1889. 
 
242 Biographical Notes. 
 
 On Monday, 23id August, 1773, the celebrated Dr. 
 Johnson visited Aberdeen. He saw some of the "wise 
 masters". Fir j^/zV, &c., was their motto. The doctor 
 was in a conversational mood, but Boswell tells us : — 
 " The professors were afraid to speak ". Professor 
 Ogilvie must have been from home, otherwise the 
 faithful Boswell would have said^ something about 
 him. 
 
 Francis Douglas, another literary tourist, visited 
 Aberdeen in 1780. He wrote a minute account of the 
 Universities, and the reader is indebted to him for the 
 following extract : — " About eight years ago, Mr. William 
 Ogilvie, Professor of Humanity, began of his own ac- 
 cord to put together a collection of specimens for a 
 Museum of Natural History, in the King's College, and 
 has now fitted up, and furnished three apartments for 
 their arrangement. The Professor reckons he has 
 already nearly obtained the first object he had in 
 view, which was to procure such an assortment of 
 specimens of fossils, and in the various branches of 
 Zoology, as might serve to excite the liberal curi- 
 osity of youth, and make them, in some measure, 
 acquainted with the immense variety of the works of 
 nature. 
 
 " He proposes still to go on, enlarging the Museum as 
 new acquisitions come to hand ; but without pretending 
 to adorn it with splendid and costly specimens. In the 
 progress already made, he acknowledges himself to be 
 much indebted to the assistance of many respectable 
 people in the country around ; and modestly says 
 that his own trouble has not been so great as may ap- 
 pear. One is astonished to find so large a collection of 
 
Biographical Notes. 243 
 
 birds, fishes, marbles, spars, &c., accumulated in so short 
 a space." * 
 
 We extract the following brief notice from another 
 literary tourist, who came after Douglas : The Rev. 
 James Hall, in recording his visit to Aberdeen, says : — 
 
 " Professor James Beattie, of the New Town College, 
 nephew of the late Dr. Beattie, seems to know more of 
 Natural History, and the important and now fashionable 
 branches of knowledge connected with it, than any other 
 person I know in any part of Scotland, excepting the 
 accomplished Professor Ogilvie, of King's College here".t 
 
 Sir James Mackintosh, another pupil of Professor 
 Ogilvie, did not neglect to add a stone to the cairn. He 
 entered King's College in October, 1780, and a quarter 
 of a century afterwards, we find him making the follow- 
 ing note in his Memoirs : — 
 
 " The lectures of Mr. Ogilvie, Professor of Humanity 
 (as the Roman literature is called in the Scotch Univer- 
 sities), I still remember with pleasure. This most ingeni- 
 ous and accomplished recluse, from whom I have re- 
 ceived a letter within this month (June, 1805), is little 
 known to the public. He published, without his name, 
 'An Essay on the Right of Property in Land,' full of 
 benevolence and ingenuity, but not the work of a man 
 experienced in the difficult art of realising projects for 
 the good of mankind. Its bold Agrarianism attracted 
 some attention during the ferment of speculation occa- 
 sioned by the French Revolution. :|: But what I remem- 
 
 * A General Description of the East Coast of Scotland, hy Francis 
 Douglas. Paisley, 1782. Aberdeen, 1826. 
 
 t Travels in Scotland, by Rev. James Hall, A.M., London, 1807. 
 
 J J. R. M'Culloch, in his Literature of Political Economy (London, 
 1845), after quoting these words, adds : — " But, in truth, the author's 
 
244 Biographical Notes. 
 
 bei- with most pleasure of Mr. Ogilvie were his transla- 
 tions of passages in classical writers. I should distrust 
 the general admiration which attends the vague memory 
 of youthful impressions ; but I now recollect distinctly 
 his version of some parts of the .^Eneid ; and I doubt 
 whether a great poet, distinguished, beyond other excel- 
 lencies, by his perfect style, was ever so happily rendered 
 into prose, as in these fragments of Mr. Ogilvie.'' 
 
 Sir James Mackintosh was considered, in his day, as 
 being rather in advance of his time, but in regard to the 
 Land Question, he was, at least, a full century behind 
 Professor Ogilvie. 
 
 The following letters from a grateful pupil will be 
 perused with some interest by every intelligent reader 
 of The Right of Property in Land : — 
 
 Letter from John Garvock to Professor Ogilvie. 
 
 "Horse Guards, 6M November, 1812. 
 
 " My Dear Sir, — Major Tod did me the favour of 
 calling upon me this morning, as he informed me by 
 your desire, and I need not tell you what gratification it 
 afforded me to find that I was not forgotten by you. I 
 was much pleased to learn from the Major that your 
 health is tolerably good, and that you are still enabled to 
 continue your attention to your favourite pursuits. And I 
 am induced to flatter myself with a hope of having this 
 agreeable intelligence soon confirmed under your own 
 
 schemes, however well intended, are not impracticable only, but mis- 
 chievous ; and his principles and reasonings are alike false, shallow, and 
 sophistical. Probably, however, it was hardly necessary to say so much 
 of a work that never had any influence, and which has long been for- 
 gotten." iV.S.— Poor J. R. M'Culloch had no idea that he was writing 
 his own certificate of character when he penned this criticism of The 
 Right of Property in Land. 
 
Biographical Notes. 24S 
 
 hand, than which, in truth, nothing could be more accept- 
 able to me. 
 
 " It is now very long, indeed, since I had the pleasure 
 of any communication with you, but this I must attri- 
 bute entirely to my own negligence, for it was my duty 
 to have paid my respects from time to time to you, 
 without regard to the regularity of your returns, and, 
 however uninteresting my correspondence might have 
 been, I have experienced so much of your partial in- 
 dulgence as to satisfy me it would have been kindly 
 received. 
 
 " You have, I presume, just commenced your 
 session, and though my mind has long been necessarily 
 too much estranged to literary habits. Alma Mater at 
 this moment rises distinctly to my view. I feel the 
 former fires — veteris vestigia flammcB — and all those 
 impressions (never to be obliterated), which I received 
 from your tuition and society. I have so little inter- 
 course with Aberdeen, that I am quite ignorant of the 
 state of the college now, but while you remain a 
 member of it, the true interests of literature and liberal 
 knowledge, I am sure, will never be forgotten. I well 
 remember, however, that your corporation formerly 
 possessed a due proportion of that salutary dread of 
 innovation, I will not say reform, which has long 
 pervaded the nation at large ; and such feelings are too 
 apt to gain instead of losing ground by time. . . . 
 
 "With sentiments of the truest respect and attach- 
 ment, and with every good wish, believe me to remain, 
 
 " My Dear Sir, 
 
 " Your ever obliged and faithful, 
 
 " John Garvock." 
 
246 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Letter from John Garvock to Dr. Kerr, Aberdeen. 
 
 " Horse Guards, London, 
 
 " 23rrf February, i8ig. 
 
 " Sir, — Having understood that you were the profes- 
 sional attendant and intimate friend of the late Professor 
 Ogilvie, whose death I have seen announced in the 
 public papers of this day, I venture, though an entire 
 stranger to you, to request the favour of your making 
 me acquainted with the circumstances of his last illness. 
 
 " I have no correspondent in Aberdeen, to whom I 
 could look for such information, and that I should feel 
 no ordinary interest in this melancholy event, would not 
 surprise you, if you were aware of the unbounded 
 kindness I experienced from Mr. Ogilvie at an early 
 period of my life. His uniform partiality to me, for 
 many years before I left Aberdeen, was indeed well- 
 known to others, but myself alone could know the full 
 extent of his goodness, and of my own obligations, the 
 sense of which has continued to increase as I have 
 become better able to appreciate the value of his 
 friendship, and the unrestricted intercourse to which he 
 admitted me. How much a young man must have been 
 indebted to that intercourse, I need not tell you, sir, who 
 have enjoyed his society. From him I imbibed principles 
 and tastes, which will abide with me through life, and 
 always prove, as they have hitherto done, their own reward. 
 
 " Thus thinking and thus feeling, you will, I am sure, 
 allow for my anxiety on the present occasion, and I 
 trust it will afford yourself a melancholy pleasure to give 
 some account of your lamented friend to a person who 
 must ever take a lively interest in every thing connected 
 with his memory. 
 
Biographical Notes. 247 
 
 " Will you have the goodness to inform me, whether 
 any portrait of Mr. Ogilvie is in existence, and how his 
 papers, which must be numerous, are to be disposed of? 
 " I remain, with much respect, sir, 
 
 " Your very faithful and obedient servant. 
 "John Garvock." 
 
 Who was John Garvock ? will naturally be asked. 
 Well, it is to be hoped some representative of his 
 will answer that question, and, perhaps, at the same 
 time, furnish more particulars about the life and work of 
 Professor Ogilvie. 
 
 It may be as well to answer the question about the 
 portrait now. The photogravure at the beginning of this 
 volume is from a miniature, by Archibald Birnie, Artist, 
 Aberdeen, dated 1819. It was kindly lent by Mrs. David- 
 son, of Gordon Terrace, Inverness, Professor Ogilvie's 
 nearest relative now living, and one of the very few sur- 
 viving descendants of seven nephews and six nieces, 
 who survived him as next-of-kin, in 1819 — an instance 
 which somehow does not square with the multiplication 
 table of Malthus. 
 
 This portrait is an undoubted likeness. When 
 shown recently to Mrs. Gibb, of Old Aberdeen, she 
 recognised it at a first glance. " That's Professor 
 Ogilvie," said she, " Eh ! but it's hke him " — and 
 critically examining it in detail, she continued — • 
 " his hair," " his eye," " his nose," and " his ear " — 
 "all is like him, except this" — pointing to his neckcloth. 
 Then she explained, with a smile, that " he was 
 generally not so braw about the neck ". " You see," 
 she added, " he was a great scholar, and was aye 
 studying and writing, and was somewhat careless about 
 
248 Biographical Notes. 
 
 his dress." On being asked if she thought the portrait 
 was taken after death, she replied : " I don't know, 
 but anyhow, this is tlie image of the living man". 
 Mrs. Gibb was born in Old Aberdeen, within a bow 
 shot of King's College, in the year 1803. She is a 
 most intelligent person, and her faculties are still 
 wonderfully bright. She is the only person now alive 
 that knows anything of any consequence about Professor 
 Ogilvie, from personal knowledge. 
 
 With regard to the important question of Professor 
 Ogilvie's MSS. — What became of them? — It is impos- 
 sible at present to say. This is to be regretted, not only 
 on account of his famous translations of Latin authors, 
 but also on account of his own original productions — 
 'his contemplations and schemes for the general welfare 
 of mankind '. The reader, doubtless, would like to see 
 his History of Property in Land— "treating more 
 at length of the Mosaical Agrarian, considered as an 
 economical regulation" — unearthed, and "offered to the 
 public " (p. 25). 
 
 We may assume that many anonymous contributions 
 from his pen appeared in periodicals, in pamphlets, and 
 in the Press, during his life, but without his MSS. it is 
 now difficult to trace such works with certainty to him. 
 It is, however, the loss of his unpublished works that 
 we deplore most. Shortly after his death, the whole of 
 his MSS. were "-nailed up" — "in six or eight large boxes " 
 — to await the return of one of his nephews, James 
 Ogilvie Tod, an Indian Judge, who was thought to be in 
 possession of the author's own instructions regarding 
 their disposal. Their interment by his next-of-kin was, 
 perhaps, justifiable in those days, but if cremation was 
 latterly adopted, one feels very much in need of praying 
 
Biographical Notes. 249 
 
 for a double share of the author's own spirit of magna- 
 nimity, to be able to touch the subject with a " gentle 
 hand " The children of that period may be excused. 
 It was their misfortune to have been born and brought 
 up under a reign of tyranny, bigotry, and hypocrisy. 
 
 The State Church, although based on democratic 
 lines, approved of Braxfield's doings. It issued a 
 " Pastoral Admonition " in 1799 against Sunday Schools, 
 and described the teachers as " notoriously disaffected 
 to the civil Constitution of the country ". Thomas Muir 
 had a copy of TJie Rights of Man in his possession, and 
 this was made the principal crime for which he was 
 banished. Burns, in order to escape a similar fate, had 
 to hide his copy, and The Age of Reason, with the black- 
 smith of Dumfries. Professor Ogilvie's works would be 
 considered more criminal than these. The man who 
 dared to deny the divine origin of rents and tithes, and, 
 moreover, who boldly defined them as " the improvident 
 regulations of human law,'' and who was able to cite 
 Moses as his authority, would, doubtless, be considered 
 more dangerous than the renowned Thomas Paine. It 
 was, perhaps, on this account that no lair could be found 
 in the Aberdeen University Library for a copy of The 
 Rights of Property in Land, while The Rights of Man 
 did find a place in that consecrated ground. One of 
 the books which Professor Ogilvie had beside him when 
 he died, was the University Library copy of The Rights 
 of Man ; and it is not improbable that the very last 
 stroke of his pen was employed in reviewing that book, 
 or in revising a new work on The Rights of Man to the 
 Land — how lost, and how to be regained. 
 
 The schemes of this " ingenious and accomplished re- 
 cluse " pointed towards the possibility of Paradise re- 
 
250 Biographical Notes. 
 
 gained, even on this earth. He had no grudge against 
 the Creator for having made the earth as it is. Examin- 
 ing human nature, he compared the happiness, health, 
 and virtue of mankind in town and country. He de- 
 clared in favour of the latter, and against monopoly in 
 land. His " projects for the good of mankind " will stand 
 the test of time. ■ When Macaulay's New Zealander 
 visits England, it is not the ruins of her edifices that 
 will engage his thoughts, but her neglected fields. It is 
 there he will read the story of her decline and fall. The 
 roofless walls of the great London palaces of dukes and 
 lords will not cost him one sigh. Land monopolists, he 
 will say to himself, were also the ruin of his own country. 
 The game is the same everywhere. A corrupt dog-in- 
 the-manger governing class is formed, and idleness and 
 taxes are enforced on a landless people, with the usual 
 and consequent miseries, vices, and crimes. This lesson 
 is being learned even in America and Australia, with 
 their millions of acres lying waste, while thousands of 
 men and women are starving in the large cities, and com- 
 pelled to 
 
 — ' heg a brother of the earth 
 To give them leave to toil '. 
 
 Tasmania furnishes a striking instance of a new 
 country ruined by landlordism. " Within five miles of 
 Hobart is an estate that was once called the granary of 
 Tasmania. It is now a sheep run. First came the 
 absentee landlord, who, living 12,000 miles away, cared 
 nothing for his estate, but to squeeze all he could out of 
 it. Next came a landlordship of trustees, in which the 
 very possibility of a personal interest was destroyed, and 
 under which the estate fell into worse and worse condi- 
 tion, houses in ruins, fences falling to decay. Last came 
 
Biographical Notes. 251 
 
 the kind of landlord on whom so many pin their faith, 
 the occupying landlord, and he swept all the farmers 
 ofif the land, and turned it into a sheep walk." * The 
 occupying owner of this kind, the rack-renter, the middle- 
 man, the large grazier, and, as in the Highlands of Scot- 
 land, the deer forest monopolist, are among the worst 
 plagues of society. They destroy the most important of 
 all industries, and drain the last drop of the best blood 
 of a nation. 
 
 Ireland, Scotland, and Wales are ripe and ready for 
 reform, but England blocks the way ! This is not strange. 
 What else could be expected of a country where Church 
 Livings may be bought and sold like the shares of a 
 Brewery Company, and the serving of the cure (of souls) 
 is done by starving curates, while idle rectors fatten on 
 the tithes ; and where the sons of the aristocracy and the 
 rich are educated in the great National Charity Schools 
 of Oxford and Cambridge, and the sons of the peasantry 
 practically excluded, notwithstanding the Christian pre- 
 tentions of these public institutions. We get a near view 
 of Professor Ogilvie's character in sections 38, 39, 40, and 
 59, where he deals with rents and tithes. After pointing 
 out that an idle landlord who draws his rents, and an 
 idle rector who draws his tithes, are both '' sinecurists " 
 and " free-booters," he gives a hint to the cure-serving 
 parsons to make common cause with the "laborious 
 classes". "It would not," says he, "ill become the ministers 
 of any Church to assume the patronage of these men, 
 
 * Pamphlet by Mr. A. J. Ogilvie, who is himself a considerable land- 
 holder in Tasmania, and who holds similar views with his namesake of 
 King's College, including the Single Tax scheme. Landlordism he 
 defines as " legalised robbery " ; and, with regard to Ireland, he says, 
 "what we want is not to change the robbers, but to stop the robbery " . 
 
252 Biographical Notes. 
 
 and to stand forth as the advocates of their natural rights 
 and the guardians of their independence, in opposition 
 to the opulent (duke, earl, or lord), the luxurious (upstart 
 landholder), and the idle (ecclesiastical sinecurist), who, 
 in too many respects, domineer over them." 
 
 The clergy are, as a general rule, bribed and cor- 
 rupted by despots and politicians. Even the immaculate 
 Joseph made the priests of Egypt his friends, by not 
 touching their glebes, when he relieved the Egyptians 
 of their money, cattle, horses, asses and also their land 
 and their liberty, made Pharaoh a tyrant, and, for the 
 first time in the world's history, invented landlordism 
 and rent : " so the land became Pharaoh's. And, as for 
 the people, he removed them to cities, from one end of 
 the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof; 
 only the land of the priests bought he not." He was an 
 exceedingly smart yi?zy, like his father. These particulars 
 we get from Moses, but never from the pulpit. Joseph 
 gathered the corn (Gen. xli.). It is not said that he 
 bought it. It is, however, narrated (Gen. xlvii.), that he 
 sold it at a most extortionate Jewish price. He was not 
 over scrupulous as to compensating the claims of the 
 landlords. \i& d\di \t commercially . For their land, and for 
 themselves as slaves, he gave seed corn for one year's crop. 
 Moses, with severe sarcasm, puts the following words in 
 his mouth : — " Behold (said Joseph unto the people), / 
 have bought you this day, and your land : lo, here is seed 
 corn for you, and ye shall sow the land ; and ye shall 
 give one-fifth part of the crop to Pharaoh," your land- 
 lord, as rent. 
 
 When the feudal Pharaohs in other countries relieved 
 the people of their land, they did not give even one year's 
 seed corn as the price thereof The modern Joseph is 
 
Biographical Notes. 253 
 
 also different : He pockets all the money he can lay 
 hands on, and is thus guilty of swindling Pharaoh, as 
 well as the people. In regard to the fixing of rent, old 
 Joseph was quite a model land steward, but, unfortunately 
 his virtue, in this respect, is never held up for imitation. 
 The morality of expositors, somehow, cannot get beyond 
 the charms of Potiphar's wife. 
 
 The Land Question lessons in Joseph's life, and else- 
 where occurring in Holy Writ, are systematically ignored 
 and misrepresented by the majority of the clergy. 
 Ogilvie refers to this (p. 25). A sermon, finding fault 
 with Joseph, in regard to slavery, extortion, and evic- 
 tions, or commending him for the comparatively mode- 
 rate rents he fixed, would be apt, not only to displease 
 The Powers that be, but would be considered sedition 
 and treason in some quarters. The clergy are, there- 
 fore, quite mum on the subject of all earthly things 
 (tithes alone excepted), until there is some proposal to 
 restore the land to the people, and then they out-lawyer 
 the lawyers in maintaining what they call the " law of 
 the land". They mean the law of the landlords. And 
 they scruple not to hold up Moses (the Prince of Revo- 
 lutionists) as a pattern of Law and Order ! Even the 
 Apostle Paul, who was treated as a rebel against Law and 
 Order during the whole of his Christian life, is claimed as 
 the principal godfather of " The Powers that be " ! Paul 
 had no faith in the Divine Right of tyrants, landlords, and 
 magistrates. He tells us how he fled from the magistrate 
 of Damascus (as from a tiger) — " through a window, in a 
 basket, was I let down, and escaped his hands ". 
 
 Napoleon I. utilised the clergy. He knew that his 
 despotism could not be maintained without the powerful 
 aid of Priestcraft. He got himself anointed by the Pope, 
 
 18 
 
254 
 
 Biographical Notes. 
 
 and made the French people adopt a portion of the West- 
 minster Confession of Faith, by which (in accordance with 
 the Decalogue, and the Gospel ! ! !) he became an object of 
 worship as vicegerent of the Almighty. Britannia must 
 not smile at Gallia. It is meet that both should pray : 
 
 " O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us 
 To see oursels as others see us ! 
 It wad frae monie a blunder free us 
 
 An' foolish notion : 
 What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us 
 
 And ev'n devotion ! " 
 
 when comparing the following extracts : 
 
 New Catechism pro- 
 cured by Napoleon I., and 
 estabhshed by the Pope's 
 Bull, and an Imperial de- 
 cree, for the use of the 
 French Church, taught 
 (1807) in every parish of 
 the Empire. 
 
 Q. Why are we boimd to 
 love, respect, and obey, the 
 princes who govern us, and, 
 in particular, Napoleon I., 
 our Emperor ? 
 
 A. God, who creates em- 
 pires, has established him 
 our sovereign, has made him 
 minister of His power, and 
 His image on earth : To 
 honour and serve our Em- 
 peror is, therefore, to hon- 
 our and serve God Himself. 
 
 The Confession of 
 Faith and Catechism, 
 formulated by the English 
 Divines of 1643, and 
 adopted by the Scotch 
 landlords in 1649 and 1690, 
 as the "Confession of the 
 Church of Scotland " 
 
 Q. Who are meant by 
 father and MOTHER in 
 the Fifth Commandment ? 
 
 A. 'Qy father z.n<i. mother 
 in the Fifth Commandment 
 are meant, not only natural 
 parents, but all superiors, 
 . . . and especially such as 
 by God's ordinance are over 
 us in place of authority 
 whether in family, Church, 
 or Commonwealth. 
 
 God, the Supreme Lord 
 
Biographical Notes. 
 
 255 
 
 Q. Are there not particu- 
 lar motives which ought to 
 attach us more strongly to 
 Napoleon I., our Emperor ? 
 
 A. Yes : for he it is whom 
 God has raised up, ... to re- 
 estabHsh the public worship 
 of the holy religion of our 
 fathers, ... he has restored 
 public order ; he defends 
 the State by his powerful 
 arm ; and is become the 
 anointed of the Lord by 
 the consecration which he 
 has received from the chief 
 Pontiff, head of the Univer- 
 sal Church. 
 
 Q. What are we to think 
 of those who should fail in 
 their duty towards the Em- 
 peror ? 
 
 A. According to St. Paul 
 the Apostle, they would re- 
 sist the order established by 
 God Himself, and would 
 render themselves worthy 
 of eternal damnation. 
 
 N.B.— St. Paul's Epistle being 
 intended not for the French or 
 British, but for the Romans, per- 
 haps, he merely meant to say vox 
 populi, vox Dei. French modesty 
 confined the Divine Right solely 
 to the Emperor. 
 
 and King of all the world, 
 hath ordained civil magi- 
 strates to be under Him 
 over the people, for His 
 own glory (!), and the public 
 good, and to this end hath 
 armed them with the power 
 of the sword. 
 
 Q. What is the honour 
 that inferiors owe to their 
 superiors ? 
 
 A. All due reverence, . . . 
 imitation of their virtues 
 and graces (!), willing obedi- 
 ence, . . . due submission, 
 . . . maintenance of their 
 person and authority, . . 
 and so to preserve that 
 authority which God hath 
 put upon them. . . . For 
 there is no power but of 
 God : The Powers that 
 BE are ordained of God : 
 whosoever, therefore, resist- 
 eth the power resisteth the 
 ordinance of God : and 
 they that resist shall receive 
 to themselves damnation. 
 
 N.B. — The poor Scots are still 
 kept in childish ignorance in regard 
 to the origin and object of this 
 Divine Right of Landlords^ Code^ 
 which was procured by the Duke 
 of Lauderdale, and other favourites 
 of Charles II! 
 
256 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Here we have a life portrait of Napoleon, painted by 
 himself, with the Pope, and the bishops, priests, and 
 people of France, represented as acting that most horrible 
 play, " The Restoration " (« la Frangaise /') of the Divine 
 Right of Kings. 
 
 In the companion picture, we can study the relation 
 between the English divines (of Westminster) and the 
 Scotch landlords. It is significant to note that the 
 latter, in Parliament assembled, on 5th February, 1649, 
 proclaimed Charles II. King and Pope of Scotland ; and, 
 two days thereafter, they adopted this English Confes- 
 sion and Catechism — this weapon of extortion and evic- 
 tion — this device by which the Divine Right of Landlords 
 has been made an article of the Christian Faith in Scot- 
 land. The clergy got a little bribe at this time. The 
 landlords gave up Church Patronage. But the Merry 
 Monarch restored this Divine Right to the landlords after 
 he was made King, Pope, and god of England. Again, 
 and accompanied with the very same bribe,* the Scotch 
 landlords, in 1690, re-adopted this English Confession 
 and Catechism, as the " Confession of the Church of Scot- 
 land". The English had a Revolution in 1688, and one 
 can easily see why the landlords of Scotland resorted to 
 this ecclesiastical dodge of humbugging the people. The 
 clergy were made to subscribe this Confession, and if 
 they did not preach up to it, they perjured their souls. 
 The Confession enjoined that the ' Powers are ordained 
 of God,' and that the " virtues and graces " of Charles 
 II., George IV., and the absentee landlords, described in 
 
 * In 1712, there was another shuttle-cock restoration of Church 
 Patronage, after which the landlords held it until 1874, when the author of 
 Coningsby allowed them £250,000, in name of "sacrilegious spoil," for 
 once more relinquishing their " unhallowed booty " ! 
 
Biographical Notes. 257 
 
 The Twa Dogs, are to be imitated by the people ! It is 
 impossible to estimate the amount of evil wrought in 
 Scotland by this document. One advantage, however, 
 may be mentioned. It has taught the Scots to out- 
 linglish the English in some respects. It is not within 
 the scope of the XXXIX. Articles to produce one 
 " Holy Willie ". Hence the fame of the fatherland of 
 the right honourable inventor of that instrument of Law 
 and Order — the Balfouring-RAM, now used by " The 
 Powers that be " in Ireland, " by God's ordinances, for His 
 own glory and the public good " ! 
 
 Benjamin Disraeli knew fully as well as Napoleon I., 
 or Henry VIIL, how to work the oracle. He made the 
 following honest and open confession: — "In considering," 
 says he, " the Tory scheme, the author recognised in the 
 Church the most powerful agent in the previous de- 
 velopment of England, and the most efficient means of, 
 that renovation of the national spirit at which he aimed" ! 
 " The Church," he adds characteristically, " is a sacred cor- 
 poration for the promulgation and maintenance in 
 Europe of certain Asian principles(!), which, although local 
 in their birth, are of divine origin, and of universal and 
 eternal application." 
 
 This confession is recorded in his Preface to Con- 
 ingsby, in May, 1849. Disraeli educated his party. 
 This is what he said as far back as 1844, when referring 
 to the landholders a.s freebooters : — " It is in the plunder 
 of the Church that we must seek for the primary cause 
 of our political exclusion and our commercial restraint. 
 That unhallowed booty created a factitious aristocracy, 
 ever fearful that they might be called upon to regorge 
 their sacrilegious spoil. To prevent this, they took re- 
 fuge in political religionism ; and, paltering with the dis- 
 
258 Biographical Notes. 
 
 turbed consciences, or the pious fantasies of a portion- of 
 the people, they organised them into religious sects. 
 These became the unconscious Praetorians of their ill- 
 gotten domains. At the heads of these religionists, they 
 (the landlords) have continued ever since to govern, or 
 powerfully to influence, this country. They have in 
 that time pulled down thrones and churches, changed 
 dynasties, abrogated and re-modelled Parliaments ; they 
 have disfranchised Scotland and confiscated Ireland."* 
 
 This is a peep into The Holy of Holies of British land- 
 lordism! We plainly see how and why ^/z^j/ "govern" 
 these three countries. The landlords (who, according to 
 Ogilvie, merely hold the land in trust for the people) 
 have not only misapplied and appropriated trust funds, 
 but they have developed a dangerous disposition for 
 devouring their own species. The trusted leader has 
 become the robber of his own tribe — he blackmails them, 
 or sells them for a slump sum to a foreign freebooter. 
 It is the right to blackmail, to evict, and to "govern" 
 that he sells. Land minus human flesh is of no value to 
 the commercial tiger.\ The clergy act as jackals, 
 vultures, or dumb dogs, instead of ' standing forth as the 
 advocates of Natural Rights and the guardians of Inde- 
 pendence '. The masses are befooled and enslaved ; they 
 are robbed of their birthright ; they become mean- 
 spirited and servile ; they are "' organised into religious 
 sects " — " organised hypocrisy " ! When we see the 
 landlords, or their tools, patronising and organising 'at 
 the heads of any religionists,' we know that these 
 
 * Conhigsby II., •.. 
 
 t See Professor Huxley, on the " Natural Rights of Tigers," 
 Nineteenth Century for January and February, iSgo. 
 
Biographical Notes. 259 
 
 religionists are blindly led — they follow their " heads," 
 don't they? 
 
 In the good old times (as in Russia of to-day), priest- 
 craft coercion, and political corruption marched hand in 
 hand. Coercion, however, naturally produces dissent, 
 but, sad to say, the most " respectable body of dissidents " 
 seldom withstand the allurements of corruption and 
 bribery. Their clergy, as a rule, kneel before the golden 
 image, and hanker after the fleshpots which every 
 diplomatic tyrant provides. Do we know many of the 
 dissenting clergy who have thought " proper to avow and 
 inculcate principles of civil policy and justice, favourable 
 to the rights of the lower classes, and to the independ- 
 ence of cultivation " ? Have they not almost all come to 
 this — " brought disgrace in the first place, and final dis- 
 appointment in the end, on schemes wisely conceived or 
 bravely undertaken for restoring the rights of mankind" ? 
 A State Church invariably acts as a bond-maid to the 
 " Powers that be " — to landlordism. On the other hand, 
 a dissenting Church, too often, in her struggle for exist- 
 ence, degenerates into a paid mistress, who is by no 
 means shy of landlords or other mammonists, and who 
 not unfrequently succeeds in outvying her established 
 rival. 
 
 Let us compare the above vivid passages from Mr. 
 Disraeli's pen, with the prophetic hints recorded in the 
 59th Section of Professor Ogilvie's Essay. Reading both 
 authors between the lines, we find that landlordism is 
 maintained and perpetuated by religionism. 
 
 In 1844 Mr. Disraeli was evidently a formidable Land 
 Leaguer, but, owing to the worship of landlordism by all 
 "sects'' of "religionists" at that time, he was powerless. 
 Even a " respectable body of dissidents " like the newly- 
 
26o Biographical Notes. 
 
 instituted democratic Free Church of Scotland, although 
 the undoubted offspring of a revolt against a " factitious 
 aristocracy," would not give him the least support. No 
 wonder he, in 1849, when famine and eviction were doing 
 their cruel work in Ireland and Scotland, " recognised in 
 the Church the most powerful agent " of landlordism ! 
 The clergy then declared that famine and eviction were 
 " visitations from God, sent as trials on the Faith of His 
 own people " ! The poor people — poor devils — "believed 
 and trembled " ! The League between religionists and 
 landlords was a powerful one. Mr. Disraeli had to con- 
 ceal his innate Radical principles under a "Tory scheme"! 
 He was forced to " recognise in the Church the most 
 efficient means of that renovation of the national spirit 
 at which he aimed " ! He, however, hoodwinked the 
 Church: she gave her milk the moment he covered his 
 Radicalism with the skin of the Golden Calf I He 
 " dished the Whigs" ! ! He Radicalised the Tories — he 
 "■educated his party " ! ! ! 
 
 We know with what success he afterwards played the 
 Church card. That it was necessary to play the Public- 
 house card along with it, only proves that "certain 
 Asian principles " were growing less powerful, and that 
 the notion of their " divine origin " required to be sup- 
 ported by something more tangible than " the extra- 
 vagances of enthusiasm or superstition," referred to by 
 Professor Ogilvie. 
 
 Professor Ogilvie also recognised the vast influence of 
 the Church, and tried to enlist the clergy in favour of 
 Ills " Tory scheme " ! — " that sort of correspondence and 
 co-operation which might be denominated an alliance 
 between the Church and the Plough ". He warned the 
 clergy, ''for their own safety ;' to "attach themselves more 
 
Biographical Notes. 261 
 
 particularly to the inferior and laborious classes of men " ; 
 for, says he, "it may be apprehended that a crisis of great 
 danger to their (the clergy's) temporal rights and 
 privileges cannot be far distant ". Now, if this warning 
 proved true when the Landed Gentry and clergy of France 
 came to grief in 1789, it should not be scornfully 
 disregarded in this scientific age of Prove-all-things. 
 
 The higher education of the mothers of the coming 
 race will, it is to be hoped, grapple superstition by the 
 throat, and the favoured religion of the future will adopt 
 a " very liberal policy with regard to the general interests 
 of mankind ". Woman, instead of being doomed to 
 ignorance and slavery, will then be educated and trained 
 to exercise her divine instinct — maternal affection — and, 
 with the courage of a human mother, and using her reason 
 as God's special gift to mankind, she will bestir herself in 
 claiming and maintaining the birthright of her children in 
 regard to all the productive forces of nature. The con- 
 tract of marriage will be sanctified. As a corollary to 
 its main object, its chief provision will be — "That every 
 child has a right to an equal share of the soil ". All mar- 
 riages which do not conform to this maxim of Natural 
 Law will be considered immoral ; being merely for the 
 gratification of animal lust, and the reproduction of human 
 slaves. The clergyman officiating at such marriages, 
 where the intending parents are not warned against the 
 unnatural sin of disregarding the welfare and happiness 
 involved in the birthright of their children, will be spotted 
 as a most immoral person. Real wedlock will not be 
 regarded as a "bond," but rather as the source and 
 fountain of love and liberty. Sons and daughters will 
 be born free. And as they come forth from the womb of 
 Nature, they, each and all of them, will be acknowledged 
 
262 Biographical Notes. 
 
 to be the children of the same Almighty and Impartial 
 father, and therefore entitled to an equal share of His 
 property, mother earth. This doctrine is the aim and 
 end of the gospel of Jesus. It contains a rational notion 
 of a Heavenly Father— otherwise what can his earthly 
 child say ? 
 
 " If I'm design'd yon lordling's slave, 
 By Nature's law design'd, 
 Why was an independent wish 
 E'er planted in my mind ? " 
 
 Priests or clergymen, whether Pagan, Jew, or 
 Christian, invariably hold themselves out as the heaven- 
 sent guardians of the multiplying instincts of mankind. 
 They also promulgate the decree of the Heavenly Father 
 in favour of "His children" — the divine Homestead Law 
 — "replenish the earth " ; and yet, with few-exceptions, 
 they act as the instruments by which these children are 
 robbed of their birthright, denied any share in the earth, 
 and treated as intruders and bastards— thus implying a 
 direct charge of unchastity against mothers and fathers 
 alike. But priestcraft goes further : It teaches that land 
 and wealth were given to certain individuals in this world, 
 because they were predestinated for " another place" in 
 the next ! And, conversely, that the landless poor were 
 predestinated for heaven, as a compensation for the 
 flagrant injustice they patiently suffer in this world, and, 
 therefore, that they ought to be content, and rather have 
 pity on ^Q poor rich ! But modern theology has created 
 some ■' philosophic doubts " regarding this predestination 
 of "the greatest happiness of the greatest number"! 
 Somehow the rich may, after all, by a Plan of Salvation, 
 get into heaven, if they will only " believe " that they are 
 blessed with land and wealth in this world in order to 
 
Biographical Notes. 263 
 
 justify their foreordained future in the next, and that the 
 poor, who, through ignorance or otherwise, fail to beheve 
 in this//rt«, shall be disappointed in both worlds ! 
 
 Such is the doctrine manifested in the last Roman 
 Rescript, procured by Irish landlord diplomacy in favour 
 of Lord Salisbury's coercion scheme. But all true 
 Christians, Catholics and Protestants alike, /ra/ei'/'^is?; and 
 only the false and the weak conformed to it. We must 
 not, however, be too hard on the anti-Protestants. The 
 landlord-ridden Free Church clergyman of Strathconon 
 is not entirely to blame for the adoption of that Rescript 
 by himself and the small unevicted remnant of human 
 inhabitants in that strath. Mr. Arthur James Balfour, 
 Chief Secretary to his uncle, author of Philosophic 
 Doubts, and lecturer (by "divine" appointment) on 
 Practical Christianity, is the landholder of Strathconon. 
 According to 
 
 The Chronicle of Strathconon : 
 
 " Mr. Palfoor is a ferry kindly shentleman, and ferry goot to 
 the Lord, for he kives ferry largely efery year to the Free Chu7xh 
 Sustentation Fund, and he puilt the Free Manse all out of his 
 own pocket, which was petter than many a one has done. And 
 he kives a cow's krass and a pony's krass to the Minister, and 
 he does many other godly things pesides, and he is not too pig 
 of himself to speak to the Minister whatefer. And he is not 
 like other wicked landlords who refused to kive a stance to 
 puild a Free Church, where the servants of the Lord had to 
 preach in poats, and on the sea shore, when triffen away from 
 the hillsides, where the disturbance to the kame, tear, or sheep 
 was ferry little whatefer. 
 
 " And it was these pad landlords — themselves and the Tefifil 
 together— that kindled the Highland Crofters to so much 
 wicked 'agitation' in recent years, until, like the foolish 
 
264 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Galatians, they were pewitched by ungodly Land Leaguers 
 apout more land, fair rents, and other worldly affairs, instead 
 of always minding the salvation of their souls. And instead of 
 attending prayer meetings and sermons, they follow after false 
 prophets like Henry George, going to Land League meetings, 
 and packsliding ferry fast to the old wickedness of the pagpipes, 
 and worldly songs of many ungodly poets like Purns, who was 
 a Kauger, and a ferry pad man when he was alive, and more so 
 after he was tead. For his sinful song-book is still read out of 
 sight in many places, which has a ferry 'unsettling tendency' 
 for putting the poor against the gentry and the clergy, and 
 making them forsake the Confession of Faith, which commands 
 them to avoid all appearance of evil. And, moreover, to do 
 honour to the landlords, and the ceevil magistrate, and 
 especially to such a shentleman as Mr. Palfoor. For he is 
 ferry strong on the side of the Lord in Ireland ; pattling so 
 pravely against popery, and trying to pring that ' papist ' Mr. 
 Parnell and his rebellious crew to a shust repentance. And he 
 is also trying to pring pack the lost sheep who hafegone astray, 
 by following Mr. Gladstone, who was always a ferry tangerous 
 man whatefer ; ferry nearly as pad as Professor Robertson 
 Smith of Aberdeen, who wickedly said that Moses could not 
 write a portion of Scripture after he was tead. And thus proke 
 he the Confession of Faith — pehaving no petter than the ungodly 
 'moderate' Ministers in the Highlands, who traw the tithe 
 steepends from the landlords although they have no congrega- 
 tions whatefer ; and who, as if they were porn shentlemen, 
 enjoy their klebes, and their manses, and their steepends, and 
 leave all the work of the Lord on the 'shoulders of the poor 
 Free Church Ministers, who have had to keep up the panner 
 of the Lord in the Highlands on ferry little pay, and ferry great 
 hardships, since 1843. 
 
 " And, in some places, with ferry sore temptations ; for, where 
 the tyrants were like Pharaoh, it was ferry tifficult not to rise 
 like Moses against them. Putt the gospel according to the 
 
Biographical Notes. 265 
 
 Apostle Paul, as laid town in the Confession of Faith, must be 
 obeyed whatefer. And people who came into this world to 
 suffer, must suffer whatefer. And pad landlords, and unfair 
 rents, and evictions, and even slafery, are all ferry useful, in 
 their own way, for illustrating the doctrines of the Pible ; and 
 for making the poor gif up all the joys of this world, and for 
 putting their affections on things apove ; so as to withstand all 
 sorts of trials on their faith, even as Abraham tid, who was 
 quite willing to offer up his son Isaac. And that was a far 
 pigger test of faith than all that the Land Leaguers say about 
 the Strathconon and other Highland evictions whatefer; 
 altho' these were ferry sore trials, which were sent from God, 
 because these evicted Highlanders were His own chosen 
 people, and He could do with them what He liked ; and as 
 vessels of clay they had to pass through the fiery oven of 
 oppression; and they are now in glory with Abraham. But 
 Oich ! Hoich ! ! where will the Land Leaguers, and 'Agitators,' 
 and Purns, and Henry George, and Parnell, and poor Glad- 
 stone if he toes not repent, go to ? There will be plenty of 
 primstone, and weeping and wailing, and knashing of teeth in 
 that place whatefer, and they will get more than plenty of 
 Home Rule from the Tefiil, for all eternity, and for efer and 
 efer Amen ! For the TefBl was the first Home Ruler, and the 
 first rebel, when he rebelled against God. And it is the Teffil 
 that is now stirring up the people in Ireland and in the 
 Highlands against the '■Powers that pe,' which ' are ordained 
 of God,' as laid down ferry clearly in the Confession of Faith, 
 which efery godly man is pound to sign, and carry out in his 
 walk and conversation in this world, for there is here no con- 
 tinuing city whatefer. 
 
 "The Providence of God is ferry strange, for the rich are not 
 always ferry happy in this world. King David and King 
 Solomon were not ferry happy whatefer. And Mr. Palfoor is 
 not ferry happy neither, for we know the ferry sore plow to his 
 heart that he got when he saw that the carriage trive he made 
 
266 Biographical Notes. 
 
 for joining Strathconon to the Ashpurton estate was of no 
 effect whatefer. And all this shows ferry clearly what pig fools 
 the Crofters and the Irish are, when they pelieve what these 
 ungodly Agitators tell them about fixity of tenure, fair rents., 
 and free sale., for when kings and. the gentry cannot be happy 
 in this world with all their lands and money, how can the poor 
 be happy, supposing they got all the land tivided among them- 
 selves to-morrow ? And who is to rule over them, if the gentry 
 was apolished ? They would just pegin at once to kill each 
 other as they tid in America apout slafery when they apolished 
 it, which was also against the Confession of Faith whatefer. 
 For we are told that Abraham had plenty of slafes, and that 
 God only asked him to circumcise them, which was ferry clearly 
 in favour of the paptizing of all the slafes in America, and 
 kiving them the kospel, but no more whatefer. And that's 
 where the Americans made a kreat mistake ; and they were 
 justly punished by the war which God sent upon them. For 
 the freedom of slafes learns them to pe disobedient to their 
 masters, and to preak and spend the holy sabbath as they like,, 
 which is all ferry clearly against the Confession of Faith. 
 
 "And there is no use saying more apout it whatefer, for there 
 were always gentry and landlords and rulers and masters in 
 this world, all by God's authority, for not even one sparrow 
 can rise or fall without His Providence whatefer, and that must 
 continue to pe to the end of time, for what was, must pe is, 
 and the is of to-day will surely pecome the was of to-morrow, 
 and so on, from was to is, and from is to was, to the last tay, 
 when the Revelation of John comes to pass ; and there shall 
 pe no other future but that in this world whatefer. Putt there 
 pe some infidels and radicals and other unpelievers, who tont 
 pelieve in nothing— not even in the Tefifil, or in Providence, 
 not to speak of witches. Now, there were ferry many witches 
 in the past, and there are some yet, although they stopped 
 purning them, and there must pe many witches in Ireland now 
 whatefer ! The nuns and priests are all a sort of witches, for 
 
Biographical Notes. 267 
 
 they carry on a kreat work with purgatory. The Irish Police 
 must pe real witches too, for they ko apout as shadows, and 
 one of them followed a minister all the way from Ireland to 
 Dundee, although Mr. Palfoor could not see through it, which 
 shows ferry clearly how the Teffil is ferry hard at work in 
 Ireland whatefer. It must pe equally clear that it was some 
 witch that prought a new suit of clothes to the wicked O'Brien 
 through the keyhole of the prison. And they should purn all 
 these witches in Ireland whatefer, for there is no use putting 
 them in prison, and there is no use shooting at them, for the 
 pullets ko round a corner and kill innocent people, as was tone 
 at Mitchelstown, which ferry nearly kot Mr. Palfoor into a 
 scrape, when the witches were to plame, for he is a ferry quiet 
 shentleman whatefer. Or may pe the Curse of Strathconon 
 had something to do with many of his misfortunes in Ireland, 
 as some of the old people here really pelieve. For Providence 
 is a ferry strange thing in visiting the iniquity of the fathers 
 upon the sons and more generations pesides, and that is often 
 ferry clearly to pe seen with regard to evictions. 
 
 "Now, there are two kinds of curses : There pe the wicked 
 curses of witches; and also the just curses of the poor, uttered 
 against oppressors, which are always hereditary, and sometimes 
 everlasting too. And if Mr. Palfoor had peen prought up here 
 he would know this, and the reason he had such Philosophic 
 Toubts is pecause he was prought up — in England — where the 
 people are ferry ignorant of many things, which they ought to 
 know. For the English Episcopalians do not preach the 
 Pible according to the Confession of Faith, although it was 
 made in their own church at Westminster, and that by far 
 petter tivines than any of their Pishops of to-day whatefer. 
 And Mr. Palfoor's education was ferry much neglected whatefer. 
 And he showed ferry great ignorance apout the Crofters' 
 Act, and it went against him of course, and he was inclined 
 to laugh at other things pesides predestination and witches, 
 although these form a part of the Truth whatefer. 
 
268 Biographical Notes. 
 
 " With regard to witches, my krandfather remembered the 
 year 1722, when he was a poy, seeing a female witch tragged 
 after the tail of a horse all the way from Assynt at the west 
 shore, to Dornoch at the east shore of Scotland, where she was 
 purnt with a parrel of tar and sticks, and he heard her roaring 
 like a wild peast until she at last went up in a flame. There 
 was also another female witch in Assynt, after that, called ^ Mor 
 Bhan '. And for pewitching the Minister's coo, the people 
 themselves, without any trial at Dornoch, on a sabbath evening 
 after coming out of the sermon, strangled her in her own house 
 with a rope which they pulled from the outside through the 
 feadan, until she was as tead as a herrin. Putt she managed 
 to trown efery one of those who pulled the rope, by a fearful 
 storm, the first time they afterwards went to sea in their peats. 
 And all this is quite true whatefer. It is also true that Mor 
 Bhan was the mother of a distinguished officer in one of the 
 continental armies, at the time of Waterloo, and he inquired of 
 the Assynt soldiers apout her death. 
 
 " Now, if the Irish priests pe in league with the Teffil, as I 
 pelieve they are, and are therefore under his power shust like 
 witches, what was the sense of his uncle sending such a young 
 man as Mr. Palfoor to Ireland whatefer ? Putt pesides witch- 
 craft — which means the same thing as priestcraft — how could a 
 young man of no experience like him, pe able to teal with a 
 country that is full of pachelor clergy, as all the priests are ? 
 These priests are " passing rich on jQ^o a year," and need not 
 cringe to the landlords whatefer. For, you see, there was only 
 one agitator minister in the Isle of Skye, and he was a pachelor ; 
 and although he was a Moderate, the Free Church people got 
 ferry fond of him, for he preached nothing but Land League 
 toctrines in the pulpit, as well as at Land League meetings. 
 And although he was taken up py the Moderate Presbytery of 
 Skye, and very smartly tealt with, and also put in prison in 
 Portree by Mr. Palfoor, who was managing the affair for his 
 uncle and the landlords at the time, in November, 1886, still 
 
Biogi-aphical Notes. 269 
 
 that pachelor minister went on, and tid a kreat teal of harm, for his 
 name is Tonal MacCallum ; and he removed to the island of 
 Tiree after leaving Skye, and he is now a Moderate Minister in 
 the island of Lewis. And Free Churchmen helped to vote him 
 into a ferry goot Parish Klebe and steepend there. 
 
 "And he carried with him the agitation wherefer he went, 
 and policemen and marines were sent to Tiree and Lewis, as 
 well as to Skye, where the mischief at first pegan. And these 
 marines tid no good against the agitation whatefer ; but they 
 encouraged it ferry much, and they were ferry friendly with the 
 people, and they tanced and had singing concerts with the 
 laughters of the crofters, and they proke the sabbath in many 
 ways, which was a ferry bad example to the Highland people, 
 and a tisgrace to Scotland as well. And it was not ferry goot 
 Law and Order to preak the Law of God whatefer. 
 
 " Put there is another kreat tanger. Look at the unholy 
 traffic which his uncle had with the Pope in procuring that 
 Rescript. Look how the Pope hooked the Irish Orangemen, 
 and the English and Scotch Tories, and the Unionists pesides, 
 and some of the Free Church not ferry far away too, and tid 
 not lose one single papist in Ireland off his old Roman hooks, 
 which are all ferry well parped whatefer. And it is the Pope 
 himself that laughed in his pig sleeve at getting a hold of the 
 Orangemen in that way. Putt it is a ferry kreat tanger to the 
 Protestant religion, if he has kot a hold of England too, and if 
 so, we hafe to thank the uncle of Mr. Palfoor for that whatefer. 
 He went to Rome to catch the Pope, which was ferry much 
 like a fly koing to catch a spider, and there he is ! And poor 
 Mr. Palfoor and other Tories hafe kot their feet in the net too 
 and must remain fast until a shange of kovernment will set 
 eferypody free, excepting the unhappy Unionists who were 
 caught by the necks, and these will be quite strangled whatefer. 
 This is what the agitators say ! And they also say that the 
 Unionist net was put round many Liberals when they were 
 asleep, and only those, like Sir George Trevelyan, who had 
 
 19 
 
270 Biographical Notes. 
 
 some radical strength in themselves, were aple to preak loose 
 when they awoke; put those who are weak, and especially 
 those that hafe a kreat weakness for Duchesses (/) are hopeless 
 victims, and even the Primrose Convalescent Hospital, which 
 had such a good effect on Lord Salisbury in Edinburgh, will 
 not do them any goot whatefer ! 
 
 " These are only a few of the evils of the agitation, for I 
 have said nothing apout the sufferings of Lord MacTonal in 
 Skye, for want of his rents ; or Lady Matheson in Lewis, for 
 want of her rents ; and many others, over and apove the Take 
 of Argyll himself, who is a ferry godly man whatefer, for he is 
 the President of the Society for Propagating Christian Know- 
 ledge in all Scotland, and the pooks that he circulates in the 
 Highlands are not like Purns, or Shakespeare, or Carlyle, or 
 Henry George, but they are all ferry safe pooks for the people 
 to read. The Pible itself peing the only one which requires to 
 be explained away in some tifificult passages py the ministers 
 who are aple to do so: it peing impossible for priests and 
 pachelor clergy to understand these passages whatefer, for they 
 pe no petter than Luther was when he was a pachelor priest, 
 as they only see the tifificulties of this world from a tistance as 
 Moses saw the land of Canaan. Putt the servants of the Lord 
 have kreat afflictions, they have often ferry large families. 
 And a minister, with a wife and may pe twelve or more 
 children, is always struggling like a poat in a storm, running 
 for the shore. And when God sends help to him py the land- 
 lords, or other gentry, he thanks God for that, putt he must 
 not rise in agitation against the hands or stewards of Providence 
 that do him goot whatefer. 
 
 " A little steepend will do ferry well for a single man, and 
 that's the reason that priests and pachelor ministers can afford 
 to join the Land Leaguers, for they are all right if they ket a 
 little cream for their tea from a neighbour, which is quite easy 
 whatefer. Putt, as I was saying, what can these pachelors under- 
 stand apout keeping a wife, and ketting food, and clothes, and 
 
Biographical Notes. 271 
 
 shoes, and pooks, and education, for a houseful of children ? 
 And on the same money too, which a pachelor minister or 
 priest is allowed to spend on himself, not to speak of kiving 
 college education to the poyes, and sending the kirls to normal 
 schools, and then ketting situations for them after that. 
 
 " It is not at all easy for a married minister who has a large 
 family, and only a small steepend, to pe a Land Leaguer, for you 
 see the competition for situations is now so ferry fearful, that, 
 unless one has a letter of recommendation from a landlord, or 
 one of the gentry, it is impossible to get into any post of any 
 kind whatefer, or into a shop or office in Glasgow or Edinburgh 
 or London, or any goot post aproad. And this kreat tifficulty 
 of ketting situations for the sons of the clergy has increased 
 ferry much since learning was opened up to the sons of the 
 crofters and fishermen and even weavers, who are now allowed 
 to attend and take pursaries at the Scotch Universities, which 
 was at one time the exclusive privilege of the sons of the 
 gentry, and clergy, and pig farmers. This privilege must have 
 pegan to pe confiscated pefore the end of last century, for I 
 heard my krandfather speak ferry often apout Ewen MacLachlan 
 taking the first pursary in Aberdeen University, and being 
 allowed to enter as a student there, and him only a weaver's son 
 from Lochaber. This was a ferry kreat innovation at the time. 
 And he pecame a ferry learned man, and was made Rector of 
 the Krammar School at Old Aberdeen. Putt the Inverness 
 gentry refused to appoint him Rector of their Academy, pecause 
 he was a poor man's son. And it was said that he was learned 
 enough to pe a Professor in a University, but which he tid not 
 ket, for the same reason, and also, perhaps, pecause he was a 
 bard, and, may pe, too clever as a scholar for the other pro- 
 fessors, especially in the Greek, for the King's College professors 
 knew ferry little Greek whatefer. 
 
 "Putt as they were generally chosen from the clergy, they were 
 always ferry good at theology, as may pe seen in many parts of 
 Scotland to this day ; especially in the Highlands, where we 
 
2/2 Biographical Notes. 
 
 have peen able to keep the people from reading such radical and 
 infidel pooks as Purns, and Carlyle, and Shakespeare, and from 
 singing their own traditional Gaelic songs too, and to confine 
 them to the Psalms, and the Pible, and John Bunyan, and some 
 sermon pooks, and also the Confession of Faith and the Cate. 
 chisms, all of which they must not understand except through 
 the ministers, or through The men appointed by The Society for 
 Propagating Christian Knowledge, or py the Free Church. And 
 The men were all ferry safe teachers and kept town all agitation, 
 for they never would discourse apout any happiness except 
 heaven and eternity, and they would not speak apout any Land 
 League affairs, or read any of Ossian, or Purns whatefer, or sing 
 any Gaelic songs, or listen to the music of the pagpipes, or 
 fiddles, or organs, for ;£'ioo sterling. The men are now ketting 
 ferry seldom, and the purdens and tifficulties of the ministers 
 are tally increasing whatefer. 
 
 " In the olden time, when wars were always plentiful, and 
 fighting men much required by the landlords, the assistance of 
 the clergy for enlisting was necessary whatefer ; and it was then 
 that they could ferry easily get posts for their sons, in return for 
 such assistance. And when the recruiting officers came round, 
 there was always a Shance of Ketting one of the taughters en- 
 listed too ! for the kirls are ferry fond of joining the army 
 whatefer ! And the minister whose taughter got puckled with 
 a red-coat officer was sure to procure plenty of recruits, so as to 
 earn promotion for his son-in-law ! and he would then pray more 
 fervently for our King and country whatefer, and against our 
 etiemies. 
 
 " Plenty of enemies were always made in those tays, to keep 
 the wars koing, in order to maintain the price of krain at a 
 shenteel figure, so that there would pe no risk of the rents of 
 land falling whatefer! For you see the ministers' stepeends would 
 fall too, if the price of krain came down, making the value of 
 two or three chalders not equal to the old price of one, and thus 
 the gentry and clergy peing in the same poat, you see, would 
 
Biographical Notes. 273 
 
 sink together. And the poor, who are always poor, would not 
 pe a pit the petter whatefer, putt on the contrary, much worser, 
 pecause the gentry and the clergy would pe less aple to kive 
 them the usual charity 1 And it is here one can see ferry 
 clearly, the wickedness of the repeal of the Corn Laws, which 
 kave a kreat plow to charity, and other forms of holiness ! 
 
 " This innovation apout the Com Laws led to Poor Rates and 
 Poor Houses, which is no charity whatefer. It also led on to 
 School Rates, and compulsory Education, and Radical School 
 Boards in efery Parish. We are now koing on to Free Educa- 
 tion all round, with laige grants from Government, and, no 
 toubt, the Universities will pe further spoilt py converting them 
 into huge National Schools, with their libraries, museums, and 
 eferything thrown open to the Public; and all the Professors 
 made to teach, not only the sons, but also the taughters of the 
 people at large, which will testroy ferry much the educational 
 status of the gentry whatefer. 
 
 " Indeed, if the Radicals get much more of their own wa>- they 
 will pass an Act of Parliament for having efery pody porn into 
 the world with equal rights to eferything, and even the most 
 sacred rights which the landlords hafe to the land will be con- 
 troverted! and all rents, and, may pe, all tithes too, confiscated 
 — among the community at large. 
 
 " There is no toubt these things are coming fast, for the 
 young clergy are peginning to pe ferry radical whatefer, and they 
 now lay kreat stress on the words : Tfiat God is no respecter of 
 persons, and such like Piple texts, without modifying them in 
 any way py the Confession of Faith. And, in like manner, they 
 fix upon the words Thy Kingdom come : Thy Will be done on 
 THE EARTH, as it ts in heaven. For, you see, there will pe no 
 landlords there whatefer ! Now, this is a kreat innovation ! as 
 the old ministers were always ferry careful not to meddle much 
 with the "earth," and the rights of the landlords therein, for fear 
 of preaking their vows under the Confession of Faith, which en- 
 joined full obedience and subserviency to the landlords, on the 
 
274 Biographical Notes. 
 
 part of the common people whatefer. But landlords are now 
 fairly secularised, by the Patronage Act of 1874, and are no 
 longer the patrons of religion they once were ; and that peing 
 so, who can tell what may come to pass within a few years ? 
 Perhaps, even the Free Church minister of Strathconon may 
 pe seen joining in a teer raid before long ! For the clergy 
 must follow the people in these temocratic tays, pecause the 
 people have 2!^ patronage whatefer ; and we see that ferry clearly, 
 when Free Churchmen in Lewis exercised the moderate franchise 
 py voting for that Land-Leaguer The Rev. Tonal MacCallum, 
 and made him Parish Minister in spite of the landlords, and of 
 the Moderate Presbytery too, all py the Act of 1874, which is a 
 ferry radical Act whatefer. 
 
 " And it is only now, that the people at large are finding out 
 that the Established Church pelongs to themselves, as citizens, 
 and can pe ruled py them as they rule and manage the School 
 Boards, and that it must not pe used any longer as the pulwark 
 or fortification of landlordism, as in the past. It is the wicked 
 Land Leaguers that are to plame for kiving such tangerous 
 knowledge to the people, for the ' agitation ' has stirred them 
 up to make inquiry apout all their rights ; and the Free Church 
 which stood up for the apolition of Church-lordism in 1843, 's 
 put into a strange fix as to the apolition of land-lordisni now. 
 The Free Church is in kreat tanger whatefer— all caused py 
 that Primrose Leaguer, Lord Beaconsfield, who passed that 
 Radical Act of 1874. 
 
 ." The changes that are now taking place are ferry extra- 
 ordinary, when we consider how the landed gentry and the 
 clergy worked hand in hand in times of old. Things were not 
 so hard on the clergy even in more recent times, as they 
 are now. And I'll tell you apout that. My wife is a Minister's 
 taughter, and her father and mother were going to elope, putt 
 to prevent such a scandal the Laird kave him a presentation of 
 the Parish Church, and he was at once appointed assistant and 
 successor to the old Minister. My wife's mother happened to 
 
Biographical Notes. 275 
 
 pe a natural taughter of the I^aird himself, and she used to say 
 that if she had peen porn a poy she would have had a Commis- 
 sion in the Army, instead of pecoming a Minister's wife. How 
 strange Providence is ! especially when there's a woman mixed 
 up with it, which is ferry often the case ; for I'm sure that my 
 wife has been ferry much mixed up with my own Providence in 
 this world, although I was nefer so lucky as to get a church and 
 a wife by the one stroke. 
 
 " Well, my wife's father's family was ferry little trouple to 
 him whatefer, for they kot education and situations ferry easily 
 in those tays. And one of them, named Angus, who did not 
 care apout college education, went to Australia, and kot on ferry 
 well, and has thirty thousand sheep — he and another who was 
 only a Crofter's son here. And they hafe more land between 
 them there than the Tuke of Sutherland has here. He was 
 home the other year, and he is a terrible Land Leaguer. He 
 said that the Crofters and the people were kreat fools to leave 
 the land with the Tuke of Sutherland or any other landlord 
 whatefer. He said that pefore the Crofters' Act was passed, 
 and nopody pelieved him then whatefer, except the agitators, 
 who took for Kospel efery word he said. 
 
 " That was shortly after the Tuke was made a cat's-paw by 
 London Jews, who lent him apout a million sterhng at 3 per 
 cent, on the security of his lands ; to pe kiven py him to Turkey's 
 King on no security whatefer, on the expectation of 7 or 8 per 
 cent, interest. And this was the reason that the Tuke turned 
 such a terriple Turkophil Tory. He has still to pay the 
 interest to these Jews, and the money he sank in Turkish 
 ponds will nefer rise whatefer ! And that's the gate the pulk 
 of the land rents go now, to keep up Turks, who hafe many 
 wives, or to feed London Jews, who are no petter whatefer. 
 Some say a good teal of the Sutherland rents are paid to the Free 
 Church for the interest of ;^i 00,000 sterling which, it is said, 
 the Tuke porrowed from the Free Church, to settle with some 
 of these London Jews, who were afraid of the Highland 
 
276 Biographical Notes. 
 
 agitators, and therefore called up some of their loans. This 
 was a Judas tesign to ket the Free Church financially interested, 
 so as to keep town the land agitation whatefer. Putt as the 
 agitators look upon all lenders to landlords as enemies and 
 oppressors, there is a kreat fear at present apout the money lent 
 to landlords by the Free Church, as she may loose the people 
 and the money too ; unless Principal Rainy, who is a ferry 
 cute man, changes these investments into something else, 
 such as the improvement of land, and making harbours, and 
 railways, and mills, or any public thing for the goot of the 
 people, instead of kiving the money to landlords, who hafe 
 too much money to spend on mischief already. This is what 
 Angus used to say ! He also suspected that the Pope and his 
 Pishops, who are ferry rich in money, must be also inveigled in 
 landlordism and ponds. The English Pishops, he called them 
 out and out landlords themselves. And as for poor EngUsh 
 curates, and poor Irish priests, he considered them quite as 
 innocent and as ignorant of the mischief as private soldiers are 
 of the causes of war. Angus was a kreat Radical, although he 
 was a minister's son. 
 
 ' ' The old Minister himself was also a ferry intependent man, 
 and though he was ferry old in '43, he came out. And his wife 
 was ferry manly too, and she would rather live in a parn than be 
 under the patronage of the landlords after her own father lost 
 the land, and the whole affair was managed by pondholders, 
 lawyers, and trustees, for you know what sort of a Minister 
 they would put in after her husband would tie. It would be 
 the one that would pay them the most money, and they would 
 not care apout preventing an elopement or any other scandal 
 whatefer. Putt you see how different Providence worked with 
 the old lairds. 
 
 " There was another curious thing : There was the woman 
 who was the mother of my wife's mother, you know. Well, 
 you understand, the laird was a ferry kind-hearted man, and tid 
 not put her away empty whatefer. And with the money he 
 
Biographical Notes. 277 
 
 leave her she married a shepherd, who was a sort of an English- 
 man, prought here to set agoing the sheep-farming, for they 
 were just evicting the Highlanders on account of the sheep 
 craze at the time. Well, she and this shepherd kot a whole 
 desolated klen as a tack to themselves, and all the hills apout 
 besides. And they made thousands of money, and were aple 
 to take more tacks for their sons — all made of the lands from 
 which the Highlanders were evicted. And some of their 
 tescendants are the piggest tacksmen to-day in the whole High- 
 lands, and hafe plenty of money yet, although they lost a lot of 
 it on sheep not long ago. And the tescendants of the laird 
 who kave the first money to their kreat-krandmother are now 
 quite empty. Putt still money is not everything, for they hafe 
 no gentle plood in them as my wife has, and for that reason my 
 wife and her relatives ton't like to mix with them whatefer, and 
 especially pecause they are riot a true preed, putt only a ferry 
 pad Sassenach mongrel cross. And, moreofer, they must hafe 
 some of the eviction curses on them pesides. And there is no 
 toubt the agitation, and the Crofters' Act, and also the tear forest 
 craze — Winans, you know! — is all ferry much against them, for 
 something was sure to catch them apout the third and fourth 
 generation. 
 
 "And here we see how ferry strange the Providence of God 
 works. For, there was so much cruelty and oppression tone at 
 that time to thousands, who were evicted ; and God — who is 
 always a ferry just God, howefer difficult He is sometimes to 
 understand — saw it just, and — as it were — more expedient, and 
 even more merciful, to distripute the punishment among the 
 tescendants of the men who tid, or helped to do, that mis- 
 chief. For how could God make full justice to the thousands 
 who were oppressed, and whose tescendants also suffered, if he 
 wasn't to extend the punishment to the tescendants of the op- 
 pressors whatefer? And this is the way God paffles all the 
 philosophers, who turn their packs upon theology, when they 
 try to understand things which they cannot understand ! They 
 
278 Biographical Notes. 
 
 ko entirely upon reason, and they are men oi ferry little faith 
 whatefer ! And all these philosophers are ferry foolish and ferry 
 plind, for they ton't see when a person kills the chicken of a rat, 
 or fox, not many months old, and not guilty of any mischief 
 whatefer, that it is for the iniquities of the parents that such 
 innocents are killed, and also pecause they have the same plood 
 and the same mischief in them too. Putt there is no (rord 
 apout this, when "Cut. philosophers, as they call themselves, are 
 criticising the justice and wistom of God when He takes a young 
 rat or a young >x in hand. And that's the way they tont 
 understand, for they are ferry plind whatefer. 
 
 "Now, there was a ferry special curse put on the Palfoors at 
 the time of the Strathconon evictions. And Lady Ashpurton, 
 who is a Mackenzie and a ferry godly woman pesides, pelieves 
 it all, and ferry likely that's the real reason and not pecause he 
 has no title, that she would not have anything to do with Mr. 
 Palfoor as a son-in-law. It was said that the taughter herself 
 was nearly as fond of him as he was of her, and he was ferry 
 fond of her whatefer, for she was peautiful to see, and she had 
 apout _;^6o,ooo a year pesides. Now what was the reason that 
 poor Mr. Palfoor lost that prize ? Don't you see clearly it was 
 shust the Curse of Strathconon. For it was the fear oi that curse 
 that put the girl's mother so much against the marriage. Now, 
 is that not a terrible Providence ? It is moreofer ferry tifificult 
 to understand, for you see the loss of that prize to Mr. Palfoor 
 was a kreat loss to the Free Church too, for he could havekiven 
 much larglier to the Sustcntation Fund if he had not lost it. 
 
 "Putt poor Mr. Palfoor toes not understand apout these 
 things, for he was prought up in a country where they kave up 
 the Confession of Faith, and where they have only thirty-nine 
 Articles ! and he is shust as ignorant as his uncle ! And the 
 radical papers are not ferry far wrong when they say that it is 
 shust a case of the plind leading the plind. For, you see, 
 what plunders Mr. Palfoor tid when he was man-hunting in the 
 Isle of Skye ; — prisoning men, and also poor women — one of 
 
Biographical Notes. 279 
 
 them peeing tragged by the Police across moors ferry shortly 
 after child-bed, carrying her newly porn child until she nearly 
 fell tead on the way. Many other insulting things were tone to 
 provoke the people to a rebellion, so as to shustify the sending 
 of Police and Marines there. Shust think of the poinding of a 
 Crofter's papy py a sheriff officer, who valued the papy at only 
 one sixpence ! and, poinded a collie tog puppie which was lying 
 aside the papy's cradle at one shilling ! 
 
 "Now, that was such a foolish thing to do, that you could 
 not think it possible, until you saw it stated in all the news- 
 papers. After thai, the whole country pecame Land Leaguers, 
 and I myself had to attend their meetings, otherwise my 
 congregation would not come near my church whatefer. And 
 was not I thinking to myself often that that was the real way so 
 many Irish Priests, and other Clergy, hafe peen coming so 
 much to the front in the Agitation, since his uncle sent Mr. 
 Palfoor to Ireland. For he is, in my opinion, triving them as 
 hard as he can to more and more agitation, and he and his uncle 
 will never see it until the whole mischief is tone. Putt that old 
 radical, the G.O. M., as they call him, is a ferry cute old poy, 
 and he sees ferry well what he is apout. Putt things hafe been 
 triffen too far py the other side, and may pe his Home Rule 
 plans, unless he makes them ferry advanced, will pe thrown 
 aside altogether." 
 
 This rough sketch is continued in the Appendix. The 
 reader must not imagine that the Highland " divine " is 
 more servile to landlordism than his Lowland brother. 
 On the contrary, clerical servility increases as you de- 
 scend to the plains and wend your way towards, and 
 over, the Border. This is the opinion '' of one individual, 
 thinking freely, and for himself". Reader, do not believe 
 in any body's ipse dixit, but test the alleged fact by 
 "free inquiry," beginning at your own Jenisalevi, city or 
 country. How many Land-League parsons can you 
 
28o Biographical Notes. 
 
 count there? And how many are mere slave-drivers, 
 and nothing else? 
 
 In the beginning of this century there lived in England 
 a certain " divine " named Malthus, who is famous for 
 having produced the most immoral and the most blas- 
 phemous picture of Venus that ever saw the light of day. 
 He said : " A man born into this world, if society do not 
 want his labour, has no claim of right to the smallest 
 portion of food, and in fact has no business to be where 
 he is. At Nature's mighty feast there is no vacant cover 
 for him. She tells him to be gone." 
 
 The Goddess of British Theology is here represented 
 as a shameless, unnatural, unjust, and cruel monster, who 
 brings forth millions of children, and not only neglects 
 them (with the exception of a favoured few who resemble 
 her own image, ii la Malthus), but will not allow them to 
 procure, by their own labour, the smallest portion of 
 food, and they die of starvation ; while she — this 
 voluptuous and whimsical goddess — delights herself at 
 mighty feasts, where a few brats like Sir Thomas Lucy 
 guzzle and gorge. Yes, and men like William Shake- 
 speare and Robert Burns are peremptorily ordered to 
 begone ! And the land-of-their-birth is wasted as parks, 
 where rabbits, hares, and deer — sacred animals, because 
 kept and fed for the table of Sir T. Lucy and others of 
 that Ilk — may roam at ease and pleasure. 
 
 There were many "divine" priests of the Malthus 
 order long before "Christianity " was used as a means of 
 keeping mankind ignorant of the impartial love of one 
 God, "The Father," and the birthright of "His 
 children ". 
 
 The Malthus goddess — the Religion of priestcraft and 
 landlordism — was an old woman even in the time of 
 
Biographical Notes. 281 
 
 Lucretius, and was then supposed to be in a dying state ; 
 but having secured herself an annuity (rent), by means of 
 a charter to which her priests forged the signatures of the 
 Most High God and His Son, she renewed her youth, 
 and foolish men still worship in her temple ; and while 
 mothers and children starve, these worshippers frequently 
 lay their all upon her altar. 
 
 Without similar facts staring him in the face, as we 
 find pictured by Malthus, and, alas ! we still see in 
 England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Russia, Lucretius 
 could not have written : — 
 
 " Humana ante oculos fcede cum vita jaceret 
 In terris oppressa gravi sub Religione, 
 Quae caput a coeli regionibus ostendebat, 
 Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans."* 
 
 Nor this : — 
 
 " genus infelix humanum ! talia Divis 
 Cum tribuit facta, atque iras adjunxit acerbas," etc.t 
 
 Nor the passage beginning : " Nam vehiti pueri 
 trepidant',' etc., which that prince of translators, Dryden, 
 has put in words of his own, as follows : — 
 
 " And just as children are surprised with dread, 
 And tremble in the dark, so riper years, '' 
 Even in broad daylight, are possessed with fears, 
 And shake at shadows fanciful and vain. 
 As those which in the breasts of children reign. 
 
 * Indeed, Mankind, in wretched bondage held, lay grovelling on the 
 ground, galled with the yoke of what is called Religion ; from the sky 
 this tyrant showed her head, and with grim looks hung over us poor 
 mortals here below. 
 
 + Unhappy race of men ; to ascribe such events — to charge the gods 
 with such distracted rage. What sorrow have they brought upon them- 
 selves ? What miseries upon us ? What floods of tears have they entailed 
 upon our posterity ? 
 
282 Biographical Notes. 
 
 These bugbears of the mind, this inward hell, 
 
 No rays of outward sunshine can dispel ; 
 
 But Nature and right Reason must display 
 
 Their beams abroad, and bring the darksome soul to-day." 
 
 And there must have been Balfours in those days! 
 otherwise Lucretius would not have said : 
 
 " Tentat enim dubiam mentem rationis egestas ". 
 
 For the ignorance of causes leads to very grdi.ve philosophic 
 doubts ! 
 
 And the following is a palpable hit : — ■ 
 
 " Circumretit enim Vis atque Injuria quemque, 
 Atque, unde exorta'st, ad eum plerumque revertit,'' etc. 
 
 " For Coercion and Oppression entangle the man that uses 
 them, and commonly recoil upon the head that contrived 
 them. Nor is it easy for that man to live a secure and 
 pleasant life [playing golf!], who by his conduct breaks 
 through the common bonds of peace. 
 
 " Besides, what heart does not faint with a dread of 
 the Gods ? 
 
 " Do not the people and the nations shake ? And 
 proud tyrants, struck with fear of those avenging Powers, 
 tremble every limb, lest the dismal day were come, to 
 punish them for the baseness of their crimes, and the 
 arrogance of their speeches ? " 
 
 In consequence of a Strathconon rumour that Mr. A. 
 J. Balfour is to take English " Holy Orders," having 
 utterly failed as an Irish clerk, I have anticipated the 
 position by placing him here with "divines ". 
 
 I know I am touching holy ground ; and in approach- 
 ing the shade of the venerable and benevolent Thomas 
 Chalmers, the patron saint of my own particular sect, I 
 at once unshoe. But the truth must be told. He was a 
 believer in the "divinity" of the doctrine of Malthus. 
 
Biographical Notes. 283 
 
 As Professor oi Auld Kirk " Divinity" in the Edinburgh 
 University, he was bound to be so. The Au/d Kirk of 
 Scotland was, and is, as much leagued with landlordism 
 as her Irish sister — the feudal Establishment of Henry II., 
 or her English sister — ^the feudal Establishment of Henry 
 VIII. Professor Thomas Chalmers, in the year 1841, 
 published his Parochial System. In it, he says that God 
 implanted in human nature that "homage," "deference," 
 or " reverence," usually rendered to the holders of wealth. 
 He did not look upon such servility as the conventional 
 dregs of slavery. On the contrary, he says that, this 
 worship of rank "is inserted, as a principle in the human 
 constitution, by the author of our frame". And why? 
 For the "beneficial end " of maintaining " the stability of 
 OMX social system" — the landlord Government of his time! 
 These are the words of Thomas Chalmers, D.D., Professor 
 of Divinity ! How different from the words of Robert 
 Burns, the man ! — who says — " The rank is but the 
 guinea stamp ! " How different also from the words of 
 William Ogilvie, Professor, and also the genuine friend, 
 of Humanity ! And how opposite, let it be said with 
 all reverence, to the words of The Man — Christ. 
 
 But Thomas Chalmers was not a mere "divine," a 
 mere theologian, a mere Professor. He was also a 7nan ; 
 and he had a genuine human soul, which, we know, he 
 saved from being strangled bj' the red tape of "divine " 
 theology. In 1841 he was watching the prognostications 
 of the coming doom of landlordism. Although he 
 regarded " the public feeling of reverence for the grandee 
 of a neighbourhood " as natural as the feeling of reverence 
 children have for their father, still he, casting his D.D., 
 etc., aside for a moment, warned the aristocracy that — 
 " A man's a man, for a' that ! " 
 
284 Biographical Notes. 
 
 "For," says he, "though a reverence towards the 
 holders of rank be natural, the resentment of their 
 oppression is also natural." He points out that this 
 resentment is a just cause for a revolution. "Should 
 there ensue," says he, " such a crisis, then it will not be 
 the multitude who are alone to blame for it, but the 
 holders of fortune and rank will have their full share 
 and responsibility for its atrocities and its horrors". 
 Besides the " dark and angry passions of the multitude, 
 in the fearful crisis of a sweeping and destructive anarchy 
 now awaiting us," he speaks of " the vengeance of a 
 neglected population " ; and points out how the " higher 
 orders" are "more culpably and inexcusably " to blame 
 than the "lower orders" for what may happen in "that 
 coming tempest ". 
 
 In 1843 Thomas Chalmers was the chosen leader of a 
 Scottish revolt against landlordism for securing " spiritual 
 independence'^ — namely, the power to choose their own 
 clergy, bodily slavery remaining as before. 
 
 They talked " o' patronage an' priests, 
 Wi' kindling fury i' their breasts." 
 
 They dared not talk about anything else, and hence 
 they brought forth a miserable mouse — The Free Churchl 
 The old feudal chain was left round the corporal necks of 
 pastors and people as before, and new bonds and chains 
 were now added in the shape of leases or charters for the 
 sites of churches and manses, by which the bondage of vas- 
 salage was re-established by the lords of the soil ; the so- 
 called free pastors and people being obliged to submit, 
 otherwise they would be guilty of breaking their vows under 
 the Confession of Faith. What a lesson we should learn 
 from a study of the life and times of the benevolent Thomas 
 Chalmers, regarding the pernicious effect of " divine " 
 
theology on thf miiuj^ of men. TRe^ole thing, when 
 we examine it |:arefiy;yj^w^<fc^ibund toEonsist of a most 
 cunningdevicefopvtlji^estabirshmgfltof iJhdlord and other 
 aristocratic fetishes, wMcii,<is^a^*d$gj)^ing as well as 
 a dangerous form of idolatry. A dead golden calf is 
 a most innocent, well-principled, and highly moral 
 creature. The " grandee of a neighbourhood " is more 
 dangerous, and, as a rule, more immoral than a " graven 
 image ''. If we must have an idol, even Moses would 
 say — " take the dead calf !" 
 
 If the good man Thomas Chalmers had given a little 
 brass tiger to every Free Church minister in 1843, and 
 warned them of the danger of ^■ox^v^'^m^ grandee-tigers, 
 a Land Court might have been instituted in Scotland in 
 1847, and many libels on God Almighty for sending the 
 potato blight, famine, and evictions, would have been 
 withdrawn with ample apologies. 
 
 The potato is a living thing. It will not grow properly 
 when the requirements of health are denied. It cannot. 
 But it can strike! But its strike is not against God. No, 
 it has more sense ! It wants new seed ; it wants new 
 manure ; it wants new soil, and more of it ; and it makes 
 a strike with a vengeance. It strikes the cultivators hard, 
 and it tells them to strike hard against the tigers, for 
 more land and against rent. But the Reverend Mr. 
 Jackal leads the strikers to the House of God! and thus 
 has saved many a tiger mansion from the just fury of 
 strikers. 
 
 Many a kind-hearted and naturally noble-minded 
 clergyman has fallen a victim to the ancient rules of his 
 order. He is sworn to obey these rules in the same way 
 as a judge is sworn to administer unjust laws. He must 
 also accept " the presents " which by custom are attached 
 
286 Biographical Notes. 
 
 to his office, and should he fail to give effect to the wishes 
 of the donors in performing duties according to use and 
 wont, and thus behave differently from his predecessors 
 in office, as Lord Chancellor Bacon did, he certainly 
 would be exposed by the disappointed donors, and prose- 
 cuted, persecuted, and disgraced. Such are the difficulties 
 which a member of a degenerate institution, or the holder 
 of an office corruptly exercised for ages, has to encounter. 
 The root of the evil is landlordism. It is with its "spoil" 
 that sovereigns, priests, judges, landlords, professors, 
 policemen, soldiers, and other public servants are debased, 
 corrupted, and bribed. " That exclusive right to the 
 improvable value of the soil which a few men are per- 
 mitted to engross," as defined by Professor Ogilvie 
 (section 28), is '' a most oppressive privilege, by the 
 operation of which the happiness of mankind has been 
 for ages more invaded and restrained, than by all the 
 tyranny of kings, the imposture of priests, and the chicane 
 of lawyers, taken together, though these are supposed to 
 be the greatest evils that afflict the societies of human- 
 kind ". 
 
 We pause at these words, and as they enter our souls 
 we get a glimpse of the sage that penned them. We 
 realise his animated presence within ourselves, in com- 
 bination with the quickening truth presented to our 
 understanding. Here we have the essence of Political 
 Economy — the Land Gospel — compressed within the 
 small compass of seventy-two words ; and in one word— 
 the -word " permitted " — he has revealed to us both the 
 diagnosis and the cure of the " greatest evils that afflict 
 the societies of humankind ". " A few men Are permitted 
 (by the many !) to engross a most oppressive privilege — 
 the exclusive right to the improvable value of the soil." 
 
Biographical Notes. 287 
 
 This is the real cause why the happiness of the many has 
 been invaded and restrained for ages ! Kings, priests, 
 and lawyers are merely scare-crows and puppets. The 
 Czar of Russia and his priests and lawyers are in reality 
 only the diplomatic tools of a clique of marauders. 
 These " Russian diplomatists " are not unlike the " facti- 
 tious aristocracy " who utilise the British Queen, with her 
 priests and lawyers, precisely in the same way. The Irish, 
 the Scotch, and also the English tenants, are robbed in 
 the Queen's name. The warrants for evicting the cultiva- 
 tors of the soil, compelling them to swell the misery and 
 poverty of cities, seeking labour where the masses are 
 already starving for want of labour, are issued in the 
 Queen's name. Millions of landless labourers are fraudu- 
 lently robbed by indirect taxation in the Queen's name. 
 The clergyman says — "Amen, obey the law, otherwise 
 you'll be damned " ; and the lawyer and soldier carry 
 out unjust and cruel laws. But the sovereign, the priest, 
 the lawyer, and the soldier are puppets merely, and '" a 
 few men are permitted" to pull the strings ! We have 
 this fact on the undoubted authority of a man who was 
 himself one of the " few," namely Professor Ogilvie. 
 
 In withdrawing the permission, which is the simple 
 cure suggested, there is no word in his teaching about 
 the question of compensation — not even as a temporary 
 obstacle. In the case, however, of real property, 
 created by labour, he would fully compensate the real 
 labourer for all loss sustained in connection with any of 
 his benevolent schemes of land reform. The landholder 
 has a right only to the " improved "—the created — value 
 of the soil. He has no right to the ''original and con- 
 tingent value". "That must still reside in the com- 
 munity at large, and, though seemingly neglected or 
 
288 Biographical Notes. 
 
 relinquished, may be claimed at pleasure by the legisla- 
 ture, or by the magistrate, who is the public trustee." 
 (^Section 13.) 
 
 The land belongs to " the community at large " ! We 
 must not narrow the Land Question, as merely affecting 
 the labourers or tenants of the soil, and their Lords and 
 masters. Those who are not directly connected with 
 these Lords of Creation are equally interested. The 
 robbery which the landless labourers permit, in the shape 
 of indirect taxation and expatriation, is more fraudulent, 
 more pernicious, more cruel, more extensive and wide- 
 spread than the robbery of rent. Land rent, however, 
 we must not forget, is the root of all the robbery — the 
 taxation of the landless people being merely the out- 
 come. This is so very obvious, that I feel a kind of shame 
 in mentioning it. Yet it is a fact we steadily ignore. 
 We forget that until 1858 the so-called House of 
 Commons was entirely and exclusively composed of 
 landlords. We forget that it is still mainly composed of 
 the same old quality — landlordism. We forget that this 
 House of Landlords has always exercised the exclusive 
 power of levying taxes on the people (on the tvhok 
 people !) as well as the exclusive power of levying rent on 
 the tillers of the soil, on the diggers of coal, iron, and 
 other minerals, which is a direct impost on the con- 
 sumers — the farmers and miners being merely rent col- 
 lectors, used as spades of spoliation and robbery. " Foxes 
 have holes " — Ah ! we must not repeat the rest along 
 with worldly matters. The words, SON OF MAN, must 
 not be uttered except by a " divine," who, at the same 
 time, turns up the white of his eyes towards cloud-land! 
 to save the children of men from the agrarian crime of 
 thinking about any other kind of land, "here below," 
 
Biographical Notes. 289 
 
 whereon to build a home, by any right otherwise than 
 through the godly homage of Landlordism, and by 
 yearly or half-yearly sacrifices of blackmail,* as the 
 " divine " superiors of the common people may by " God's- 
 authority" command, all as laid down by the Articles 
 and Confessions of our British Vladimir — St. William 
 the Conqueror, and his faithful followers. We forget 
 that a "national debt" amounting, with the interest 
 already paid, to about ;£'3, 700,000,000 — equal to about 
 ;^500 for every family in Great Britain and Ireland — 
 was incurred by a Parliament of landlords. We forget 
 the landlords' own cry — that the " landed gentry',' and 
 not " the rabble, " are liable for every farthing of that so- 
 called National debt ! We forget that the land belongs 
 to the Nation — to the People — and that its rent is a 
 national fund which should be used for national purposes 
 — for the equal benefit of the whole People. We forget 
 that " a few men are permitted" to spend this national 
 fund in such "national " sports as C«^i-(2r describes in his 
 Commentaries. They 
 
 " Stake on a chance a farmer's stackyard, 
 An' cheat like ony unhang'd blackguard. 
 There's some exceptions, man an' woman ; 
 But this is gentry's life in common." 
 
 We forget that the mere withdrawal of our permission of 
 the abuse of National funds would leave us with a hand- 
 some surplus every year, after providing for free libraries, 
 
 * N.B.—Mi. Giffen's estimate of the yearly rent of agricultural land 
 in the British Isles is £64,190,000 ; of mines, quarries, etc., £10,199,000 . 
 of land as building stances, £131,410,000. The ground rents of railways, 
 waterworks, etc., as well as shootings and fishings, are not included in 
 these figures. And Heaven only knows the amount of landlord plunder 
 which Law and Order perinit at the expiry of building leases and such 
 forms of licensed larceny. 
 
290 Biographical Notes. 
 
 free schools, and free universities ; and that all taxes and 
 excise customs on industry or articles of consumption 
 would cease to be necessary. We forget about the 
 number of widows, orphans, aged or disabled workers, 
 and other fit subjects of benevolence, who ought to be pro- 
 vided with pensions out of such a surplus, in a country 
 which boasts of the Christian Faith. We forget that 
 landlords are merely human — that they are not gods — and 
 that as long as they " are permitted to engross a most 
 oppressive privilege " they ought not to be blamed for 
 the sufferings which the many permit themselves to 
 suffer at the hands of a few. We forget the many lessons 
 of the past — sending landlords to Parliament, absurdly 
 believing in their willingness to repeal their own laws. 
 We forget about another place ! the relics of which, 
 "divine" and otherwise, should be at once removed to 
 the British Museum, for their own safety and the public 
 good, as the next proper charge of new wine is certain 
 to burst these old bottles ! And we forget that we have 
 permitted ourselves to get into this condition of forget- 
 fulness, entirely through ignorance — positive ignorance — 
 inculcated by the clergy, the traditional tools of state- 
 craft tyranny of the most pernicious kind ever known to 
 exist, namely, landlordism. A Sovereign, Prince, or 
 President of any civilized nation or state, may exercise 
 the merciful power of granting a pardon even to a 
 murderer after sentence of death ; but the Ukase of 
 eviction, or exile, capriciously procured by landlord 
 tyranny, must not be interfered with. It is final ; it is 
 supreme ! The landlord holds his commission from God, 
 the clergy tell us, and St. Paul is referred to as an 
 authority in favour of the divinity of charters granted by 
 Richard III., Henry VIII., or by His Grace, the Duke of 
 
Biographical Notes. 291 
 
 Argyll. The " divine " Ukase of eviction must not be 
 appealed even to Heaven itself. The tenant who has 
 used a scanty crop to maintain his wife and family in 
 obedience to the Law of Nature, and the vows made at 
 the marriage altar, has become an unpardonable •' crim- 
 inal," because he has failed to pay an impossible rent. 
 Or, may be, the evicted " criminal " is a poor widow 
 whose frailty in regard to the natural rights of her 
 hungry children, made her forget the " divine " rights of 
 landlordism ! How long shall such things be ? 
 
 But v/hen we ask the following questions :— Why is it 
 that the laws of Moses have been disregarded as to 
 Property in Land? Why is it that the gospel of Jesus 
 has been topsy-turvied, perverted, and made subservient 
 to landlordism and slavery? Why is it that such works 
 as George Buchanan's De Jure Regni, John Locke's Civil 
 Government, Professor Ogilvie's Right of Property in 
 Land, and Henry George's Progress and Poverty are not 
 read in every cottage, and authorised to be taught in 
 every school in the three kingdoms? And why is it 
 that 'M man's a man for a' that" is not sung as a sacred 
 song, in every church, chapel, and Sunday-school, not 
 only in the " Land of Burns," but in every land where 
 the English language is spoken? Are we not obliged 
 to answer that the clergy are not exclusively to blame. 
 
 The clergy, as Professor Ogilvie tells us, are merely 
 the servants of the public, and if they are permitted to 
 neglect their duty, it is in accordance with Natural Law 
 that the public, so permitting, should suffer. Submission 
 to ignorance is a breach of Natural Law, and every breach 
 of Natural Law is duly followed by its appropriate 
 punishment. Such a transgression on the part of an 
 individual, and most certainly on the part of a com- 
 
292 Biographical Notes. 
 
 munity, is followed by slavery, poverty, and misery. 
 Kings, priests, judges. University professors, and even 
 policemen, the moment they &xe permitted to forget their 
 position as public servants, become tyrants and robbers, 
 and prey upon society instead of guarding its liberty and 
 property. They should be constantly reminded of their 
 position and duties as trustees and servants, for, as " D " 
 says to The seven wise Masters : "It is very natural that 
 they should forget this, if the country does not keep 
 them in mind by proper attention " (p. 202 ante). 
 
 We should get rid of all our " divine " quackery in 
 the Public Service. Our "divine" clergy must, sooner 
 or later, follow the fate of "divine" kings, "divine" 
 medicine men, and " divine" warriors. In ancient times 
 the medicine man was always a professed D.D. He 
 cured diseases by his "divine" influence! The "divinity" 
 of warriors was at one time a universal belief; and the 
 idea still lingers in many rather respectable quarters. 
 Some Carlylists have a weakness that way. Instances 
 of " divine " Quixotism are not rare in comparatively 
 recent times. That the great Oliver Cromwell was a 
 relic of this order may be charitably assumed. In the 
 hero of the massacre of Drogheda we have our choice 
 between a " divine " fanatic or a blood-thirsty savage, 
 whose wholesale murder of women, children, and aged 
 men, is almost unparalleled in the annals of barbarism. 
 The " divine " Napoleon I. has been already referred 
 to, but whether he should be regarded as a genuinely 
 anointed fanatic, or as a hypocrite and traitor, is a 
 speculative question for the student of philosophical 
 history. One thing is, however, quite clear. He played 
 the despot so shockingly real that the several acts of 
 his life's drama may be acknowledged as the severest 
 
Biographical Notes. 293 
 
 blows ever struck at the monarchal system of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In reading the tragedy of Napoleon, we, however, must 
 not forget that it was the British Government, alias the 
 Landlords of Britain, that really made Buonaparte an 
 Emperor. It is an undoubted fact, that they invaded 
 France purposely to restore the "ancient rights" of the 
 nobility and monarchy. It was a British landlord war 
 against the peasant cultivators of France. The British 
 peasants foolishly fought against French Independence. 
 Positive ignorance, propagated by their "divine" 
 teachers, led them like sheep to the slaughter. It was 
 the same blindfolding influence that led them to 
 fight against the American Standard of Freedom in 
 1776. They fought for God, for George, and for their 
 country. That was the essence of their war-cry. It 
 was a false cry. They did not fight for God, but the 
 " divine " clergy were bound by landlord-made-law to 
 support that blasphemous cry. They did not fight 
 for George, who never could be justly called their 
 King ; he was merely a puppet set up by a " factitious 
 aristocracy," but nevertheless the "divine" clergy, as 
 teachers of morality, virtue, and truth, were bound by 
 landlord-made-law to support that imbecile cry. They 
 certainly did not fight for their country — their country ! 
 — every square inch of which (with the exception of 
 some commons not then appropriated) was held as the 
 "private property" of the landlords — who alone were 
 the " nation," the landless people being looked upon as 
 hewers of wood and drawers of water, or, in the elegant 
 language of Lord Braxfield, as " the rabble " ! But the 
 "divine" clergy did support, affirm, and "sanctify" that 
 cry. It was all for rent ! rent ! ! rent ! ! ! 
 
294 Biographical Notes. 
 
 The war-cry of to-day — "The unity of the Empire" — 
 which keeps an invading army of from 20,000 to 30,000 
 soldiers, and a degrading^orcg of 14,000 armed policemen, 
 in Ireland, is equally false, fraudulent, dishonest and decep- 
 tive. It, also, is all for rent ! rent ! ! robbery ! robbery ! 1 
 
 The " sacred rights " of landlordism are still among 
 " those things " which the " divine " clergy of England, 
 Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Russia, devoutly wish to 
 maintain and perpetuate ; and, in too many cases, they 
 conscientiously believe in being bound by the rules of 
 their order to act as the god-fathers of such "' sacred 
 rights ". With regard to the present condition of Ire- 
 land, how many of the English, Welsh, and Scotch 
 "divines," in response to the octogenarian Leader of 
 British Liberty, will use their influence " to rid this 
 Empire at once of an intolerable nuisance and a deep 
 disgrace " ? As for the Irish "divines," the comparatively 
 small number that passed with plank bed honours in 
 Balfour's Academy, is a clear indication of the vast 
 majority being quite satisfied with diplomas bearing the 
 antiquated feudal seal of Henry II. 
 
 The Exodus of the clergy of all denominations from 
 the Egypt of Landlordism is only a matter of time, 
 " The sand is running in the glass ! " and hence the 
 indecent haste of passing Land Purchase Acts ; for the 
 sole purpose of enabling Messrs. Shylock &■ Co. to get 
 re-payment of their bonds, out of the public purse, before 
 the advent of the final smash — the great Strike of the 
 whole people against all forms of consecrated and un- 
 consecrated robbery. Now, there are many good men 
 amongst the clergy, and these should not tarry too long 
 in Pharaoh's camp : " A word is enough for the wise ! '' 
 On the other hand, it is most desirable that all the priests 
 
Biographical Notes. 295 
 
 ol'dxQ flesh-pot and golden-calf Order should remain with 
 Pharaoh. There is a danger in trusting them, which the 
 modern Moses must carefully guard against. And there 
 is an equal danger in mistrusting those who deserve to 
 be trusted. The wilderness of the French Revolution 
 must be kept in view ; and its lessons, as well as the 
 Mosaic lessons, should not be forgotten. If the religion, 
 theology, philosophy, ethics, or even the traditions, of a 
 nation are interfered with by any Government or 
 Authority, such interference is an infringement of the 
 sacred principles of Liberty and Justice, which, in the 
 past, invariably led to the most aggravated forms of 
 tyranny and slavery known to mankind. Captivity or 
 bondage is a respectable condition of society as com- 
 pared with slavery, where men, women, and children, 
 have in reality given up their souls. It matters little as 
 to the shrine at which this soul-sacrifice is performed, 
 whether it be the palace of a king or lord, the cathedral 
 of an archbishop, or the chapel of a dissenting clergy- 
 man : The effect is always the same, a lost soul. 
 
 Before resuming the thread of the main subject of 
 these Notes, it is proper to state that the facts teaching 
 the relationship between religionism and landlordism, 
 placed here for the contemplation of the reader, have 
 suggested themselves between the lines of Professor 
 Ogilvie's Essay. His profound knowledge of the ques- 
 tion, combined with the masterly scientific way in which 
 he solved its problems and explained its principles, 
 enabled him to foresee all that has taken place since 1781. 
 There is nothing new to add. He is still abreast of the 
 times. Will the clergy now act on his advice, and aid 
 in breaking the seal of ignorance which is the primary 
 cause of so much poverty, misery, and crime ? Or will 
 
296 Biographical Notes. 
 
 they still continue to use the pulpit as the citadel of 
 oppression, slavery, robbery, error, ignorance and super- 
 stition ? It is surely more judicious to say " No," to 
 the latter question. Even the Universities will be re- 
 formed in a way never dreamed of in their philosophy .- 
 The backsliding of Mr. Herbert Spencer, and the dog- 
 matic belief in the divinity of landlords in which Messrs. 
 Huxley, Tyndall, & Co. indulge, must be regarded as- 
 mere human weaknesses, connected with early impressions 
 and traditions, from which even the greatest of men are 
 not exempt. The present Roman chief Pontiff is a 
 victim. We have seen the pious partiality of the good 
 Thomas Chalmers for the divinely ordained " grandees of 
 a neighbourhood ". We cannot forget his honest con- 
 temporary, Thomas Carlyle, who was a great man — 
 head and shoulders above his fellows — notwithstanding 
 his unfortunate fancy for tigers. His heart was noble 
 and natural, but he inherited certain skin-spots tending 
 towards flunkyism, which he was never able to get rid 
 of. Was he not born in the same "decadent age " as his 
 "poor Louis"? and consequently a victim — "To be 
 born, and to learn only, by every tradition and example 
 that God's Universe is Belial's and a Lie ; and the 
 'Supreme Quack' the hierarch of men"! French and 
 Scotch Theology in those days were, in some respects, of 
 the same shade. Hence Thomas Chalmers and Thomas 
 Carlyle were as much afraid of an appeal to the country (I) 
 as any "poor Louis" could have been. The Demon of 
 the French Revolution — the "cloud-capt, fire-breathing 
 Spectre of DEMOCRACY," with which they were acquainted 
 as boys, continued to haunt them after they grew to 
 manhood, with all the horrors of a real ghost ! How 
 very different were William Ogilvie and Robert Burns ! 
 
Biographical Notes. 2g'j 
 
 They recognised only one divine Law and Order, only 
 one Sovereign Power — that which governs the Universe, 
 and guides the circHng spheres. Examining the Law 
 and Order of "divine" Kings, "divine" Ecclesiastics, 
 "divine" Men of Rank, "divine" Olivers, and even 
 " divine " Landlords in Dei nomine, what did they see ? 
 They saw a reign of usurpers, hypocrites, murderers, and 
 robbers, who had disfranchised the bulk of mankind, 
 contrary to Natural Justice. The Spectre of Democracy 
 was no terror to them. They assiduously prayed — Thy 
 Kingdom come : Thy Will be done ON THIS LITTLE 
 Earth as it is in Heaven. 
 
 In the beginning of 1 805, that ever memorable year of 
 European turmoil, we find Professor Ogilvie writing to 
 his distinguished pupil, Sir James Mackintosh, who was 
 then undergoing a period of transportation, as Recorder 
 of Bombay ; that being the punishment he got for his 
 VindicicB Gallicce. Sir James was considered rather a 
 dangerous enemy to the Pitt-Dundas administration, 
 when it was discovered that he was proof against the 
 seduction and bribery of place and emolument in con- 
 nection with home affairs ; hence the reason that, in 1804, 
 he was gagged by a knighthood and a salary, on the 
 condition of betaking himself to Bombay. The burden 
 of a wife and family, and a severe struggle with poverty 
 for many years, made him an easy victim ; so he went. 
 We know that he was offered something much better at 
 home, if he would only consent to turn his coat. Here 
 is an authentic record of his temptation in the wilderness : 
 "Jane, Duchess of Gordon, who, at that time, had con- 
 siderable influence in Scotch Affairs, and was intimate 
 with Pitt and Dundas, told me [Major Gordon] that she 
 had in vain tried all her persuasive powers, and they were 
 
298 Biographical Notes. 
 
 not small, to detach him from his party. I took the liberty 
 to observe to her Grace, that I was well acquainted with 
 him, and knew that his politics were )\is principles." 
 
 The resisting of the tempter, in the form of " Pretty 
 Jane Maxwell," was a severe test, but Sir James, whose 
 youthful mind had been impregnated with the Liberal 
 principles of George Buchanan, unfolded to him, undiluted 
 and undefiled, by Professor Ogilvie, proved himself equal 
 to the occasion. The " Memoirs of the Life of Sir fames 
 Mackintosh" published in 1835, contain two or three 
 genuine glimpses of Professor Ogilvie ; and if the reader 
 will recall what has been already stated regarding the 
 special interest which the author of Birthright in Land 
 manifested in the welfare of the natives of India, these 
 glimpses will be seen in a clearer light. The fact of Pro- 
 fessor Ogilvie, when verging on the allotted span of three 
 score and ten, being still in the van of Land Law Reformers, 
 agitating his benevolent schemes with " unabated fervour 
 and vigour," amidst the storms and disasters of the French 
 Revolution, and the despotic cyclone which was then 
 raging, is a remarkable spectacle which even the eye of 
 opposition cannot behold without a sense of admiration. 
 Professor Ogilvie loved mankind and wished to see 
 justice done all round ; h& preached and practised genuine 
 Christianity during the whole course of his life, and he 
 continued faithful even unto death. How very different 
 is the nominal Christian, who is goody-goody enough to 
 admit the justice of abolishing slavery, oppression, and 
 the legalised robbery of landlordism, but who, with a 
 wise shake of the head, asks you, "What's the use of 
 agitating, seeing that YOU and I will be dead long before 
 any Parliament will pass a measure of that kind ? " And 
 this barren fig-tree-christian goes through life in a sordid, 
 
Biographical Notes. 299 
 
 mean-spirited, and dishonest way, enjoying the benefits 
 of the present, without the slightest sense of gratitude in 
 regard to the labourers of the past who provided these 
 benefits ; and on the approach of death the same selfish 
 and unchristian spirit prevails ; a scramble is then made 
 for some form of a self -saving-apparatus^ to buoy the 
 departing soul across the waters of the justly dreaded 
 Jordan. And this Devotion of Selfishness is called Chris- 
 tian. Alas ! how opposite to the Spirit of the Founder, 
 who, on the way to an agonising and insulting death, 
 manifested such a marvellously affectionate interest in 
 the welfare of the innocent oppressed wretches He was 
 leaving behind Him in this world. The words : ''Daughters 
 of Jerusalem, weep not for me, btit weep for yourselves, 
 and for your children" breathe the spirit of a benevolent 
 hero. Were He in the world of to-day He would lead 
 the van in the blasting of those spurious fig-trees which 
 are worse than barren, because they yield High and Low 
 priestism, along with Cffisarism and Zemindarism, as 
 fruit for the gullible multitude. The dying words of 
 Socrates, and the lines * penned by Ogilvie in 1 776, 
 when expecting the next moment to be his last, indicate 
 to us how those who live nobly, are able to die nobly. 
 On the other hand, the world is full of documentary evi- 
 dence regarding the dreadful difficulty which the sordid 
 and selfish portion of mankind experience in attempting 
 to die like honest men. Their trust in a fatherly God 
 is manifested very much after the fashion of a poor 
 shivering native of Central Africa, kissing the ground 
 in front of a white-faced demon, who, with forefinger on 
 trigger of his elephant rifle, is about to let loose a thunder- 
 
 * Compare Ogilvie's never-dying spirit of benevolence with the selfish 
 Requiem penned by the Duke of Argyll. Appendix X. 
 
300 Biographical Notes. 
 
 bolt I _ Prayers are uttered personally and by proxy; 
 and if the victim be possessed of superfluous wealth, the 
 ancient savage custom of squaring the Almighty by 
 means of presents — bequests to churches and charities — 
 is generally resorted to. The world, however, is improving 
 and getting more genuinely Christian every day. Several 
 branches of Scientific Knowledge are now endowed 
 without any fear of serious consequences either to the 
 souls of the donors or donees ; and, by and by, we may 
 expect Government grants and private endowments on 
 behalf of '^The independence of the plough" as suggested 
 by the far-seeing Professor Ogilvie. The Law. of Neces- 
 sity must assert itself even in Darkest England I 
 
 We have to thank the Editor of Mackintosh! s Memoirs 
 for having preserved the following morsel of Professor 
 Ogilvie's letter to Sir James, which he introduces with 
 the remark, that it "touched upon topics, which every 
 arrival of news from Europe tended to invest with deeper 
 interest " : — 
 
 " I do not suppose,'' says the Professor, "that you, any 
 more than myself, have embraced the philosophy of 
 common sense, as it has been called, in all its latitude ; 
 but surely Dr. Reid's eminence in various sciences, and 
 his successful endeavours to throw light on that which he 
 cultivated, cannot have escaped your notice, any more 
 than the merits of the ' Vindiciae Gallicse ' escaped him. 
 Mrs. Carmichael, his surviving daughter, at whose request 
 I take the liberty of giving you this trouble, informs me 
 that he was struck with admiration on reading that 
 Essay, and used frequently to speak of it as one of the 
 most ingenious works of the kind he had ever met 
 with. 
 
 " Alas ! how are our prospects changed since those fair 
 
Biographical Notes. 30 1 
 
 days of hope and sanguine speculation ! I trust, how- 
 ever, you have not desponded : I have not. From the 
 very first, I regarded the high fermentation of the French 
 nation with a mixed sentiment of joy and of dread. I 
 felt like the poet, looking on the great movements i n the 
 frame of nature, 
 
 ' His ibi me rebus qusedam divina voluptJ6 
 Percipit, atque horror ' ; 
 
 and, even now that those former labours ^e^/>to have 
 subsided in the dregs of mere despotism, Js^tflL^fttsJf 
 the hope of some favourable result — some vautsta EAmfl^ 
 permanent, though but moderate, improvement ; some 
 fortunate establishment that shall succeed these storms, 
 as our revolution in 1688 succeeded the civil wars. I 
 even build some hopes on the transcendent talents of 
 Buonaparte. It is impossible for me to believe that this 
 child and champion of popular rights, so endowed by 
 nature, formed, as we are told, on the best ancient models, 
 and tinctured with the sublime melancholy of Ossian, 
 can prove ultimately unfaithful to the glorious cause, the 
 idol of his youth." 
 
 The following note shows that the most interesting 
 part of the Professor's letter was not considered of much 
 importance in 1835. The Editor says: — " Mr. Ogilvie, 
 with a generous ardour, then offers to communicate to 
 Sir James some observations on property in land, which 
 he imagines may probably be applicable to India, and 
 tend to improve the condition of the natives of that 
 country ". 
 
 In perusing the following reply by Sir James, the 
 reader, in considering that portion of it which refers 
 specially to the condition of Europe, has to keep in view 
 
 21 
 
302 Biographical Notes. 
 
 the wonderful military success of Napoleon during the 
 intervening period, 1805, 1806, and 1807, by which he 
 became Master of all the thrones in Europe, Britain's 
 alone excepted, and how difficult it must have been to 
 form any definite opinion in regard to such unprecedented 
 events : — 
 
 "Bombay, Feb. 24, 1808. 
 
 " My Dear Sir, — That I have not sooner answered 
 your letter, by Mr. Rose, in the beginning of 1805, 
 has not been owing to any insensibility to the value of 
 that mark of your remembrance. On the contrary I 
 assure you, that after repeated perusals, that letter has 
 not yet lost its power of producing strong emotions in 
 my mind, such as are naturally excited by the generous 
 spirit which it breathes, and by that union of elegance 
 with energy, which so much distinguishes it. At the 
 distance of twenty- five years, I recognise your unabated 
 fervour and vigour : I call to mind the energy, which first 
 roused and directed my own infant powers, and I feel 
 myself most warmly disposed 
 
 ' To bless the place, where on the opening soul 
 First the sacred ardour stole '. 
 
 " With these feelings, you may do me the justice to be- 
 lieve, that I should have gratified myself by rendering 
 service to the nephew of Dr. Reid, whose philosophy, 
 like you, I do not embrace, but whose character and 
 talents every cultivator of science must venerate. * * * 
 
 " I admire the intrepid spirit which supports you 
 against political despondence, in the midst not only of 
 the disappointment of our hopes of a better order of 
 society, but of the destruction or immediate danger of all 
 
Biographical Notes. 303 
 
 the best institutions transmitted to us from former times. 
 There is a sense in which I too do not despond, or, more 
 properly, do not despair. I still think that a philoso- 
 phical survey of human affairs teaches us to consider 
 the race of man as engaged in a progress often checked, 
 long suspended, but always to be traced through the 
 darkest mazes of history, and of which the boundaries 
 are not assignable. Moral or physical revolutions may 
 destroy it entirely ; but there being no examples of such 
 within the period of historic record, we must consider 
 them as events which, though possible, are not entitled 
 to any higher place in the scale. 
 
 " It is certainly true that the longest and most dread- 
 ful suspension of the progress known to us, the irruption 
 of the Germanic nations, was so far beneficial that it was 
 succeeded, though after a long interval, by a better form 
 of civilization than that which preceded it ; nor can we 
 conceive how that better order could have arisen, without 
 the previous calamities. In this large sense, I do not 
 despair of the fortunes of the human race. With my 
 admirable friend, Mr. Dugald Stewart, I am ready to 
 say, — 
 
 ' Fond, impious man ! think'st thou yon sanguine cloud, 
 Raised by thy breath, can quench the orb of day ? 
 To-morrow he repairs the golden flood, 
 And warms the nations with redoubled ray.' — \GrayH Bard.] 
 
 "But the moral days and nights of these mighty 
 revolutions have not yet been measured by human intellect. 
 Who can tell how long that fearful night may be, before 
 the dawn of a brighter to-morrow? Experience may, 
 and I hope does, justify us in expecting that the whole 
 course of human affairs is towards a better state ; but it 
 does not justify us in supposing that many steps of the 
 
304 Biographical Notes. 
 
 progress may not immediately be towards a worse. The 
 race of man may reach the promised land, but there is no 
 assurance that the present generation will not perish in 
 the wilderness. 
 
 " The prospect of the nearest part of futurity, of all 
 that we can discover, except with the eyes of speculation, 
 seems very dismal. The mere establishment of absolute 
 power in France is the smallest part of the evil. It might 
 be necessary for a time, and, as you observe, it might be 
 followed by a more moderate, popular vibration, which, 
 like our Revolution of 1688, might have settled near the 
 point of justice ; but that seems no longer possible, nor, 
 if it were, would it be sufficient. Europe is now covered 
 with a multitude of dependent despots, whose existence 
 depends on their maintaining the paramount tyranny in 
 France. The mischief has become too intricate to be 
 unravelled in our day. An evil greater than despotism, 
 or rather the worst and most hideous form of despotism, 
 approaches : a monarchy, literally universal, seems about 
 to be established. Then all the spirit, variety, and emu- 
 lation of separate nations, which the worst forms of 
 internal government have not utterly extinguished, will 
 vanish. And in that state of things, if we may judge 
 from past examples, the whole energy of human intellect 
 and virtue will languish, and can scarcely be revived 
 otherwise than by an infusion of barbarism. 
 
 " You build some hopes on the character of the mighty 
 destroyer himself; they are, I fear, only benevolent 
 illusions. Imperious circumstances have, doubtless, as 
 you say, determined his actions ; but they have also 
 formed his character, and produced a mind, which can 
 endure no less powerful stimulants than conquest and 
 revolution, depositions and establishments. If he still 
 
Biographical Notes. 305 
 
 endeavour to persuade himself that he has a benevolent 
 purpose, it is a self-illusion which renders him more ex- 
 tensively and incorrigibly mischievous ; it will lead him 
 to destroy all restraints on his will, as checks on his bene- 
 volence. He will act on two principles, the most erron- 
 eous and fatal that a sovereign and a law-giver can adopt; 
 — one, not only that he can know how to promote the 
 happiness of nations and ages, which is false, but that he 
 ALONE must infallibly know it, which is more obviously 
 false, and more actively pernicious ; — another, that im- 
 provement can be poured into the lap of passive men, 
 and that happiness may be forced on resisting men, 
 though all happiness excludes restraint, though all real 
 improvement be the spontaneous fruit of a mental activity, 
 which may, indeed, be guided by a wise government, but 
 for which the wisest government cannot contrive a sub- 
 stitute. 
 
 " I should rejoice to see your speculations on landed 
 property ; for though, on former occasions, I suspected 
 you of being more influenced by confidence in regulations 
 than experience will allow, yet I was always delighted, 
 not only by the benevolence of your purpose, but by the 
 singular ingenuity of your means. I can promise you 
 no more than that you will give me pleasure, that you 
 will exercise and improve my understanding, and that I 
 will freely tell you what I think on the subject. Practical 
 effect here you must not hope. The constitution of the 
 Anglo-Indian Government is founded in opposition to 
 the most demonstrated principles of political science ; 
 and its measures are in perfect unison with its original 
 principles. Within these two years a gabelle has been 
 established in Malabar and Canara, as a fund to pay the 
 salaries of the provincial judges. How can you object 
 
3o6 Biographical Notes. 
 
 to a government taking a monopoly of the only luxury 
 of the poor [salt], when you consider that the govern- 
 ment is founded on a monopoly? It is vain to refine 
 on the distribution of the produce of the soil between the 
 labourer and the legal owner, in a country where the 
 latter class does not really exist, and where a ravenous 
 government begins by seizing^-at least one-half of it in 
 the most vexatious mode. This Government is too 
 needy to listen to any proposal for mitigating the fate of 
 their subjects ; all that they can get is not enough for 
 them. We have a bankrupt sovereign, and a people 
 beggared by imposition. Yet so highly is this country 
 favoured by nature, that the mere destruction of the 
 monopoly would speedily remedy the greater part of 
 these evils.* The Act for vesting the trade and territory 
 in an exclusive company, ought to have been entitled, 'An 
 Act for preventing the Progress of Industry in India, in 
 order to hinder the Influx of Wealth into Great Britain'. 
 
 " If you write to me again, I promise not to be long 
 in answering your letter; for I can most sincerely sub- 
 scribe myself, 
 
 " Your grateful pupil, 
 
 " And affectionate friend, 
 
 "James Mackintosh". 
 
 What of the situation now ? Do we see any sign of 
 the dawn of true knowledge and the light of reason, 
 by which alone the darkness of that long dark night 
 can be dispelled? In the lamentations of Sir James 
 
 * The initiatory proceedings connected with the passing of a remedial 
 measure, Sir James lived to witness and promote — being " roused and 
 directed," no doubt, by the same " sacred ardour " which inspired the 
 foregoing letter. 
 
Biographical Notes. 307 
 
 Mackintosh we should not join. Let us rather look at 
 Europe under Napoleon, and at India under The Company, 
 through the eyes of one who foresaw these "junctures" 
 and " various occurrences " many years before they came 
 to pass.* The so-called civilised world was fully im- 
 pregnated by Ignorance and Superstition at the time he 
 began to contemplate his schemes for the " re-establish- 
 ment " of disinherited children in " their natural rights to 
 independence of cultivation and to property in land ". 
 Priestcraft and landlordism, born and bred of such 
 parents, were developed, and continued to develop into 
 all conceivable forms of monstrous tryannies, while the 
 bulk of human-kind were steeped in positive ignorance, 
 abject slavery, passive servility, and misery. There was 
 a long dark night. But the real philosopher — the 
 student of nature who studied mankind and history in 
 the light of reason, was able to see that such darkness 
 and oppression could not always last. He says, '' I felt 
 like the poet, looking on the great movements in the 
 frame of nature," "a mixed sentiment of joy and of 
 dread". With the offspring which survived the lying-in 
 period of the French Revolution, he was by no means 
 satisfied. There were in those days too many Herods on 
 the watch, and, worse still, the child that returned from 
 Egypt, unfortunately for France, and for the world 
 generally, was undoubtedly a changeling. But this 
 changeling having out-Heroded all the other Herods, they 
 were moved by the old spirit of jealousy ; and also by 
 the fear of being gobbled up, like the frogs in the fable ; 
 and, therefore, they all — these old-established Herods — 
 formed a " Holy Alliance," as it was called, against 
 
 * See Essay, Section 56 to 62. 
 
3o8 Biographical Notes. 
 
 France and her newly-established King Stork. This was 
 the very card, the only card ! by which King Stork could 
 play the " holy Emperor " ! the Heaven-sent saviour of 
 the French People ! the Lord's anointed ! And this he 
 did triumphantly, as long as the blood of France lasted. 
 Milton's or Dante's Devil would have been satisfied with 
 the return journey from Moscow. Altogether, it is esti- 
 mated that 2,300,000 French soldiers fell in the wars of 
 Napoleon. The number of the "enemy" that fell, who 
 knows? The surviving orphans, widows, husbandless 
 maids, broken-hearted parents, and sisters, on both sides — 
 who endured endless grief, poverty, and misery with 
 a despair which must have shaken their faith in a 
 benevolent God — let us not attempt to count or estimate. 
 
 But let us look again at these living masses of armed 
 men — the flower of civilised " Enlightened Europe" \ Herod 
 "the Great" marches under the banner of " Liberty" \ 
 and the contending allied little Herods also march under 
 the same banner of "Liberty " ! and the great quack and 
 the little quacks quarrel about the right of advertising 
 and dispensing the "genuine article" ! 
 
 Men leave their homes, on both sides, " to fight for 
 Liberty " ; " to fight for their homes " ; " to fight for their 
 country". Now, here we have the "junctures," the 
 "favourable opportunities," referred to by Professor 
 Ogilvie, whereby a re-establishment of the natural rights 
 of the People might have been easily secured, and land- 
 lordism and tyranny for ever abolished. "When these 
 glorious days of favourable opportunities come," he in 
 effect said, " you, the people who now (1780-81) groan 
 under oppression, can easily work out your own salva- 
 tion. Surely you will not then march a step, or draw a 
 sword, for maintaining the tyranny now exercised by 
 
Biographical Notes. 309 
 
 your present lords and masters." But he knew the 
 dangers ahead, and he gave warning accordingly. The 
 people were steeped in ignorance — ignorance of their 
 rights to the land in particular. But besides the much 
 wanted knowledge " of their title to such rights," he knew 
 the great need there was for wise, courageous, and faith- 
 ful leaders — "leaders prepared to direct them in the 
 mode of stating their just claim, and supporting it with 
 necessary firmness and becoming moderation ".* 
 
 We have now wandered back instinctively to the 
 Essay, Sections $6 to 62. We behold the author in these 
 sections, and, at the same time, we may learn practical 
 wisdom from his "speculations " ! Let us consider how 
 far his prophetic aspirations have been verified or falsified 
 by that never-erring judge, TiME ! 
 
 The "various occurrences," "junctures," and " favour- 
 able opportunities " which he prospected in 1780-81 began 
 to unfold themselves in 1789; and their marvellous evolu- 
 tions continued to astonish and distract the so-called 
 civilised world, until the " Sun of Austerlitz " ! stripped 
 of all glory, came to earth a mere, fallen star in 18 15. 
 Then silly Europe, and ten times ten sillier Britain, 
 began to cry " Peace, peace ! " when there was no peace. 
 It was the peace of death, as far as British Liberty was 
 concerned. On the field of Waterloo, Britons gave up 
 almost the last token of the Revolution principles of 
 1688 ; and thus much of their " glory " departed, and 
 the pet phrase, " the envy of foreign nations," thence for- 
 ward acquired a somewhat sarcastic application. 
 
 The French people, and also the Prussians, must 
 have acted on some principles similar to those recom- 
 
 * Essay, Section 57. 
 
3IO Biographical Notes. 
 
 mended in the Essay. They abolished serfdom, and 
 succeeded, so far, in obtaining a "re-establishment of 
 their natural rights to independence of cultivation and 
 to property in land." One may even venture the con- 
 jecture that the transcendent Buonaparte did not scruple 
 to draw some of his governing wisdom from the same or 
 some similar source. 
 
 Professor Ogilvie, we have seen (Section 57), addressed 
 himself in accordance with the Revolution principles of 
 1688, to "the sovereign, the legislature, or the real patriots 
 of a country ". We have seen ijb) how he deplored that 
 the British patriots of 1688, and the American patriots 
 of 1776, failed in securing their "natural right of pro- 
 perty in land " — to "establish,'' he says, "«« arrangement 
 of the highest importance to the general welfare of t/uir 
 fellow-citizens". And we have just seen (p. 301, supra) 
 how he deplored that the French patriots of 1789 stopped 
 short at peasant proprietorship — " whose labours," he 
 says, "now (1805) seem to have subsided in the dregs of 
 mere despotism ". 
 
 But what did the British patriots get ? Did they im- 
 prove their position at Waterloo ? For whom, and for 
 what, did they shed their blood there ? What was their 
 quarrel with the French people, or even with Napoleon? 
 These are awkward questions which the partial historian 
 and other landlord menials do not care to answer. The 
 same influence which blinded the British Peasant, after 
 he was be-fooled to fight landlord battles against American 
 Independence, again succeeded in blinding him at the 
 close of his crusades against French Independence. 
 
 Lord Byron noticed not only the blindness of the 
 rank and file, but of the lords and masters also. After 
 Waterloo rents came tumbling down. 
 
Biographical Notes. 311 
 
 Alas, the country ! how can tongue or pen 
 
 Bewail her now wwcountry gentlemen ? 
 
 For what were all these country patriots born ? 
 
 To hunt and vote, and raise the price of corn ? 
 
 But corn, like every mortal thing, must fall, 
 
 Kings, conquerors, and markets most of all. 
 
 And must ye fall with every ear of grain ? 
 
 Why would you trouble Buonaparte's reign ? 
 
 He was your great Triptolemus ; his vices 
 
 Destroy'd but realms, and still maintained your prices ; 
 
 He amplified to every lord's content 
 
 The grand agrarian alchymy, hight rent. 
 
 Why did you chain him on yon isle so lone ? 
 
 The man was worth much more upon his throne. 
 
 And so on, till we come to the lines, " Safe in their 
 barns," etc., quoted at p. 184, supra, from which the 
 reader will see most clearly how cruelly the peasants of 
 the British Isles were be-fooled in those days, shedding 
 their own blood and murdering Frenchmen for the sake 
 of maintaining British Landlordism, with its wars, rack 
 rents, oppressive taxes, compulsory idleness of the 
 people, starvation, and crime ; together with the debas- 
 ing influence of a superstitious religion taught in every 
 Parish, by which Jehovah, as " the God of Hosts" was 
 directly blamed for all these evils, while the real evil- 
 doers were extolled as saviours of mankind ; their very 
 bloodhounds worshipped as gods, and graven images of 
 them planted as idols throughout the land. During the 
 reign of George III., from 1760 to 1820, our real rulers 
 swallowed up every thing, and incurred a " National " ! 
 debt besides, amounting to .£'732,886,942 ! In August, 
 1822, matters began to improve; one traitor turned 
 patriot, then — 
 
 " Oh, Castlereagh ! thou art a patriot now; 
 Cato died for his country, so didst thou : 
 
312 Biographical Notes. 
 
 He perish'd rather than see Rome enslaved, 
 Thou cutt'st thy throat that Britain may be saved ! 
 
 Shall noble Albion pass without a phrase 
 
 From a bold Briton in her wonted praise ? 
 
 Arts — arms — and George — and glory and the isles — 
 
 And happy Britain — wealth — and Freedom's smiles — 
 
 White cliffs that held invasion far aloof — 
 
 Contented subjects all alike tax-proof— 
 
 And Waterloo — and trade — and — {hush! not yet 
 
 A syllable of imposts or of debt) — 
 
 And ne'er {enough) lamented Castlereagh, 
 
 Whose penknife slit a goose-quill t'other day." 
 
 Those who foolishly sacrificed their lives on behalf of 
 landlordism in these wars died happy. And the Fates 
 were as a rule less cruel to them than to the survivors. 
 The Highlanders who responded to the trumpet of war 
 in obedience to their chiefs, how were they treated after 
 Waterloo? We know that on landing in England the 
 remnants of the Highland Brigade were received in every 
 town they marched through with perhaps as much real 
 patriotic pride, honour, and kindness as ever fell to the 
 lot of brave and victorious men ; and as they proceeded 
 Northwards to what, once upon a time, was their own 
 country, the feelings of warm welcome seemed rather to 
 increase than diminish, until, Alas ! they came to one 
 spot : — 
 
 " A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest ". 
 
 "That," says an applicant under the Scottish Crofters' 
 Act of 1886— pointing to a glen — "is the place where 
 my father was born and brought up. Like some other 
 young men he was forced into the army, but it was on 
 the express condition that his parents, and their posterity 
 should never be disturbed in the possession of their land. 
 
Biographical Notes. 313 
 
 On his return home after the battle of Waterloo, instead 
 of his home — the home of his ancestors — there was 
 nothing but roofless walls, thresholds overgrown with 
 grass, and the nettle and thistle in full possession, rooted 
 round the old hearth stones. He, for a moment, dis- 
 trusted his eyes. The unexpected sight of such desola- 
 tion pierced his heart, and he felt stupefied. How cruel 
 of the French bullets to have spared him for such 
 refined landlord torture ! It was a complete Highland 
 Clearance ; not a living soul was left in the glen to tell 
 what had become of the people." This was the work of 
 the Commercial Landlord — the Commercialised Highland 
 Chief, or, more properly, thief! the advocate of Freedom 
 of Cotitract — freedom to do what he likes with the land, 
 and to kick the people about, or away altogether, in 
 accordance with his caprice, avarice, or pleasure. The 
 same story, with sad variations, may be told of many a 
 Highland glen. And, with equally sad variations, it 
 could be extended to the Lowlands, to England, to 
 Ireland, and, without any doubt, to British India. The 
 British nabobs excelled all other freebooters, barring, 
 perhaps, the Spanish Christians who plundered and 
 murdered the natives of Mexico. The East India 
 Company was a huge syndicate of Commercial landlords, 
 the undoubted scum and dregs of British despotism ; but, 
 nevertheless, it was approved of and supported by the 
 ''Christian" Churches of Britain and their Missionaries 
 under the pretext of carrying the Gospel to the down- 
 trodden races of the East. No wonder the Christian 
 Fakirism of " The Honourable the East India Com- 
 pany " failed. 
 
 India, poor India ! had suffered for ages from its own 
 native nabobism, semindarism, fakirism, and the scourge 
 
314 Biographical Notes. 
 
 of every village — the ism of the native Jew. Her 
 inhabitants were sunk in oppression, misery, and despair. 
 They hoisted a flag of distress I More than one invader 
 landed and offered help. A general scramble followed 
 .-^the Fates decided in favour of the British. The 
 passive Indians were glad to barter their home-grown 
 oppression for the British imported article, which The 
 Honourable the East India Company agreed to supply on 
 the most liberal terms. 
 
 In too many cases ^^ British Liberty" — the liberty to 
 rack-rent and evict ! the " Liberty " fought for and 
 gained at Waterloo ! was too liberally supplied ; it was 
 poured down their throats without any ceremony and 
 quite regardless of native etiquette. It is too true, it is 
 3 sad fact, that this Company of British Commercial 
 Landlords continued to carry on for fifty long years the 
 same system of freebooting after Sir James Mackintosh 
 .drew that painful picture of British Civilisation, plus 
 British Christianity in India, not as we find these things 
 Jn " Missionary Reports" but as they actually existed in 
 1808, and continued to develop into more insulting 
 atrocities, until at last the "greased cartridge" in 1858, 
 came to the rescue of an almost utterly Heaven-forsaken 
 land. 
 
 Strange that the match of Independence was after 
 ^11 kindled by the much despised poor old native religion ! 
 Strange, that the "greased cartridge" should have 
 icaused a Revolution which brought the neck of THE 
 Company to the block ! Strange, that that " Revolu- 
 tion " should have led to the crown of India beino- placed 
 an the head of Victoria as " Empress of India " ! It is 
 also somewhat strange that VICTORIA is only the power- 
 Sless puppejt of a number of hereditary or self-established 
 
Biographical Notes. 315 
 
 monopolists, who have usurped the absolute ownership 
 of the land and wealth of this country, together with the 
 whole rights of the people, and that Britons are almost 
 as passive under injustice and oppression as any Indians 
 ever were. 
 
 The poor " Empress of India " cannot stop that 
 abominable tax on the only luxury of the poor I The 
 British Soldier or Policeman would get orders to lock 
 Her Majesty up in the Old Tower of London if she 
 dared to interfere with any injustice, oppression, or 
 robbery, of which the real rulers of the British Empire 
 may be guilty. To please a section of Jingoes she is 
 obliged to style herself the " Empress of India," but she 
 dare not mention the salt tax. She is the Queen of 
 England, but " Darkest England " she must not even 
 refer to. She is the Queen of Scotland and Ireland, but 
 the words " rack rents " or " evictions " must not pass her 
 royal lips. And yet the Sovereign is by law the chief 
 trustee of all the land in the three kingdoms, for behoof 
 of the whole people indiscriminately — the landlords being 
 only sub-trustees, and having no estate or property 
 whatever in the land beyond the value of any improve- 
 ments. This law is not administered by the judges in 
 our Law Courts because they are only the agents and 
 nominees of the landlords. They administer only 
 Landlord-made-Laws. Professor Ogilvie had no favour 
 for puppet monarchs or puppet magistrates. He tells 
 us that the " original and contingent value of the estate 
 of every landholder still belongs to the community, and 
 though seemingly neglected or relinquished, may be 
 claimed at pleasure by the legislature or by the magis- 
 trate, who is the public trustee" (Section 13). Accord- 
 ing to him, every limited monarch is an established 
 
3i6 Biographical Notes. 
 
 fraud. He says * — " It is only in purely democratical 
 governments, or in unlimited monarchies, during the 
 reign of a sovereign endowed with superior wisdom and 
 capacity, that any sudden or effectual reformation of the 
 abuses of landed property can be expected". But he 
 adds — "The more unlimited that power is with which 
 any monarch is invested, the more it seems incumbent 
 on him to attend zvith peculiar care to the protection of the 
 common people. Other ranks have their privileges, their 
 wealth, and acquisitions of various kinds to protect and 
 support them ; but the common people have none of 
 these, and not having representatives in any legislative 
 council, as under limited monarchs, the sovereign himself 
 is in fact their representative, and cannot but perceive 
 that he ought to be in a more particular manner the 
 gtiardian of this helpless class of men." The Professor 
 then refers to FREDERICK THE GREAT, and has a quiet 
 thrust at Voltaire for not having "suggested" to that 
 famous prince, " in the earlier part of his reign, the idea 
 of reforming the constitution of landed property". He 
 also probably had in his eye jAMES I. of Scotland and 
 Henry IV. of France. The one tried to restore the 
 land to the people, and wished justice administered " to 
 the rich as to the poor, without fraud or favour ". And 
 the other, "this humane prince" (p. 49), '"wished only to 
 live that he might convince the French nation how much 
 he loved them as his children ". " The peasants," says 
 Voltaire, " to this day remember a saying of his. That he 
 should be glad to see them have a fowl upon the table every 
 Sunday!' For the crime of so loving the people both 
 these princes were brutally murdered. James was 
 
 * Essay, p. 113. 
 
Biographical Notes. 317 
 
 murdered by the nobles, and the clergy plotted the 
 assassination of Henry. But notwithstanding all that, 
 Her Majesty, as the present reigning monarch, could, 
 were she to try it, abolish that salt tax in India, and also 
 abolish the unjust Land Laws there, and in England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland as well. She is " tlie representa- 
 tive " of the '■ helpless class ". She can say at any time, 
 " I'll abdicate if you do not consent to abolish that salt 
 tax imposed on my own particular constituents," &c. 
 She could also say, " The power of the crown is the 
 power of the people, and must not be used to oppress 
 the people ". She could very soon make a " Black Fri- 
 day " on the Stock Exchange. The money lenders on 
 land, and the borrowers, would be in danger of losing 
 the puppet foundation of all their rights and titles ; and 
 the Church of England djad the Church of Scotland v/ovAd 
 both be in danger of losing their head ! What "junc- 
 tures," what "favourable opportunities" for hastening a 
 re-establishment of the people's rights, may be brought 
 about by the mere word of a humane sovereign who 
 wisely understands that he or she rules by the will and 
 voice of the people ! 
 
 When the real duties of a Sovereign are systemati- 
 cally neglected, and when a " factitious Aristocracy" have 
 entirely forgotten the rights of the people, by whose 
 mandate alone they act as legislature, it is then high time 
 that "the real patriots of any country" should waken 
 up. The real Trafalgar when " England expects every 
 real patriot to do his duty " has yet to be fought. The 
 real invader, not the shadowy bogey of the French 
 Revolution, has to be cut down by the axe of Justice, and 
 all useless and noxious zveeds which now cumber the 
 land have yet to be uprooted and cast away. Sir James 
 
 22 
 
3i8 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Mackintosh, who vindicated the French R-evolution, 
 vindicated also, by anticipation, the Indian Revolution 
 of 1858. But the mild and amiable Sir James, although 
 a vindicator of Justice and Reform, was an exceedingly 
 frail and timid agitator. He was somewhat like Jere- 
 miah, while his old Master was fashioned after the 
 ancient model of MoSES. 
 
 To Professor Ogilvie's proposals of land law reform. 
 Sir James furnished this wet blanket — " Practical effect 
 here you must not hope ! " He was only beginning to 
 see that his old master really intended his schemes, not as 
 mere " speculations," but rather to be adopted practically, 
 " as of importance to the general welfare of mankind, 
 and the improvement of their present state". His 
 earlier impressions, formed at College, and noted in his 
 Memoirs in 1805, were now (1808) seemingly undergoing 
 a change. The College was the bushel by which he was 
 prevented from seeing the light. " I should rejoice," he 
 writes, " to see your speculations on landed property ; 
 for though, on former occasions, I suspected you of 
 being more influenced by confidence in regulations than 
 experience will allow." In a letter to Professor Dugald 
 Stewart of Edinburgh, dated " Bombay, November 2, 
 1805," the following reference occurs : "A nephew of Dr. 
 Reid, a young gentleman of the name of Rose, has 
 lately come out here as a cadet, recommended to me by 
 a very ingenious and worthy person, though not without 
 the peculiarities and visions of a recluse, Mr. Ogilvie of 
 King's College, Aberdeen ". We shall see, further on, 
 how imperfectly informed Sir James must have been, in 
 regard to "this most ingenious and accomplished recluse". 
 He seemingly had no idea that Professor Ogilvie was 
 possessed of more practical knowledge of agriculture, and 
 
Biographical Notes. 319 
 
 the true relation of landlord and people to the land than 
 perhaps was possessed, in the aggregate, by all the 
 political philosophers of his time, the celebrated Adam 
 Smith being thrown in along with the rest. He was by- 
 far too honest a man to attempt to write on any subject 
 until he had first mastered the facts. The Essay itself is 
 the best proof of this, and it would be impertinent to assert 
 that the author was a practical and scientific man unless 
 his work could stand the test of cross-examination. But 
 nevertheless, the notion that he was only a visionary and 
 speculative recluse was prevalent. That was one way of 
 opposing his admittedly just and benevolent schemes. 
 " What is the use,'' some would say, " of any schemes, 
 however good, however benevolent, if they are not 
 practicable in this world? The next is the place for 
 these things ! Therefore, any advocate for happiness 
 in this world must be treated as a very dangerous 
 heretic." We may guess the reason why Professor 
 Ogilvie was a " recluse ! " 
 
 The renowned George Buchanan was not a recluse, 
 and consequently he was put in prison ; and to escape 
 being burnt alive, he had to fly from his own country. 
 Like the Damascus heretic, he made his escape " through 
 a window ". Whether he was let down " in a basket," or 
 had the benefit of a more modern fire-escape (!) history 
 sayeth not. 
 
 Where is Buchanan now? Where is our Great 
 Gtandfather of British Liberty and true Radicalism, the 
 hater of cant and tyranny ? "A tyrant," says Buchanan, 
 " is one that rules by his own will, and contrary to the 
 interests of the people." The "opinion that a tyrant 
 must be obeyed is wrong. For the people may justly make 
 war against such a ruler, and pursue him till he be slain." 
 
320 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Where is Buchanan now? Behold his portrait 
 figuring on the cover of the only Tory, the only respect- 
 able Conservative Magazine in Scotland, Blackwood's! 
 How came he there? how continues he to be there? 
 "■ Maga'' ought to explain. But this is not more strange 
 than to see the outside of many books, and also many 
 churches, inscribed and ornamented with Christian 
 tokens, while the inside is chiefly devoted to slavery, 
 intolerance, and somewhat blasphemous notions of the 
 Creator. "What's in a name?" Witness the name of 
 Jesus Christ and the Spanish Inquisition ! the slavery of 
 Protestant America, or the landlordism of the Gospel- 
 spreading islands of Britain and Ireland ! 
 
 Where is George Washington now ? Witness the 
 great American Republic ! Is not her " Independence" 
 now used as a taxing machine ? Where are now those 
 ancient tea chests? Frailty, thy name is ''American 
 Independence ! " And where are the British feudal land- 
 lords now, who got the land in trust for the people? 
 They are levying a tax on the people. They call it 
 "rent," and give no account of their stewardship. Where 
 is the head trustee — the Sovereign ? 
 
 Hush ! Holy William " the Conqueror " of Saxon 
 England, with your great Domesday Book. Hush ! 
 also all ye little Williams of the same "holy " order who 
 innocently glory in the shame of Ids Norman blood ! — 
 the blood of an unchaste Celtic woman, the undoubted 
 mother of that same notorious Holy William ; and 
 heaven itself knows who his real father was ! He was 
 a born usurper, who manifested no sign of princely blood 
 in his veins. True monarchs are seldom, or never, 
 notorious for their despotism ; they do not require to 
 uphold their dignity by excessive pageantry ; but 
 
Biographical Notes. 321 
 
 upstarts like the bastard son of this skinner's daughter 
 always indulge in vain pomp, and they invariably show 
 the cloven hoof of tyranny, which is one of the meanest 
 of plebeian vices. Tyranny is a developed form of the 
 worst kind of envy, and envy is generally the offspring 
 of abject poverty and servility, and always implies an 
 admission of conscious inferiority on the part of those 
 victims who exercise it. Hence we must conclude that 
 some wretched monk must have been the real father of 
 "The Conqueror" — probably a Norman. It is enough 
 degradation for the Celt to act as standard bearer on the 
 one side. 
 
 That grandfather skinner, or tanner, was a Celt, we 
 have only the testimony of certain, not always very 
 reliable, Norman chroniclers, who tell us that their 
 ancestors, the " Normans, were all men of the sword," 
 and they draw the line very sharply at leather ! They 
 keep a firm thumb on the process of tanning ! The 
 parchments on which these " ancestors " got their first 
 grants to the land. Novel Fee, have nevertheless no 
 other authority or warrant than the audacious and pious 
 fraud of the bastard son of that skinner's daughter. 
 
 The system of skinning introduced by Holy William 
 into the British Isles was ingenious and novel. He 
 skinned the English people alive as well as dead, and he 
 carried the art to great perfection ; but it was left to a 
 more refined age to skin human beings before their 
 birth, as was actually done by the Holy Willies in power 
 in this country during the latter half of last century and 
 the beginning of this one. Is not the birthright of every 
 Briton, a share of the " National Debt ? " But what has 
 become of every. Briton's corresponding birthright share 
 in the Country — in the Land? the protection of which 
 
322 Biographical Notes. 
 
 from invasion formed the main pretext of incurring this 
 debt, and of allocating it indiscriminately on the shoulders 
 of a defrauded population. 
 
 It is a huge fraud, and the most impudent, the most 
 criminal, as well as the most extensive, ever committed 
 since the creation. Think of it for a moment. The 
 landlords abolished military tenure, and substituted 
 money payments for military services. Then they 
 pocketed this money for their own private use, and 
 raised other money by taxes on the landless people, and 
 by loans, to pay for military expenses. The most of the 
 military money, by the way, was paid to themselves, their 
 sons, and sons-in-law, in the shape of military pay and 
 pensions. No wonder Lord Byron exclaimed : " War 
 was rent ! " Yes ! they not only raised the price of the 
 fruits of the earth, and thereby raised rents, which they, 
 by a show of law, pocketed, but they also pocketed the 
 bulk of the war taxes and war loans, and, on this account, 
 they schemed and carried on war as a most profitable 
 business : — 
 
 " Farmers of War ! dictators of the farm ; 
 Their ploughshare was the sword in hireling hands, 
 Their fields manured by gore of other lands." 
 
 Surely the united common-sense of England, Scot- 
 land, brave little Wales, and Ireland, will bring about a 
 day of reckoning ! Surely that day is not far off when 
 the Domesday Book will be looked into, and the titles 
 to all the land in these Isles will be examined. The 
 Lords of the soil, let us repeat with emphasis, abolished 
 the only title, the only tenure, the only alleged right they 
 had to the soil — they abolished military tenure. They 
 did so in England in 1672, and in Scotland in 1747; 
 
Biographical Notes. 323 
 
 and they have had no tenure of any kind ever since, 
 barring the self-established tenure of Freebooting, which " 
 they term Fee-Simple ! The word "Fee" means an estate 
 in land held of the sovereign as trustee for the people, 
 or held of some royal sub-trustee, also for the people^ 
 and for which the holder, in the words of Camden, has 
 to do service or pay rent. The word " Simple " means 
 silly, and qualifies people — the people who are simple 
 enough not to call the landholders to account. 
 
 " How preposterous," says Professor Ogilvie, " is 
 the system of that country which maintains a civil 
 and military establishment by taxes of large amount 
 without the assistance of any land-tax at all ! In 
 that example may be perceived the true spirit of 
 legislation as exercised by landholders alone " 
 {Essay, p. 16). See also p. 33, where he says : 
 "that their large incomes [from land rents] are in- 
 deed pensions and salaries of sinecure offices!" 
 He was an eye-witness to the robbery which was per- 
 petrated in Scotland in 1747, when military tenure was 
 abolished, and the land, with all its rents and royalties, 
 finally taken from the people by the darling Whigs, 
 the Tories agreeing, the Courts of Law agreeing ; and, 
 let us note, that the "Protestant" Clergy have not to 
 this day made a.ny protest against that robbery. 
 
 In tracing the facts which enable us to see that the 
 author of Birthright in Land was a thoroughly practical 
 man, let us examine the innermost circle of his surround- 
 ings. We have already seen that he was a born land- 
 lord : that he inherited the lands of Pittensear near Elgin, 
 as his father's only son. Both his parents died early, 
 and about the year 1757, when he attained majority, he 
 began to manage the family estate on his own behalf; 
 
324 Biographical Notes. 
 
 and also on behalf of the rest of the family, namely, four 
 sisters, whose birthright, by the way, although they were 
 only females, was secured by the will of a benevolent 
 father — a transgression of Law and Order I which the 
 male heir did not seek to dispute. 
 
 His father, and also his grandfather, did not belong 
 to the 2<//^ landlord, good-for-nothing ^g^^rj/; they were 
 intelligent farmers, and keen improvers of land, who 
 cultivated one-third of the property as a manor farm, the 
 remaining third being let to tenants ; and he continued 
 in the footsteps of his sires as Laird of Pittensear up to 
 the year 1772. He then sold the property to the Earl 
 of Fife, but reserved to himself for life a lease of the 
 mansion house and manor farm, which he retained " to 
 the last parting pang". He never was married, and 
 Pittensear was retained as a home for his unmarried 
 sisters as long as they lived, and as a summer retreat for 
 himself. We gather that he had early experience as a 
 landlord, as a gentleman farmer, and subsequently, from 
 1772 to 1 8 19, as a tenant farmer, paying rent to the Earl 
 of Fife. 
 
 His first declaration as a Land Leaguer, it will be 
 remembered, was made on 12th September, 1776, and, 
 that being so, certain readers will doubtless be apt to 
 give him the benefit of exercising some worldly wisdom 
 in ceasing, to be a landholder, by selling out, before be- 
 coming an " agitator " for the equal right to a share in 
 one's native land. That's what an ordinary man would 
 have done. But how many ordinary men should we 
 require to roll together into one human lump to pro- 
 duce another William Ogilvie? We see the risk of 
 founding hasty conclusions by weighing him as a mere 
 commercial landholder, "who," to use his own words, "is 
 
Biographical Notes. 325 
 
 of all citizens the most pernicious ". We are, however, 
 saved from any such hasty conclusions. 
 
 He was a bachelor, but he nevertheless approved of a 
 bachelor tax. He was a University professor, but he 
 nevertheless advocated the abolition of the despotic 
 powers exercised by Universities. He was, as far as 
 we are able to gather, a born and bred Tory, but he 
 nevertheless preferred the rule of the people, not only of 
 States, but of all institutions and orders whether reli- 
 gious, political, or educational. He was a born and bred 
 landlord, and he also held property in land as a purchaser 
 who paid down a price, and as an improver who paid 
 and laboured for an improved value, but he nevertheless 
 vindicated the agrarian law of Moses and David — The 
 Land for the People. He saw the justice as well as the 
 expediency of The Single Tax. He agreed with John 
 Locke in regard to the supreme claim of Labour as man's 
 title to property in land. But he went further. He 
 pointed out that the claim of Labour is bounded by the 
 precise value of the improvement effected, namely, the 
 value created by Labour, and that this created value can 
 never preclude the birthright claim of any person to an 
 equal share in the original or " prairie" value of the soil, 
 and also in the " contingent," or, what he calls the " im- 
 provable value of the soil" (Sections 12, 13, and 14 of 
 Essay). He restored the doctrine to its original Mosaic 
 basis. 
 
 What an exposure he has made of the various insti- 
 tutions and orders whose chief aim is to conceal the 
 truth and to perpetuate injustice, namely, Universities, 
 Colleges, Courts of Law, Religious Sects, Political Sects, 
 and the whole fraudulent fraternity of, human parasites 
 which hang about the courts of kings, lords, and other 
 
326 Biographical Notes. 
 
 rulers — The Powers that be ! — the veritable Powers of 
 Darkness I which, with all deference to St. Paul's Com- 
 mentators, are not " of God ". 
 
 The Duke of Argyle and Mr. A.J. Balfour admit the 
 monstrous injustice of robbing innocent babes, and of 
 oppressing the fathers and mothers of birthrightless 
 children, but they piously put the blame upon the 
 Almighty for instituting landlordism and for preordain- 
 ing themselves as the mere instruments of His wrath and 
 curse against mankind. To this orthodox creed 990 out 
 every looo clergymen of all denominations subscribe. 
 Universities and Colleges supply the necessary logic by 
 which the orthodox clergy prove three things : 1st, God 
 is good ; 2nd, the Duke of Argyle, Mr. A. J. Balfour, 
 and all such landlords are also good, because they have 
 been appointed by God, who is the fountain of Law and 
 Order I and 3rd, the people who are robbed of their 
 birthright, and who are oppressed by rack-rents and 
 evictions, and crowded into cities, are very bad and very 
 wicked ; they are born sinners. By the sin of one 
 woman, Eve, the whole human race fell, we are told. 
 Orthodox logic does not go further. But it implies that 
 all preordained oppressors, who wallow in luxury, and 
 for whom others toil and spin, are not children of Eve. 
 Hereditary dukes, lords, and other monopolists come 
 into this world with all the blessings of creation, and 
 seemingly exempt from the prescribed curses of " original 
 sin ". They are not human ; they must belong to an- 
 other species, traditionally known in orthodox circles 
 as the natural enemies of the human race ! Such is the 
 logical conclusion of orthodox logic ! 
 
 Thus reasoned a young Highland boy who was born 
 and dwelt in the neighbourhood of Inverary Castle. 
 
Biographical Notes. 327 
 
 He asked of his mother "the name of the other 
 woman who gave birth to the immaculate and un- 
 cursed family of the Lord of the Manor,'' as it 
 would be high treason in a peasant boy to suppose 
 that a ducal or landlord family could possibly be of 
 common human descent, not to speak of the puzzle 
 how the landed gentry could otherwise escape the curse 
 put upon all the children of Eve. " What was the other 
 woman's name?" repeated the boy.^ The perplexed 
 mother replied : " Whisht" and the boy thought for a 
 while. "And it was the Devil that tempted Eve to 
 eat the forbidden fruit," continued the boy. "Yes, my 
 dear," replied the much relieved mother, on finding that 
 her child was coming back to things which she could 
 easily explain. 
 
 "But," says the boy, "if the Devil is a Land 
 Leaguer, as the minister said last Sunday, why does 
 he not tempt that other woman, Whisht, also? And 
 then all landlords would be like other men ; and 
 father would get a piece of land to plough and sow, 
 instead of having to go to the fishing, or to Glasgow 
 to work in coal-pits ; and we would be able to keep 
 a cow, or perhaps two, and some sheep, and I myself 
 would keep a dog, and you, mother, would not require 
 to work so hard at washing clothes for the servants 
 of the castle. And the castle might be turned into a 
 great school, and the duke himself might teach some- 
 thing in it, and have many teachers there, instead of 
 
 1 Young children often put very old-fashioned questions, but they are 
 invariably answered in a most untruthful manner. "If common people 
 are made of common dust," asked the same youthful enquirer, " was 
 the Duke made of gold dust ? and is that the reason that money is 
 the root of all evil ? " 
 
328 Biographical Notes. 
 
 flunkies and other servants who, like the duke himself, 
 do no good now, excepting the gardener, and he might 
 be retained as a teacher of gardening ; and the duchess 
 and her ladies might teach the girl scholars many 
 things ; and all might be under the School Board. 
 And no school rates or fees would be required from 
 the people, as the rents would be more than sufficient 
 to meet all expenses ; and prizes and College bursaries 
 to all the best scholars could also be given from the rents." 
 
 The nonplussed mother was now obliged to admit 
 that the Devil was not a Land Leaguer at all. " I 
 was thinking that," replied the youthful logician, "be- 
 cause if he were he never would have done anything 
 to bring about the eviction of Adam and Eve from the 
 Garden of Eden, with the wrath and curse of God 
 upon all their children, and condemned to serve the 
 children of Whisht, as slaves and rent earners." " Surely," 
 he exclaimed, "the Devil himself must have been the 
 husband of Whisht, for he acts towards her children as 
 if they were his own. God could not be guilty of 
 such unfair partiality. What say you to all that, 
 mother ? You see, I am only using the minister's 
 own logic, which he gave us last Sunday." 
 
 It is to be hoped that the days of Dame Whisht 
 are numbered, that Free Inquiry shall lead the way 
 to the Tree of Knowledge, and that the children of 
 Eve will ere long have their rights restored to them. 
 To accelerate the time, we are advised to communicate 
 the hope of salutary changes, "especially if the object to 
 be aimed at, and the means by which it may be obtained, 
 have been again and again stated to the public in a 
 variety of speculative views, and so rendered familiar 
 to the understandings of men " (p. S'j of Essay). 
 
Biographical Notes. 329 
 
 The appalling darkness which exists at home and 
 abroad, and which is being perpetuated by means of 
 " what is called Religion" is the sole cause why the 
 bulk of mankind allow themselves to be disinherited of 
 their equal share of the soil, to which all human beings 
 have an equal right, as they have to the air, to the light 
 and heat of the sun, and to the whole productive powers 
 of Nature. We know how and why Russians and 
 Britons are kept entirely ignorant of the philosophy of 
 Moses and David, of Epicurus and Lucretius. We 
 know why Henry VIII. of England was a very pious 
 man — Defender of the Faith I and we know why the 
 Czar of Russia and the British Sovereign are the 
 acknowledged vicars of Christ, as the Heads of the State 
 Churches of Russia and Britain respectively. We know 
 how and why the horse-mounted nobility of Poland, 
 and their clergy, kept the peasants of that unhappy 
 country in a more ignorant and more miserable state 
 under Christianity than they were while under Paganism ; 
 and we know that Poland came to grief on account of 
 the Priest-ridden condition of the peasantry. Paganism 
 is opposed to Commercial landlordism, because the 
 "four elements," Fire, Air, Eartli, and Water, accord- 
 ing to the Pagan mind, are held too sacred to be 
 considered the property of Tom, Dick, or Harry. 
 
 Under the flag of Christianity, Poland had serfdom, 
 and under the same flag. Commercial landlordism 
 flourishes in Britain and her colonies. In the year 
 1889 the amount of money subscribed and bequeathed 
 in the British Isles towards Foreign Missions was 
 ;^i,30i,306. Of this sum we may safely say that not 
 less than ;if 1,000 ,000 was devoted to the spread of 
 Commercial landlordism ; and of the balance left for 
 
330 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Christianity, it would, it is believed, be difficult to show 
 that ^1000 was expended in promulgating anything 
 like the agrarian doctrines of Moses. The proportion 
 of the tithes appropriated by the State Clergy, and 
 the voluntary offerings to the non-established Clergy, 
 actually utilised for maintaining the doctrine of rack- 
 rents, evictions, and other forms of landlordism in 
 Great Britain and Ireland is equally large ; and the 
 proportion devoted to real Christianity, and to the 
 agrarian principles of Moses, is equally small and 
 shameful. When the church was held captive by the 
 sword, there was some excuse. There is none now. 
 
 But let us return to the selling of Pittensear, in 1772, 
 and the declaration of William Ogilvie's contemplations 
 and schemes of land rights in 1776. His father's Will 
 burdened the family property to the extent of 4500 
 merks in favour of his sisters, and very probably this led 
 to the sale. His wish to make his own Will, expressed 
 in the MS. of 1776 (p. 182 supra), he carried out in 
 July, 1777. It was wholly in favour of his sisters, ex- 
 cepting that it discharged a sum of money he had lent 
 to a cousin, and contained a bequest of some of his books 
 to the Library of King's College, Aberdeen. Having, 
 however, survived all his sisters, he cancelled this Will, 
 but the document itself has been preserved, and we have 
 got from it a clue which has led to the unearthing of the 
 following facts : — 
 
 In the year 1773 our "Agitator" and ex-landlord 
 purchased for £i<,oo the property of Oldfold and Stone- 
 gavel, situated on Deeside, about six miles from Aber- 
 deen. He held it for thirty-five years, and when 
 he sold it, in 1808, the price he received was 
 ^4000. But the difference was not all profit. About 
 
Biographical Notes. 331 
 
 the year 1 798 he borrowed ;^2000 from his old friend, the 
 Duke of Gordon, and of this sum he expended £\g\o 
 in draining, trenching, and blasting, and more than the 
 balance was paid away in connection with the valuation 
 and purchase of tithes. 
 
 In the year 1802 we find him carrying through a 
 Process in the Court of Teinds, by which he saved the 
 property from being plundered by increased tithes on 
 the increased value arising from his improvements. He 
 got the tithes valued according to the old rental. The 
 tithes or teinds were then fixed at ^9 los., of which only 
 ;^i 8s. 8d. reached the Parish Minister, the balance going 
 to the tithe-owner, which happened in this case to be the 
 Crown. He knew how to prevent the tithe-owner, and 
 also the parson, from robbing the labourer of the value 
 of his improvements on the land, and he adopted the 
 proper precaution. The Process he raised, besides fix- 
 ing the value of the tithes, concluded for a sale of the 
 surplus to himself, and decree was obtained accordingly, 
 for the sum of ^68 Ss., being at the rate of nine years' 
 purchase of the amount of surplus or " free teind ". 
 
 We see that " our accomplished recluse " was not a 
 mere theorist who allowed his mind to run after what is 
 called Utopian fancies. The practical knowledge dis- 
 played in the Essay he manifested in a material manner 
 on the barren lands ofOldfold and Stonegavel. "There 
 is," says he (p. 26), "no natural obstacle to prevent the 
 most barren ground from being brought by culture to the 
 same degree of fertility with the kitchen garden of a 
 villa or the suburbs of a great town." And he tells us 
 how to do it. But those readers who are not acquainted 
 with the principles of agriculture, and who also are 
 strangers to the principles of morality and justice, such 
 
33? Biographical Notes. 
 
 as the so-called economists of the J. R. M'Culloch school, 
 cannot be expected to appreciate the author's know- 
 ledge, unless we drag - them to the very ground upon 
 which he carried out his experiments, and there show to 
 them the fruit of his labours, in the shape of an extra- 
 ordinary increase in what we shall call earned, increment. 
 
 The property of Oldfold and Stonegavel changed 
 hands about thirteen years ago, when the trustees of a 
 Widows' Fund in Aberdeen purchased it at ;£'i2,ooo, as 
 an agricultural subject, and merely as an investment, 
 without any mansion-house, or woods, or any value for 
 sport. Prior to 1757 it only yielded a yearly rent of 
 about ;£^I2, being then in its natural state, and let to 
 a sheep farmer. The yearly rent it yields now is about 
 ;^4iO, and the gross annual value produced, let us esti- 
 mate at, say, £1640, when we take landlords (freeholder 
 and feuholder), farmers, labourers, tradesmen, and mer- 
 chants, &c., who all get a share, into account. Its 
 gross annual value, produced from a stock of sheep 
 and the labour of one miserable herdboy, up to the 
 year 1757, would not exceed £},6. 
 
 It will be seen that the rise in the producing value 
 of this property is much greater than the rise which has 
 taken place in its selling price. The rise in the price, let 
 us observe, was a direct benefit to the owners, while the 
 rise in its producing value benefited the whole com- 
 munity ; a fact, by the way, which the advocates of 
 absolute private property in land should note, in regard 
 to their dog-in-the-manger doctrines about waste land, 
 game preserves, and pastures, while there is one idle 
 Briton who is willing to work, and who wants land for 
 cultivation and improvement. 
 
 The facts and figures connected with Oldfold and 
 
Biographical Notes. 333 
 
 Stonegavel erabrace an object lesson, apart from their 
 interest in giving us a glimpse of the author of Birthright 
 in Land, successfully putting in practice the principles 
 laid down in his Essay. 
 
 Should we not ask, in the face of such facts, the 
 reason why this piece of land remained in a state of 
 nature until the beginning of this century? Our fore- 
 fathers had the same willing God, the same heat-giving 
 sun, the dew and the rain descended, the same atmo- 
 sphere was there, and the same elements were always 
 at work, the reproductive powers' of nature for the 
 multiplication of plants and animals for man's use were 
 then on the same friendly terms with man as now. 
 We approach the landlord himself for an explanation 
 of this deadlock, this most sinful neglect of divine 
 powers, carrying starvation and misery to the homes of 
 human-kind instead of the happiness and comfort which 
 .Nature not only intended, but amply provided for all. 
 
 Let us turn to page 23 of the Essay for his answer. 
 He says — " The chief obstacle to rapid improvement of 
 agriculture is plainly that monopoly of land which resides 
 in the proprietors, and which the commercial system of 
 the present age has taught them to exercise with artful 
 strictness almost everywhere ". This is the truth as seen 
 and presented to us by William Ogilvie ; a truth which 
 is apparent to all, if people would only make use of 
 their eyes.* 
 
 That he himself did not accomplish a more rapid im- 
 provement on this property, we are not surprised. We 
 
 * Labour is like a slave, while Landlordism, as master, holds the 
 field, and insists upon a ransom at every turn : Gold ! gold ! gold ! 
 until at last the slave is tied by a chain of gold, which is heavier to bear, 
 and more difficult to break, than the old feudal iron chain. 
 
 23 
 
334 Biographical Notes. 
 
 know of his very serious illness in 1776 ; we know of his 
 then resolution to write the Essay, which occupied his 
 attention up to the year 1781 ; and we know that after 
 he got this sacred task over, he for some years employed 
 his mind with serious assiduity to the reform of Uni- 
 versity education, it being his firm belief — a belief he 
 held in common with his favourite philosopher and poet, 
 Lucretius, that the darkness which covered the land with 
 weeds, bogs, or boulders, "producing scanty food for man 
 and beast, could only be dispelled by the Light of 
 Nature in the inward soul acting on the radiating powers 
 of Reason ; in a word, by Truth, Knowledge, or Science. 
 He clearly saw that error, darkness, and misery are 
 always maintained under the reigning trinity of supersti- 
 tion, servility, and tyranny. The main object of his 
 Essay was to make the light of Truth shine into the souls 
 of the lower orders of mankind, whose passive obedience 
 to injustice and tyranny is entirely due to " the estab- 
 lished rules of \some form of superstition*^ which are in 
 every country accounted permanent and immutable,- as 
 being fixed by the destination of Nature" — of God. The 
 ' cultivators have no clear perception of the inju.stice and 
 oppression which they suffer. They feel, indeed, and 
 they complain, but do not understand, or dare not con- 
 sider steadily, from what cause their grievances take 
 their rise."-f- And there be some tyrants who cannot help 
 believing that they are doing God's work, because they 
 are brought up in a faith which teaches that to rebel 
 against them is the same as to rebel again.st Him. 
 
 * " Humana ante oculos foede cum vita jaceret 
 In terris oppressa gravi sub Religione." 
 
 Lucretius. 
 + Essay p. 7, Note. 
 
Biographical Notes. 335 
 
 Trade unionists and blacklegs war against each other, 
 and both parties are equally ignorant of the real cause 
 why one man has to beg of another " for leave to toil " ! 
 and they blindly tramp the remedy under their feet ! 
 
 Men cry for bread ; in their ignorance, they cry like 
 children ; they jostle each other into the London docks on 
 the one side of the globe, and into the Melbourne har- 
 bour on the other, scrambling for "leave to toil," as if 
 all the land in the world were already fully occupied, and 
 fully cultivated. 
 
 What is the fact? We need not speak of the oceans 
 of prairie land in the continents of Australasia, America, 
 Africa, and even old A^ia : ■ Let us begin at Jerusalem. 
 
 In the British Isles alone, we have 109,375 square 
 miles of land fit for cultivation, of which only 62,500 
 square miles are cultivated, and an aggregate area of 
 46,875 square miles is lying" waste, as such land is justlj- 
 called. This wasted area is larger than the whole of 
 Ireland and the half of Scotland put together. Let us 
 think of this for a moment. And let us also think of 
 the fact, that the so-called cultivated portion of the 
 British Isles is not nearly half cultivated yet, as com- 
 pared to what might be done under a more improved 
 system of cultivation. We see how all improvement is 
 retarded by ignorance. Men being kept systematically 
 ignorant of their right to the soil, must, of necessity, re- 
 main ignorant of the proper manner of improving it, and, 
 even as trained slaves, they dare not exercise the know- 
 ledge they have without the approval of their masters — 
 the landlords. And why should they improve the land- 
 lord's land ? 
 
 Mr. Buckle remarked that Scotland is the most 
 priest-ridden country under the sun, not even excepting 
 
336 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Spain. Here is some proof of it. The area of Scotlahd 
 is about 30,500 square miles, of which only -about 7571 
 square miles are cultivated, being something less than 
 one-fourth of the total area. The Scots, the descendants 
 of the men who held their own against the Romans, and 
 other formidable invaders, are now treated as aliens in 
 their own country ! Three hundred and thirty individuals 
 hold about two-thirds of all the land in Scotland. Seventy 
 individuals hold about the half of it. Twelve indi- 
 viduals hold about a quarter of it. One blessed 
 individual holds 1,326,000 acres in Scotland, and has 
 32,09s acres in England besides. Altogether this 
 heavenly-ordained grandee is permitted to hold 2122 
 square miles of land in this Christian country, from 
 which men are forced to emigrate " in search of their 
 natural rights and most salutary occupation ". The men 
 who thus go, as well as the women left behind, are the 
 victims of sanctified ignorance. Notwithstanding our 
 Christian pretensions, sanctified ignorance is still the 
 established rule in the British Isles. The Universities 
 teach it, the Churches preach it, the Courts of Law 
 "decree" it, and a mercenary military enforce it. 
 Having traced the evil, let us not higgle about the 
 remedy : a clean sweep is necessary. 
 
 These fire-tongued facts only require to be once pro- 
 claimed in every parish in Scotland, and the British 
 Isles generally, in order to bring about a much-needed 
 Revolution. The Powers of darkness, which now reign 
 over the British Isles, are: ist. The clergy; 2nd, The 
 lawyers ; and 3rd, The military. The darkness is so 
 dense that there is little difficulty in finding plenty of 
 men who sell themselves as slaves at one shitting per day 
 to serve in " the rank and file " of the military, binding 
 
Biographical Notes. 337 
 
 themselves to shoot even their fathers and mothers at 
 the mere command of an "epauletted puppy" — a crea- 
 ture whose " military honour " ( ! ) can boast of a mid- 
 night stalk on the Egyptian patriots of Tel-el-kebir, and 
 such-like wolfish and cowardly samples of modern 
 chivalry — the chivalry of civilisation ! 
 
 The history of Scotland, if written with the pen of 
 truth, might be made most instructive to the whole 
 human race. How did Scotland stand in Professor 
 Ogilvie's time ? We have mentioned that he witnessed 
 the sleight of hand — to borrow that view of it from the 
 language of Lord Salisbury — by which military tenure 
 and "clannish tenure" were "slipped" into the present 
 tenure of cofnmercial landlordism, " entirely to the ad- 
 vantage' of the landlords ". Lord Salisbury admits that 
 the people were robbed and swindled in the most im- 
 pudent manner possible. They were robbed of their 
 Liberty and Property. They were indiscriminately 
 robbed. The rank and file who fought for George (!) 
 at Culloden were robbed as well as the so-called rebels 
 of those days. They were probably satisfied with the 
 fraudulent " heavenly mansions " which the State Church 
 then dangled before their eyes. 
 
 The clergy then acted chiefly as gamekeepers and 
 gillies to the Lords of the soil. Man-hunting was the 
 fashionable sport of the day. We are, perhaps, indebted 
 to the Duke of Cumberland for the introduction of 
 amusements of a less brutal kind. He encouraged pony 
 races with soldiers' wives as jockeys, riding astride-ways, 
 in order to vary the monotony of the ordinary sport of 
 shooting and hanging human beings, in which he, and 
 his accomplice,. the Duke of Argyll, indulged in those 
 days. Where was the Law of the land then ? Let us 
 
338 Biographical Notes. 
 
 here note that every man, woman, and child killed by the - 
 Royal A rmy after the battle of Culloden was a clear case 
 of murder. Every tenant was bound by the Law of the 
 land, unt-il 1747, to follow his feudal chief to the field. 
 And the so-called rebels who followed their feudal lords 
 under the banner of Prince Charlie in the '45, did so in 
 accordance with the Law and Order then in force. Had 
 they refused, they would then have been real rebels. Con- 
 sequently, we find that not a single individual of the rank 
 and file of the "rebel" army could be tried in a Court, 
 of Law, hence the necessity of shooting and hanging 
 them without the ceremony of a trial . The Duke of Cum- 
 berland, upon the whole, seeing that he was only a mer- 
 cenary soldier, who took his orders from the Duke of 
 Argyll, the real ruler of Scotland at the time, did his 
 part of the work with as much humanity as could be 
 expected of a professional master " butcher " of human 
 beings. We have this on the authority of the Scottish, 
 and also .of the English Protestant clergy, in the praises 
 and prayers they sent up (!) in favour of his good 
 deeds. 
 
 The indiscriminate plundering, as well as murdering, 
 which went on after Culloden, produced many songs 
 and ballads in favour of " Bonie Prince Charlie". The 
 idea of personal liberty or justice — except through some 
 "■anointed" despot — did not then exist. Buchanan was 
 dead, buried, and slandered into oblivion, and Burns was 
 not yet born. The clergy of the Established Church 
 were used as the legitimate tools of oppression in the 
 hands of the county gentry, and in the hands of the 
 equally-corrupt Masters of trades and merchants in 
 Burghs. But there was, at least, one noble exception, 
 The Rev. John Skinner, who in the last verse of his 
 
Biographical Notes. 339 
 
 " Song of songs " — Tullochgorum, cursed the fig-tree 
 Christians of his time in the following manner : — 
 
 " But for the sullen, frumpish fool, 
 That loves to be Oppression's tool. 
 May envy gnaw his rotten soul, 
 
 And discontent devour him ; 
 May dool and sorrow be his chance, 
 Dool and- sorrow, dool and sorrow, 
 Dool and sorrow be his chance. 
 And nane say, ' Wae's me for him ! ' " 
 
 The clergy after the '45 did their utmost to ex- 
 tinguish the soul of freedom in Scotland, while they 
 themselves, especially the State clergy, held a high old 
 time of it, domineering over the people and wallowing 
 in whisky punch. If aiiyone mentioned injustice, op- 
 pression, or tyranny, he was instantly gagged. The 
 opening lines of Tullochgorum, written with unusual 
 sarcasm, contain a true picture of clerical life and 
 doings in those days : — 
 
 " Come gie's a sang, Montgomery cri'd. 
 And lay your disputes all nside : 
 What signifies 't for folks to chide 
 
 For what was done before them ! 
 Let Whig and Tory all agree," &c. 
 
 Military tenure, we have seen, was abolished in 1747. 
 As a- youth Ogilvie witnessed that juncture — that favour- 
 able opportunity — whereby the Scots might have got their 
 natural rights restored " had they been themselves aware 
 of their title to such rights " (Essay, p. 6j). A large 
 portion of Scotland was then " nationalised " : the estates 
 of the rebel chiefs were forfeited to the Crown. But how 
 much of these lands was given to the people ? Not one 
 square inch was given even to the "loyal men" who 
 
340 Biographical Notes. 
 
 fought and conquered the "rebel" army at CuUoden ! 
 No dogs of war were ever treated with more justice — 
 deserving )\xs\\c^ — than these "loyal" simpletons. The 
 simpletons who fought on the other side for " Bonie 
 Prince Charlie," instead of fighting for their mothers, 
 wives, and the birthright of their children, were also 
 treated in accordance with justice. Still, let us not 
 forget that they were groaning under tyranny, and were, 
 therefore, ripe for opening the door even to any invader, 
 not to speak of welcoming a descendant of James I. It 
 was, however, impossible, though men and women could, 
 that heaven would stand a Third Charles ! 
 
 The same Act of Parliament which abolished military 
 tenure in 1747 abolished also the feudal hereditary 
 jurisdiction of all the landlords in Scotland. Until 
 then we must not forget that the landlords had the 
 power to hang, drown, or dungeon the people as they 
 liked, just as they now have the power to shoot grouse, 
 deer, and other wild animals ; but with this difference, 
 that there was no close^ time — they could hang people 
 all the year round ! It was a great privilege, and one 
 upon which the majority of the landlords put some 
 value ; and, of course, they lodged a claim for compen- 
 sation ! ! The matter was decided in the Court of Session 
 in the year 1748. .They claimed the sum of .^1,587,090 
 sterling, and that Court allowed ;^i 52,037 12s. 2d. as a 
 redemption price of the sole right and privilege of that 
 form of Scottish landlord sport in all time to come. 
 
 The following is an Abstract of the particular "SINE- 
 CURE OFFICES " * that were in this manner bought up : — 
 
 * See p. 33 of Kssay. Besides judicial oiifices, the landlords were 
 also bound to act as army officers at all times when required. They 
 still draw the " salaries of sinecure offices " 1 
 
Biographical Notes. 
 
 1 Office of Justice-general, . 
 
 2 Sheriffships for life, . 
 
 4 Redeemable Sheriffships, . 
 14 Sheriffships not redeem- 
 able, . . .£^6,t,62 I 
 
 2 Stewartries, parts of 
 
 Shires, . . . 12,147 o 
 2 Deputy Sheriffships, parts of Cromartie 
 
 5 Stewartries, parts of Shires, 
 4 Constabularies, . 
 
 46 Regalities, . 
 
 28 Baillieries of Regality, 
 
 6 Royal Baillieries, 
 10 Clerkships for life, 
 
 124. Offices in all, . 
 
 .;^ 15,000 
 
 3000 
 
 . 10,666 
 
 58,709 
 
 o) 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 13 
 
 341 
 
 o 
 o 
 4 
 
 ie, 88 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 • 4978 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 3500 
 
 
 
 
 
 • 29,424 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 . 18,481 
 
 6 
 
 I 
 
 626S 
 
 16 
 
 I 
 
 1920 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^152,037 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 This sum was accordingly voted by a Parliament of 
 landlords to his Majesty ( ! ) for discharging the above 
 claims on the 25th day of April, 1748. " To his 
 Majesty" these Parliamentary pickpockets said, instead 
 of to themselves. " His Majesty" never saw one copper 
 of that money. Why say to his Majesty then ? It was 
 an open swindle ; the money voted was public money, 
 and, in order to sanctify the swindle, it was necessary to 
 mix it up with the " Lord's anointed " ! After that, any 
 person who raised an objection would be treated as a 
 heretic. The impudence of the swindle is truly unfathom- 
 able. Let us not forget that the persons who at this 
 time relieved themselves of all military and judicial duties 
 retained not only their titles of dukes and lords, but they 
 also retained all the emoluments of their demitted offices. 
 But, they retained a great deal more than that — namely, 
 
342 Biographical Notes. 
 
 the rents of all the lands within their former military 
 and jurisdiction dominions. In short, the lands they up 
 to this time (1747) held as officers or officials under the 
 Crown they now seized as private property. 
 
 The following samples of claims, with the amounts 
 allowed, illustrate the salying that " truth is stranger than 
 fiction " :— 
 
 The Duke of Gordon, Cosmo George Gordon — ' 
 
 Sheriff of the Shire of Aberdeen, . . ;£'3000 o 
 
 „ „ Inverness, 
 
 Lord of Regality and Justiciar of Huntly, 
 Lord of the Regality of Urquhart, . 
 Baillie of the Regality of Spyne, . 
 
 „ Keig and Monymusk, 
 
 „ Kinloss, .... 
 
 „ the bishop of Aberdeen's lands 
 
 in Aberdeen and Banff shires, 
 Constable of the Castle of Inverness, 
 
 £22,300 6 
 Reduced by the Court to £'^,2'i2 19s. 6d. 
 
 This claim, it will be seen, was not overestimated. 
 The amount allowed was equal to more than a double 
 share of the spoil, on a comparison of the ^t^W claimed 
 (.£'1,587,090) and the amount (;£'i52,037) allowed. 
 
 The Duke of Argyll, Archibald Campbell — . 
 
 Sheriff of the Shire of Argyll, . . . ;£5ooo o 
 
 Justice-general of the Shire of Argyll and 
 of the whole islands of Scotland, ex- 
 cepting Orkney, Zetland, and Arran, 15,000 o Q 
 
 2000 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 10,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 1000 
 
 
 
 
 
 2000 
 
 
 
 
 
 500 
 
 
 
 
 
 1500 
 
 
 
 
 
 2000 
 
 
 
 
 
 300 
 
 
 
 ,0 
 
Biographical Notes. 343 
 
 Lord of the Regality of Campbell, Baillie 
 of the Bailliery of Tiree, Baillie and 
 Steward of the Earldom and Lord- 
 ship of Argyll, and Constable and 
 Keeper of the Castles of Dunoon, &c., 5000 o o 
 
 ;£'2S,000 o o 
 
 Reduced by the Court to ;£'2 1,000. 
 
 The Duke of Argyll's claim discloses the com- 
 paratively high value put on the game pursued by his 
 Grace in those days ; but, nevertheless, his Grace's 
 estimate was evidently considered too moderate by the 
 impartial ( ! ) Court of Session, which allowed more than 
 eight times the due proportionate share of the spoil. 
 
 N.B.—'Y\\& very high value judicially put upon the 
 game in Argyllshire, and in the islands over which the 
 Duke of Argyll had the exclusive right of shooting and 
 hanging prior to the '45, is to be noted as compared 
 with the Duke of Gordon's preserves. The Duke of 
 Argyll's Factor was also the Lord President of the 
 Court of Session. This explains the milk in the 
 (Argyll) cocoa-nut, and The Reign of Law of those 
 Christian times ! 
 
 Aberdeenshire contains 1955 sq. miles, with 267,990 pop. 
 
 in 1881. 
 Inverness-shire contains 4256 sq. miles, with 91,000 pop. 
 
 in 1881. 
 And Argyllshire contains 3210 sq. miles, with 62,000 pop. 
 
 in 1881. 
 
 These figures should also be compared with the 
 figures given further on (p. 359) referring to allotments 
 
344 Biographical Notes. 
 
 and small holdings. There is some Christian knowledge 
 in such facts and figures ^ovih propagating ! 
 
 Let the reader imagine that all the excisemen in the 
 British Isles somehow got all political power into their 
 own hands, that they then demitted their offices and put 
 in a claim for compensation for giving up the pleasure 
 connected with smuggler-hunting, including occasional 
 bribes for letting people off. (The landlords took fines, 
 which is only another word for bribes}/ These retired 
 excisemen then vote public money to pay this 
 "compensation," a puppet King gives the necessary 
 assent, the Bishops in the House of Lords say Amen ! 
 and all curates and .clergy throughout the country 
 echo A men ! 
 
 Then these excise lords, let us say, keep all the excise 
 duties to themselves ; they manage all the distilleries 
 and breweries as their own private property ; they raise 
 the excise duties to any rate they like : being proprietors 
 by law established, who can interfere with them "to do 
 as they like with their own " ? They " impose " duties on 
 other things ; they tax everything under the Sun ex- 
 cept distilleries and breweries ; they tax the Sun itself 
 for several years (the window tax) ; and they make" the 
 people pay the salaries of the new excisemen, who, by 
 the way, are kept as mere flunkies to these idle lords. 
 This imaginary swindle is only like a (drop in the bucket 
 as compared with the appropriation by the landlords 
 of all the land — all the productive powers of Nature, 
 necessary for the sustenance and enjoyment of the 
 community — Community I Verily the bigger swindle 
 has actually been perpetrated, and we still assert that 
 the age of miracles and witchcraft has gone by. What 
 meaning has the word "community." now? 
 
Biographical Notes. 345 
 
 " Ye men of wit and wealth, why all this sneering 
 'Gainst poor excisemen ? Give the cause a hearing : 
 What are your landlords' rent-rolls ? — taxing ledgers ! 
 'What premiers ? — what ev'n monarchs ? — mighty gaugers ! 
 Nay, what are priests ? — those seeming godly wise men — 
 What are they, pray, but spiritual excisemen!" 
 
 Burns. 
 
 Professor Ogilvie with a " gentle hand " also exposed 
 these ''excisemen" {Essay, sec. 38), but he was coerced 
 to conceal himself like a smuggler in a cave. We are 
 indebted to the Seven Wise Masters for being instru- 
 mental in bringing him out in 1786, and as a token of 
 gratitude for that service, their portraits, from a sketch 
 made by a local artist at the time, are given in this 
 volume. The original plate (engraved by the well- 
 known John Kay of Edinburgh) has the following ex- 
 planations at the foot — the words in italics being now 
 supplied as an additional key to the picture : — 
 
 1. The Beauty of Holiness Lecturing: The Rev. Skene 
 
 Ogilvie, D.D., minister of the First charge, Old 
 Aberdeen. 
 
 2. Had you not - sold your Patronages, First minister 
 
 might have been annexed to my Divine Chair of 
 Verity and Taste : A. Gerard, Professor of 
 Divinity. 
 
 3. Annually for forty-five years and upwards I have beat 
 
 up, even to the Ultima Thule have I recruited our 
 University : Rodk. Macleod. Regent. 
 
 4. I have rendered Vernacular the Greek Language 
 
 from Aberdour to Aberdeen : John Leslie, Pro- 
 fessor of Greek, Tutor to Lord Aberdour. 
 
 5. Agriculture is the noblest of Sciences, Mind your 
 
 Glebes, the Emperor of China is a Farmer : Jo. 
 Chalmers, Principal. 
 
346 Biographical Notes. 
 
 6. Has not the Effulgence of my Countenance been a 
 
 Light unto your Feet and a lamp unto your Path : 
 TAos. Gordon, Regent. 
 
 7. College Property, Patronages are unalienable, so 
 
 says the Law, the Noble Patron has rewarded 
 most justly your Rapacity : Wm. Thorn, Civilist. 
 
 8. Degrees Male and Female, in Medicine and Mid- 
 
 wifery, sold here for Ready Money : Wm. 
 Chalmers, Mediciner. 
 
 The rough outline of Professor Ogilvie's brow does 
 not belong to the original plate. It is frdm a scrap 
 found with his miniature. It is now added as a sort of 
 key to the portrait as regards the formation of the fore- 
 head, to which the wig, unless closely scanned, gives the 
 false impression of a receding forehead. 
 
 The controversy between Professor Ogilvie and his 
 obstructive colleagues in connection with University 
 reform, was cajried on with much vigour and sartguine 
 hope of success, until the Pitt-Dundas administration 
 gave its word of command — -as you zuere. The Reform- 
 ing Party, it may be noted, acted all along with remark- 
 able magnanimity ; and, as occasion offered, indulged in 
 some sparks of humour. Professor Ogilvie, along with 
 Professor Stuart of Marischal College, was the joint- 
 author of some of the spiciest contributions. A rhyming 
 lawyer, Jo. Marschal, who appreciated the situation, ad- 
 vocated the cause in the following lines : — 
 
 " To THE Members of Marischal College. 
 
 " Since Solomon told.us, ■as sure as a gun, 
 That nothing at all is new under the sun. 
 We're bound to believe that all new things are evil, 
 
 And come from that Prince of the Air called the D 1. 
 
 From that subtle spirit, without any question, 
 
Biographical Notes. 347 
 
 Springs every new notion, and each new suggestion. 
 What else could inspire you Reformers to aim 
 
 At an Union of Colleges here O for shame ! 
 
 Retract, and avoid all the dismal disasters 
 Foreseen and foretold by 
 
 " The Seven Wise Masters ! " 
 
 The genial author of Tullochgorum, the Rev. John 
 Skinner, adapting the old Rhymer prophecy of " Dee 
 and Don shall run in one," wrote some lines in favour of 
 the Union, concluding as follows : — 
 
 " In honour then of Scotland's bard. 
 
 Let King and Earl agree. 
 And Bishop Don submit, though hard, ' 
 
 To join with Marishal Dee. 
 So shall the old prophetic dream 
 
 Explain its mystic course. 
 And learning's long-divided stream 
 
 Shall run with double force." 
 
 By-the-way, the Rev. John Skinner was a sturdy Land 
 Leaguer in his day, who used his pen in prose as well as 
 in verse in favour of the people's cause. And it is not 
 improbable that he and Professor Ogilvie compared notes 
 on the Land Question as well as other things. But like 
 the Tvua Dogs, this must be left to the reader's own con- 
 jecture, for want of direct evidence. It is, however, 
 worth noting that these three Land Leaguers, Tulloch- 
 gorum, Luath, and Ogilvie, alias Ccesar, were all closely 
 connected, and associated, under the genial patronage of 
 one man, namely, Alexander, fourth Duke of Gordon. 
 It is also worth noting, as a special feather in Professor 
 Ogilvie's cap as his tutor, that this nobleman was a 
 model landlord, whose example and influence in the 
 North of Scotland in those dark days cannot be over- 
 estimated. Notwithstanding this, the memory of Duke 
 
348 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Alexander, " The Cock of the North" and the author 
 of the most popular version of the song " The Reel 
 of Bogiel' has been buried in oblivion almost as com- 
 pletely as the memory of his accomplished tutor. 
 
 Thanks, however, to Burns for his picture of Bonie 
 Castle Gordon. We there get a view of the "princely" 
 manner in which Professor Ogilvie's pupil performed his 
 duty and office of landholder. He was not a sinecurist, 
 neither did he belong to the commercial or '■^guinea's 
 stamp" tribe of landlord. Burns visited Gordon Castle 
 on September 7, 1787, and made the following 7iote in 
 his Diary : " Fine palace, worthy of the noble, the polite, 
 the generous proprietor : The Duke makes me happier 
 than ever great man did — noble, princely ; yet njild, 
 condescending and affable, gay,- and kind — the Duchess 
 charming, witty, and sensible — God bless them ! " These 
 everlasting words have embalmed the memory of one of 
 "the worthy and humane English landholders," who re- 
 sided in the so-called " Northern Counties of England" 
 to whom Professor Ogilvie dedicated his Essay. , 
 
 Burns, let us observe, draws a comparison between 
 the management of India's plains, under The Company, 
 and of the Bonie Castle Gordon domains, under the pupil 
 of Professor Ogilvie. He says : — 
 
 " There commix'd with foulest stains 
 
 From tyranny's empurpled bands : ' 
 These, their richly gleaming waves, 
 
 I leave to tyrants and their slaves ; 
 Give me the stream that sweetly laves 
 
 The banks by CastleGordon." 
 
 The reader already knows that Professor Ogilvie 
 
 * The judges, and the whole banditti machinery by which The 
 Company robbed the natives of India. 
 
Biographical Notes. 349 
 
 took a keen interest in Indian land-law reform. Did he 
 meet Burns at Bonie Castle Gordon, and did they twa 
 then discuss about Indian landlordism ? If they did 
 not, it then becomes even more interesting to trace the 
 strong affinity which existed between the contemporary 
 souls of these two remarkable men. But regarding 
 probabilities, it is right to add that one of Professor 
 Ogilvie's sisters was married to William Tod, the Duke's 
 Factor at Bonie Castle Gordon, and that tfee Professor 
 was a frequent visitor there. Dr. Currie might have 
 assisted us here, but we know why in those days he had 
 to hide the date of 
 
 " Scots ! wha hae wi' Wallace bled "- 
 
 Perhaps for a similar reason he kept his thumb on 
 the name of that anonymous " gentleman " he describes 
 as "a particular acquaintance of the Duke," who delivered 
 the Duke's invitation to the Poet's fellow-traveller " in all 
 the forms of politeness," in order to prolong the Poet's 
 visit at Bonie Castle Gordon. Who was that gentle- 
 man? The reader will find some conjectures as to 
 Luath, and a probable human Ccesar, in Section xiv. 
 of the Appendix. In the case of hidden facts — pur- 
 posely and systematically hidden — the inquiring mind 
 naturally, and by the law of necessity, takes refuge in 
 its own conjecture. 
 
 Having referred to the Duke of Gordon as a land- 
 holder who acted on the principles enunciated by his 
 tutor {Essay, p. 8), "that the situation of a proprietor is 
 more allied to that of a prince than that of a merchant," 
 it is a most pleasing retrospect of those dark days to find 
 in the so-called ''Northern Counties of England" several 
 other " princely " landholders besides the Professor's own 
 special pupil. Indeed, the majority of the readers of 
 
 24 
 
35o Biographical Notes. 
 
 these Notes will be surprised to know that almost the 
 whole of the nobility of the North of Scotland rowed in 
 the same boat with Professor Ogilvie in connection with 
 his scheme for the reform of University Education — a 
 scheme for dispelling the appalling ignorance which then 
 tyrannised over the minds of the people, and which, let 
 us admit with shame, still holds the minds of men and 
 women captive, with their bodies also held captive, and, 
 like beings entirely void of reason, huddled up here, 
 scattered abroad there, singing and praying in one place, 
 murdering and soldiering in another, working to death 
 inside certain workshops, starving outside in millions /or 
 want of work, on account of being excluded by walls 
 from the great Workshop of Nature ; all owing to the 
 magic spell of Ignorance. And this Magic is called 
 God's Providence ! The Universities still maintain it as 
 a " divine " doctrine, and they grant licences for the 
 teaching of it, notwithstanding the fact that Providence 
 never built any wall or barrier to labour. Ignorant 
 human slaves have built all the walls in this world. 
 
 It is the same to-day as in the days of ancient Egypt, 
 when Moses found his kinsmen busy making bricks and 
 building the walls of " treasure-cities for Pharaoh " ! 
 The landlords' enclosure-walls are built for them by 
 slaves who exclude themselves. The monopolising 
 manufacturers and traders get their Protection Walls 
 made for them by Y)'a\\ot-brickmakers , who thus build 
 treasure-cities for Pharaoh ! The bulk of mankind are 
 shut-out, rented, and "protected" (!) by Walls of their 
 own making^all through ignorance, positive ignorance ; 
 not mere natural ignorance, but the ignorance taught by 
 the Magicians or ecclesiastics of all times, climes, and 
 countries. 
 
Biographical Notes. 3 S i 
 
 Professor Ogilvie, we have seen, tried hard to 
 prevent Universities being utilised for the promulgation 
 of positive ignorance and that form of superstition which 
 fosters the doctrine of commercial landlordism as part 
 and parcel of the "Christian" Faith. Alas ! this Faith, so 
 doctored, is still forced upon mankind. We are now 
 accustomed to the land merchant in the same way as our 
 ancestors were accustomed to the slave merchant. The 
 present proposals to redeem the land and compensate 
 the owners are on all-fours with the slave question 
 proposals of the past. Some "owners" are now selling 
 out, and some slaves are buying in. The latter should 
 study the SINGLE Tax question in connection with the 
 following nigger anecdote : — 
 
 A few years before the abolition of slavery in the 
 United States, a certain negro made his way to one of 
 the Free States, where he enjoyed his freedom for several 
 years. Like any other human being, he, after a while, 
 felt inclined to visit "' the old folks at home," and he wrote 
 to his owner offering to return if ntassa would promise 
 not to flog him for running away. The owner agreed, 
 and Sambo returned to slavery as before. But having 
 some money, which he earned during his exile, and being 
 desirous to have a little freedom, he purchased the half 
 of himself from his owner, and thus had to work for only 
 three days in the week ; the other three being his own, 
 he could either work for wages or play himself. This 
 peculiar arrangement continued for awhile until one fine 
 morning, to the amazement of several advocates of 
 negro Freedom, he resold his free half to his master, and 
 lodged the price in bank along with more funds, he being 
 quite able to buy his full freedom if he liked. " Ah 1 
 these niggers ; what's the use of throwing pearls before 
 
352 Biographical Notes. 
 
 such swine ? " But some keen Northener must call upon 
 this slave and lecture him upon the real value of free- 
 dom ; and this was done. After the lecture the still 
 impenitent nigger grinned and giggled, to the utter 
 disgust of his lecturing friend ; and then, shrugging his 
 shoulders, he quietly said : " Me know very well dat 
 
 nigger property is d d bad property, and dats dee 
 
 resin me sell out ! " 
 
 It is somewhat difficult to present a true picture of 
 the period with which Professor Ogilvie had to deal. 
 Among his ardent supporters for University reform we 
 find the following, viz. : The Duke of Gordon, the Earl 
 of Buchan, the Earl of Kintore, the Earl of Aboyne, the 
 Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Adam Gordon, Lord Garden- 
 stone, Sir Alexander Ramsay, Sir David Carnegie, Mr. 
 Baillie of Dochfour, with the Earl of Findlater and 
 Seafield, Chancellor of King's College, and the Earl of 
 Bute, Chancellor of Marischal College, as pioneers. These 
 men were all in favour of spreading the Light of Nature 
 and propagating the Powers of Reason; a fact which 
 makes the darkness of those days more visible to us. 
 The clergy and the commercial landlords raised the 
 double cry of — THE CHURCH and THE STATE in 
 danger. There was no thought of the People's rights, 
 but, nevertheless, like yelping curs — like the Birmingham 
 mob that sought Priestley's life — the people took up the 
 cry, and the powers of darkness, as a matter of course, 
 prevailed. 
 
 Here is a wonderful picture of landlordism, is it not? 
 To find all these noblemen pulling together in the same 
 boat with the author of The Right of Property in Land 
 at the helm, is a fact well worthy of a corner in history. 
 But let us look at the storm raised purposely to wreck 
 
Biographical Notes. 353 
 
 this boat. The very heaven frowns, the pastors in every 
 Parish in the North of Scotland, with one or two excep- 
 tions, turn up their eyes towards it, and they warn their 
 flocks that something like the last judgment is approach- 
 ing them. They point to the terrible shapes the clouds 
 assume, with their awe-inspiring colours more variegated 
 and more terrible than a legion of Devils dressed in the 
 wildest of tartans. The Fiery-Cross is sent from Parish 
 to Parish. The church of our fathers, and the source 
 and life of that church — the Universities — are in danger 
 of being swept off the face of the earth. And the House 
 of Argyll and the House of Fife, raised by God to protect 
 the true faith of Christ in Scotland, and to check the 
 Evil Spirits of Knowledge and Reason from playing a 
 second forbidden-fruit havoc with the human race, were 
 also in great danger of being utterly destroyed. The 
 storm prevailed ; the boat was wrecked : no boat could 
 weather such a hurricane. But it was the swinish multi- 
 tude that were drowned ! 
 
 Whatever the modern Professor {e.g., Huxley) may 
 think, we may take it for granted that the Devil has 
 always manifested a strong predilection for live pork ! 
 What happened was this : the People are still in the mire, 
 and the Seven Wise Masters who raised that storm 
 by which the Powers of darkness protected commercial 
 landlordism in Scotland from the dangers which then 
 encompassed it, were rewarded as follows: In 1807 
 these Wise Masters got a gift from Government of 
 £iyoo to pay their debts — called college debts! And 
 in 1808 they were favoured with a provision of a 
 yearly Government Grant of ;^700 for the College, but 
 the whole of which they and their successors ate and 
 drank, or spent in some other way, with £go a year of 
 
354 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Bursary or other College funds besides, up to the year 
 1826 ; when Government made a Visitation, for the first 
 time, in response to Professor Ogilvie's petition for it 
 in 1786!* 
 
 But we must not dwell too long upon spilt milk. 
 How the people have been whiggled by the whig 
 commercial landlords is, however, a problem not to be 
 lost sight of by modern reformers, who should learn to 
 put no trust in the fishy arm of party names. The 
 next swindle may be carried out in the name of 
 Radicalism or may be Socialism ! Let us not forget 
 the things done even in the name of Christ ! 
 
 All the noblemen above mentioned openly gave 
 their names in favour of Professor Ogilvie's scheme 
 of educational reform. They also pulled with him as 
 real land reformers ; and other landlords £ould be 
 mentioned, who were equally keen for education and 
 land reform. These truly noble men were, with Burns 
 and a few other exceptions, the only radicals of those 
 days. They were all men of culture, who had the 
 benefit of able tutors, and possessed genuine learning, 
 which scholars in those days completed and matured 
 by travelling in foreign lands. They were all more 
 or less practical philosophers, and hence the reason 
 they and the clergy did not exactly agree on matters 
 of reform. Here is a fair sample of the conduct of 
 these men towards the cultivators of the soil. It applies 
 to Professor Ogilvie's " most unwearied and generous 
 patron" the Earl of Findlater and Seafield. Francis 
 Douglas, in the year 1786, in his Description of the 
 East Coast of Scotland, gives us the following facts, 
 
 * Appendix, xiii. 
 
■Biographical Notes. 355 
 
 as related to him on the spot by a farmer in the 
 vicinity of Banff: — 
 
 " If," said the farmer to him, " you had known 
 this country fifty years ago, as I did, you would think 
 those fields and houses, which you pass unnoticed, a 
 fine sight. I remember the time, sir, and so does my 
 youngest bairn, when they were all uninclosed ; large 
 bauks (stripes of barren ground) between every two or 
 three ridges ; and when you might have travelled 
 through them, from one stone head to another, without 
 touching the yeird (earth) ; when the farm-houses were 
 ready to tumble, and neither held out wind nor rain ; 
 and when we were well pleased if, over all the farm, we 
 had four times the corn we sowed." 
 
 "At that time your rents must have been very low?" 
 
 " No, sir, they were high ; for we have now sense 
 enough to know that lands in bad order are not worth 
 the culture." 
 
 " So 1 have often heard ; but who among you had 
 the merit of introducing better methods of farming ? " 
 
 "Troth, sir, we did not think ourselves much obliged 
 to him at first ; it was our master ; and we had some 
 suspicion that lairds and lords chiefly minded their own 
 interest. We had been long accustomed to our own 
 methods, and thought our fathers had been as wise as 
 we ; it was not, therefore, an easy matter to persuade us 
 that any others were better, or more proper for our soil. 
 All these prejudices Lord Findlater got the better of ; 
 not by the strong hand, and telling us, by his overseers 
 and factors, that such and such things we must do, but 
 by going himself from farm to farm, advising rather than 
 directing us how to proceed. 
 
 " ' Be diligent,' he would say, 'your time is your stock ; 
 
3S6 Biographical Notes. 
 
 follow rational methods, and you will all get rich ; it is 
 what I wish, and will help you to, if you do not hinder 
 me by your obstinacy. Why should you labour hard 
 for a bare subsistence, while the tenants in other parts 
 of the kingdom get money ? Perhaps in some situations 
 their lands may be better, or they may be nearer a good- 
 market ; only try what yours will do ; I wish not a rent 
 which a man cannot pay and live. I would have you 
 live well ; he that works has a right to eat' " 
 
 " Here the old man stopt short ; and I could observe 
 the tear of gratitude swelling in his eye. He wished me 
 a good journey, and turned off at a cross-road. So 
 sensible are the country people of good usage, and so 
 grateful when treated as rational beings." 
 
 There is ample evidence that those truly noble men 
 who rowed in the same University reform boat along 
 with Professor Ogilvie were the self-same men who gave 
 the first impulse to Agricultural industry in the North- 
 East of Scotland. In the middle and end of last century 
 there was a fierce struggle between Slavery and Freedom 
 in the North of Scotland, and be it said to the everlasting 
 credit of those nobles — not your "guinea's stamp" 
 birkies or coofs, as Burns truthfully describes some of 
 the would-be lords of those days — they nobly, as be- 
 coming their rank and station, came to the rescue of 
 the enslaved and degraded inhabitants. They were the 
 real saviours of Scotland. Oppression and poverty had 
 made the cultivators so indifferent to freedom that they 
 accepted all sorts of compromises. They tamely sub- 
 mitted to many absurd relics of serfdom over and above 
 the new slavery shackles of commercial landlordism, 
 linked witA those sacred contracts called Leases. They 
 abandoned their birthright — their liberty and property 
 
Biographical Notes. 357 
 
 —by the stroke of a pen ! " What ! " our old friend 
 Tullochgorum used to say, " has the boasted freedom 
 of our land really come to this, that the man who 
 cultivates it is to become a slave ; nay, the only slave 
 to be found in our country ? For, transfer a negro to 
 the happy soil of Britain, and the law pronounces him 
 free." 
 
 The peasants of the East of Scotland were then in a 
 most "abject, mean, and vile" condition, and some land- 
 lords were busy evicting them, and inviting strangers to 
 take their places. Let us here quote a few lines from a 
 suppressed address to these evicting landlords which 
 Tullochgorum puts into the mouth of a young man, who, 
 like Burns's father, was forced to bid a last farewell to 
 his native parish : — 
 
 " No need for bringing sage instructors north 
 From Nature's rich domains beyond the Forth 
 To teach thy farmers here, or spur them on 
 To what they find, or should, or can be done ; 
 
 Let but thy own have time — they have the skill — 
 And family regard will spur the will ! " 
 
 Reader, do you see what the object of the game was? 
 The natives, who were the real owners of the soil, had to 
 be removed, had to be dispossessed, and the land was then 
 given to strangers. The new comers, so planted by the 
 landlords' Law and Order, were taken bound to submit 
 to Estate Regulations, which were subversive of the letter 
 and spirit of the Common Law of Scotland. In this 
 position they, together with submissive natives, were 
 actually brought under Egyptian Rule. They were op- 
 pressed and robbed in accordance with the whim or 
 greed of the master who happened to own their rights for 
 
3 $8 Biographical Notes. 
 
 the time, or of the taskmasters appointed by absentee or 
 bankrupt masters. The "tenants" under such masters 
 must not even complain. What right had they to com- 
 plain? If they did, the parish minister was always 
 ready with his text—" The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh 
 away," "Blessed be the name of the Duke of Argyll I" 
 The new comers could not claim any Fixity of tenure in 
 the land, no matter how rigidly they kept the Fifth 
 Commandment I They got the \a.x\d from the landlords ; 
 they had nothing to do with any other LORD as their 
 God in regard to the land ! And the submissive natives 
 neglected their God-given rights in the land. To make 
 the picture of those " holy " times as true as possible, let 
 me add that the Dissenting Clergy did not dissent — they 
 all, as far as can be ascertained, shouted " A men ! " 
 
 We may safely take it for granted that bribes were 
 given to the Dissenters of those times, although not so 
 systematically as the open bribery of to-day in connec- 
 tion with the large and small Dissenting Bodies in Scot- 
 land. 
 
 Landlordism cannot stand in any country unless 
 supported by positive ignorance, and positive ignorance 
 is bred and fed by priestcraft of some order or another. 
 It is not necessary that it should be a State-estadlished 
 order. 
 
 Francis Douglas did not visit the West of Scotland, 
 but the following figures, taken from the ''Return of 
 Allotments and Small Holdings in Great Britain " for 
 1890, will give the reader a vivid description of the dukes 
 and dupes of Argyll : (And meantime let us hide the 
 President of the Society for Propagating Christian Know- 
 ledge in Scotland with a cloak or surplice of some kind 
 having a sleeve large enough to cover his face.) — 
 
Biographical Notes. 359 
 
 Total of Allotments, under i acre in Argyllshire, 294 
 Do., do., in Aberdeenshire, . . 453 
 
 Do., do., in Banffshire, . . 217 
 
 Total of Small Holdings from i acre to 50 acres 
 
 in Argyllshire, 2979 (1301) 
 Do., do., in Aberdeenshire, 7439 (1797) 
 
 Do., do., in Banffshire, 3087 (1006) 
 
 The figures "(1301), (1797), (1006)," represent the 
 number of crofts from i to 5 acres. This Return 
 clearly proves that there is nothing in this world more 
 effective for desolating a country than ducal " Christian 
 Knowledge ! " 'Tis unsurpassable for sheep, deer, 
 grouse, foxes, polecats, and other " wild animals " speci- 
 ally referred to in Buchanan's De Jure Regni, and not 
 omitted in Locke's Civil Government. 
 
 The counties of Aberdeen and Banff — the district of 
 Professor Ogilvie'.s landlord associates — form a distinct 
 small-holding sanctuary on the map of Scotland to this 
 day, and form a marked contrast to the desolation — the 
 "clearances" of small holdings — the '■\green spots" in the 
 midst of sheep and deer ranches in the Highlands of 
 Scotland, the sight of which touched the heart of Lord 
 Napier and Ettrick, and inspired his pen to write such 
 noble and brilliant words of truth in his Report as Presi- 
 dent of the Scottish Crofters'' Commission of i88j, to Her 
 Majesty. It was the words of this Report that broke the 
 flinty heart of Lord Salisbury, and made him speak as 
 he did to the benighted dames of The Edinburgh Prim- 
 rose League. How is it that the Duke of Argyll's heart 
 is so hard to break ? Ah ! You cannot break a bottle in 
 an empty bag ; and th6 heart of a heartless being is 
 equally unbreakable 1 
 
360 Biographical Notes. 
 
 The Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge hzs 
 not yet circulated one single copy of Lord Napier's 
 Report. Let me, therefore, give one or two quotations 
 from it. 
 
 At the very outset His Lordship says : " The his- 
 tory of the economical transformation which a great 
 portion of the Highlands and Islands has, during the 
 past century, undergone, does not repose on the loose 
 and legendary tales that pass from mouth to mouth ; it 
 rests on the solid -basis of contemporary records, and if , 
 these were wanting, it is written in indelible characters 
 on the surface of the soil ! Changes of this nature, going 
 to the very foundation of social and domestic life, are 
 not anywhere accomplished without some constraint, 
 resistance, and distress, and if the instances produced for 
 our information are not specifically and literally true, 
 they are akin to truth. In making these reservations 
 and distinctions in regard to the accuracy of the evidence 
 submitted to our notice, it is right to add that even 
 among the poorest and least educated class who came 
 before us there were many examples of candour, kind- 
 ness, and native intelligence, testifying to the unaltered 
 worth of the Highland people." . . . 
 
 " The crofter of the present time has, through past 
 evictions, been confined within narrow limits, sometimes 
 on inferior and exhausted soil. He is subject to arbit- 
 rary augmentations of money-rent, he is without security 
 of tenure. His habitation is usually of a character 
 which would imply physical and moral degradation in 
 the eyes of those who do not know how much decency, 
 courtesy, virtue, and even mental refinement, survive 
 amidst the sordid suproundings " of a Highland hovel. 
 The crofter belongs to that class of tenants who have 
 
Biographical Notes. 361 
 
 received the smallest share of proprietary favour or bene- 
 faction, and who are by virtue of power, position, or 
 covenants, least protected against inconsiderate treat- 
 ment." ... 
 
 '' The opinion so often expressed before us that the 
 small tenantry of the Highlands have an inherited in- 
 alienable title to security of tenure in their possessions, 
 while rent and service are duly rendered, is an impression 
 indigenous to the country, though it has never been 
 sanctioned by legal recognition, and has long been re- 
 pudiated by the action of the proprietor. Neglected 
 by earlier and succeeding writers, the views of the High- 
 land tenants in respect to permanency of tenure are 
 incidentally noticed by Captain Burt in his well-known 
 Letters from the North of Scotland, written about the 
 year 1730, while the clan system was still in full vigour. 
 His words are memorable, for they stand almost alone." 
 
 Captain Burt gave some examples ; and the one 
 quoted by Lord Napier "is of a minister who had a 
 small farm assigned to him ; and upon his entrance to 
 it, some of the clan, in the dead of night, fired five balls 
 through his hut, which all lodged in his bed ; but he 
 happening to be absent that night, escaped their bar- 
 barity, but was forced to quit the country. Of this he 
 made to me an affecting complaint." 
 
 " This kind of cruelty," says Captain Burt, " I think, 
 arises from their dread of innovations, and the notion 
 they entertain ihat they have a kind of hereditary right 
 to their farms, and that none of them are to be dis- 
 possessed, unless for some great transgression against 
 their chief, in which case every individual would consent 
 to their expulsion " (Burt's Letters, vol. ii. pp. 176-177). 
 
 Lord Napier also quotes from the Earl of Selkirk's 
 
362 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Observations (1805), p. 120, as follows: "They well 
 know of how little avail was a piece of parchment and 
 a lump of wax under the old system of the Highlands; 
 they reproach their landlord with ingratitude, and remind 
 him that but for their fathers he would now have no 
 estate. The permanent possession which they had 
 always retained of their paternal farms they consider 
 only as their just right for the share they had borne in 
 the general defence, and can see no difference between 
 the title of the chief and their own." 
 
 Lord Napier then says : " The clan system no longer 
 exists. The chief has in many cases disappeared, and 
 his property [or rather the clan's property] has been 
 transferred by sale to another name and another race. 
 It is difficult to deny that a MacDonald, a MacLeod, 
 a MacKenzie, a MacKay, or a Cameron, who gave a 
 son to his landlord eighty years ago to fill up the 
 ranks of a Highland regiment, did morally acquire a 
 tenure in his holding more sacred than the stipulations 
 of a written covenant.'' 
 
 The British Parliament passed the Scottish CrofterS 
 Act in 1886, after a No-Rent policy was pretty generally 
 adopted by the crofters, together with a pretty firm reso- 
 lution to seize all the Highland shootings, and thus 
 show English M.P.'s how to vote for a Land Rights' 
 Bill. Bondholders and sportsmen got a scare, and the 
 people learned a lesson how to " agitate " ! 
 
 In digging for facts relating to Profe.s.sor Ogilvie's 
 life and work, we come upon dark and dreary pictures, 
 revealing to us the thick cloud of ignorance which covered 
 the land in those days. The dark scenes of the past 
 are not given in their blackest hues in these Notes, nor 
 are the darker ones selected. It is easier, as well as 
 
Biographical Notes. 363 
 
 more pleasant, to record the genuine green spots of the 
 past, where sweet memories linger, than to dwell upon 
 the general gloom of the days gone by. 
 
 The Reverend and remarkable John Wesley was a 
 great favourite in Aberdeen. The Seven Wise Masters 
 and their friends flocked to hear him preach, and he was 
 allowed the use of the College Hall for a chapel. He 
 was fond of his Virgil and Horace ; and one would 
 think that the many entries in his Journal referring to 
 his frequent visits to Aberdeen, extending over a period 
 of fifty-eight years, would have contained some slight 
 reference to the classical Ogilvie. He, however, men- 
 tions only one Ogilvie, namely — " The Beauty of Holi- 
 ness" and he holds him up as a genuinely godly man. 
 
 The Beauty of Holiness was "so called," Professor 
 Stuart tells us, " in consequence of his physical ugliness 
 and otherwise" ! The "otherwise" referred to his notorious 
 _/?r^-escapades. He was an exceedingly clever hypocrite, 
 and quite able to deceive men of stronger mental frame 
 than John Wesley, who was a believer in witchcraft and 
 apparitions — a belief, no doubt, which was also held by 
 the majority of the Seven Wise Masters. Wesley's 
 notion of Truth may be gathered from the following 
 entry in his Journal referring to Professor Beattie of 
 Marischal College, better known for his Minstrel than 
 for his Truth : — 
 
 " Read Dr. Seattle's Enqiiiry after Truth. He is a 
 writer quite equal to his subject, and far above the match 
 of all the minute philosophers — David Hume in par- 
 ticular, the most insolent despiser of truth and virtue 
 that ever appeared in the world, an avowed enemy to 
 God and man and all that is sacred and valuable upon 
 earth." 
 
364 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Dr. Beattie, it may be stated, does not appear to have 
 taken any prominent part in the reform of University 
 education for discovering and spreading the light of 
 Truth in which his colleagues, along with Professor 
 Ogilvie, were so eagerly engaged in 1786. 
 
 An apology for the puerility of Dr. Beattie's philo- 
 sophy, from the pen of Sir James Mackinto.sh, is inserted 
 here, mainly to show what in those days was considered 
 a " respectable profession " ! — what in those days was 
 forced upon the sons of peasants by The Seven Wise 
 Masters, and grabbed at by the gentry, by tJie clergy, and 
 by the larger farmers, as a " respectable profession" for 
 their own sons — namely, the "profession" of a slave- 
 driver ! ! ! The words in italics are intended to be read 
 along with the College Ukase referring to Bursaries 
 quoted at page 190 supra. In referring to Dr. Beattie, 
 Sir James made the following note in his Memoirs : — 
 
 " It is not easy to overrate the merit of the principles 
 which appear to have actuated him in his ethical lectures. 
 Entrusted with the care of many young men, whose humble 
 fortune compelled them to pass their lives in the immediate 
 superintendence of the Africans, he inculcated on their 
 minds the sacred rights of these unhappy beings, at a 
 time when their condition was little thought of in Europe, 
 and without the possibility of fame or even thanks." 
 
 What a picture of modern Christianity as taught, as 
 enforced, by our Universities ! Consider the King's 
 College Ukase : the son of a peasant, weaver, or car- 
 penter (!) presents himself at the College gate prepared 
 to carry off the highest bursary, but the Wise Masters, 
 who are all "professors" of Christianity (!), refuse to 
 admit him unless he can produce a document from the 
 Parish Minister, or from one of the gentry, certifying 
 
Biographical Notes. 365 
 
 that he is "above the lowest rank, and can appear in 
 a decent way, both as to dress and behaviour, and has 
 some reasonable prospect of money and friends to 
 enable him to prosecute his education and bring him 
 into some RESPECTABLE PROFESSION in life! ' e.g., "the 
 immediate superintendence of the Africans " ! ! I 
 
 Such were the times Ogilvie and Burns had to put 
 up with in Christian Caledonia, with her new moons 
 and her Sabbath days ! 
 
 The poor Scot in those days had to cringe under 
 tyranny, with an alternate choice of starvation at home or 
 slave-driving abroad. We know that even Burns was only 
 prevented from becoming a slave-driver by "the accidental 
 delay of the vessel in which he had taken out his passage 
 for Jamaica," and the almost equally accidental friendly 
 intervention of The Rev. Dr. Blacklock. " I had," says 
 the Poet in his letter to Dr. Moore, " composed the last 
 song I should ever measure in Caledonia — 'The gloomy 
 night is gath'ring fast,' when a letter from Dr. Blacklock 
 to a friend of mine* overthrew all my schemes, by opening 
 up new prospects to my poetic ambition." 
 
 This was in the autumn of 1786. Atthis time, precisely. 
 Professor Ogilvie was in the thick of his fight for Light 
 and Truth in Aberdeen. The year 1786 marks a period 
 of contemporaneous radical reforming eruption of the 
 I AiVI spirit of these two men. It is perhaps not strange 
 that their meetings, or correspondence, h^ve been kept 
 from the public eye to this hour, after all. 
 
 * The Rev. George Lawrie of St. Margaret's Hill, Kilmarnock. Is 
 it not remarkable that Providence made use of two divines to prevent 
 Robert Burns from leaving Scotland in those days ? Scotland should 
 not forget these two men. They should be entered as St. Thomas and 
 St. George on the roll of Scottish Saints. 
 
 25 
 
366 Biographical Notes. 
 
 Has British Christianity in any way changed its 
 creeds or tenets since those days of " respectable pro- 
 fessions ? " No ! not one iota. And hence we have 
 waste wildernesses under sheep abroad, and under deer, 
 sheep, and game at home, while we breed human sinners 
 for the slums of towns, and in the slums of towns, to a 
 most alarming number. Why call it "Christianity?" 
 Herodianity, Pharaohianity, or Neroianity would be 
 much nearer the appropriate name. 
 
 Let us think for a moment about the idea of Jesus 
 Christ being- in the flesh in Britain at the present time, and 
 holding His tongue about the doings of landlordism, with 
 its evictions and rack rents ! Or think of Him on a 
 platform, supporting Mr. A. J. Balfour, or His Grace 
 the Duke of Argyll ! Think of Him sneering at the 
 Mitchelstown murders, and the other numerous coercion 
 atrocities in Ireland, for which Lord Salisbury has made 
 Her Majesty directly responsible ! — Her Majesty,* who 
 is the Head, as Vicar of Christ, of the Christian Churches 
 of England and Scotland ! 
 
 " Ah ! but we must not think of these things," 
 methinks I hear certain Reverend and Wise Masters say 
 — We must not commit the enormous sin of indulging 
 in free-thinking or free-inquiry, because, if we do, we 
 are lost ! We must believe that Jesus delighted in 
 slavery, cheap sugar, and cheap rum, in the past, and 
 
 * And yet, if Her Majesty or even " the Archbishop of Canterbury" 
 were to decide " that there should be a change in the leadership of the 
 Conservative party. Englishmen would reject with the utmost indigna- 
 tion any such intrusion of the sacred ecclesiastical element ". These are 
 Lord Salisbury's words, spoken at a Primrose League Meeting, on 22nd 
 April, 1891. The Church is only to be used as a whip by political 
 leaders, landlords and capitalists ; then she is within her sacred sphere ! 
 
Biographical Notes. 367 
 
 that He delights in rents and evictions now ! — By the 
 way, rum and sugar, especially the latter, are much cheaper 
 now ! — That He delighted in wars, plagues, and famines, 
 in the past, and is delighted with ironclads and Arm- 
 strong guns now ; and that He is particularly fond of 
 seeing soldiers dressed up as harlequins for parading 
 before princes, dukes, and even a smaller fry, when not 
 engaged at their lawfiil calling, butchering their fellow- 
 creatures. We must swallow all these and many other 
 things about Jesus, along with landlordism and other 
 forms of robbery, in order to be within the fold of 
 orthodox British Christianity ! 
 
 The facts and figures referred to in these Notes are 
 given without any selection or order, and chiefly as they 
 happened to unfold themselves. There are many other 
 things equally or perhaps more relevant not even touched 
 upon. There is, however, one apparent omission which 
 may as well be noticed here, namely, the object lesson 
 to be learned from the landlordism of the House of Fife. 
 It is right to mention that the Heads of that House, 
 notwithstanding their unholy alliance with the Powers 
 of darkness in 1786, already noticed, were not behind 
 their noble neighbours as land improvers. And as far 
 as honesty goes, among the great titled landlords. The 
 House of Fife stands second to none. The Duke of Fife 
 is, perhaps, the only Duke in the British Isles, or any 
 other country, who can say : " My ancestors purchased 
 all the lands I possess, with the exception of some 
 commons, such as Cairngorm or Benmacdhui, acquired 
 merely as their share of the spoil when the other land- 
 lords were having a general scramble for all the hills 
 and glens in Scotland". The Duke of Fife is thus, 
 comparatively speaking, an honest commercial landlord. 
 
368 Biographical Notes. 
 
 his ancestors having acquired the land as land merchants. 
 'Tis different with all the old feudal Dukes, Earls, and 
 Lords, because the only title deeds they can show to 
 their lands constitute complete evidence that their ances- 
 tors stole these lands. 
 
 Nevertheless, the Duke of Fife does not feel free 
 from risk. He is, therefore, selling his lands in Scotland 
 as fast as he can. He knows that his title deeds are 
 worse than useless. They prove that he is in possession 
 of stolen property — the property of the People ! They 
 prove that all his lands are liable for the National Debt! 
 They prove that the People, or, to put it technically in 
 order to drive the fact into the thick skulls of ignorant 
 lawyers, that the Crown, the feudal Superior of all land- 
 lords, as Trustee for the People, can legally and justly 
 impose the Single Tax,* and tax all lands to their full 
 value. And it is no answer to the People's claim that 
 a landlord or his ancestors purchased the land ; other- 
 wise the Duke of Argyll and a few other dukes and 
 lords might at any time sell England, Wales, Scotland 
 and Ireland to Mr. Winans, or to the Emperor of Russia. 
 
 The people of Argyll, especially those in isolated 
 places like Tyree, where ducal tyranny is rampant, 
 where the inhabitants dare not call their souls their 
 own, and are not allowed even to have an Inn or 
 Public House on the island, would perhaps bless the 
 day Russian rule came to their rescue. But the power 
 of the Duke is on the wane. The great Duke of the 
 
 * " But," says Mr. Wiseacre, " it is better to continue the landlords 
 than have an army of hungry Government officials like excisemen all 
 over the country." True, if the Government and the Crown are to be 
 continued as in the past — simply acting the part of Rahab the harlot 
 — used as instruments for betraying the Community. 
 
Biographical Notes. 369 
 
 '45 no longer exists. Only a few benighted people 
 about Bute and Inverary believe now in the " divinity " 
 of ducal Christianity. Heaven be praised ! the Society 
 for Propagating that spurious imitation of Christian 
 Knowledge is now about wound up. 
 
 We have seen the position held by the Duke of 
 Argyll in 1748, when awarded ;^2 1,000 of " compensa- 
 tion" for giving up the sporting right of shooting and 
 hanging his countrymen — a right, be it observed, which 
 was generally exercised with wonderful discrimination 
 and impartiality ; even the Campbells were not always 
 favoured ! Of seventeen landlord kinsmen — all of the 
 clan Campbell — who lodged " Compensation claims " in 
 1748, with one exception, they got nothing ; their shares 
 were all swallowed up by the lean kine of Inverary 
 Castle ! 
 
 The House of Fife in those days was nowhere. The 
 claim lodged by " Lord Braco, William Duff," for the 
 following " sinecure offices" and value, as compared with 
 the claims of the Dukes of Gordon and Argyll (page 342, 
 supra) gives an authentic glimpse of the situation : — 
 
 Lord of the Regality of Pluscardine, . . . £1000 o o 
 Baillie of the Regality of Strathila, . . . 400 o o 
 
 £1400 o o 
 And the Court reduced it to £82 2s. id. 
 
 This William Duff was a grandson of a farmer on 
 the Duke of Gordon's estates in Banffshire. He and 
 his father and an uncle began to purchase land ; they 
 very soon became wealthy, and titles of honour followed 
 land titles as a matter of course. In 1735 he was " ele- 
 vated " to the Irish title of Baron Braco, and subse- 
 quently, in 1759, after he purchased more land and other 
 
370 Biographical Notes. 
 
 things he was created ( ! ) " Earl Fife," in the peerage of 
 Ireland. In less than forty years after 1748, he surpassed- 
 the Duke of Argyll in wealth, and as a landlord, and also 
 left him miles astern in regard to political power. He 
 even eclipsed the Duke of Gordon, " The Cock of the 
 North". In the year 1788, the Earl Fife had no votes 
 in the three counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Elgin, being 
 eight votes more than the Duke of Gordon possessed ; 
 while the political power of the Duke of Argyll, in his 
 own county of Argyll, was limited to nine votes ! And 
 His Grace could scarcely be said to have had the full 
 command of these. We find the following note opposite 
 his name in a document which discloses the Political 
 State of Scotland in the last century : * " Most of 
 the Freeholders are of the Duke's family and name. 
 The greatest part of them have very near connections 
 in Army or Navy. Many of them are desirous 
 of promotion, and Duke would be in a very trouble- 
 some situation unless he was acting with the Ad- 
 ministration." 
 
 How did the House of Fife rise so very rapidly from 
 farmer to lord, from lord to earl, and from earl to duke — 
 the nearest duke to the throne of the British Empire, we 
 may say ? Besides the possession of land, and the in- 
 fluence invariably associated therewith, there was some- 
 
 * From a private Report prepared in 1788, but not published until 
 1887. It contains many interesting entries, and shows that every vote 
 had its price, and was worth a good deal in those days ; e.g., A.B. is 
 " not rich — requires some office or promotion " ; CD. has " a great family 
 — will go with party who will do most for his family " ; E.F. "sons and 
 grandsons in Army, Navy, and Law, aH to provide for, as estate is en- 
 tailed," and so on. Those who are " rich " and "independent" are 
 noted as such. We can see the foundation of existing corruptions in 
 this document. 
 
Biographical Notes. 371 
 
 thing else — something which procured and held that 
 influence, as if by magic, in place of the old relation, the 
 interdependence of the sword which previously existed 
 between chiefs and clans, between lords and vassals. 
 What was that something? Perhaps Oliver & Boyd's 
 Edinburgh Almanac, for 1874, will answer this question. 
 The House of Fife, we find, attached to itself not less 
 than twenty-three Church Patronages ! 
 
 The people, it will be admitted, were taught to re- 
 gard the Parish Minister as the servant of the Almighty, 
 placed over them as governor and guide ; and the Patron, 
 as holder of the heavenly right of appointing this divine 
 functionary, was of course regarded as a kind of tangible 
 Almighty, to whom the utmost homage, reverence, and 
 worship had to be paid. This "reverence'' or "homage" 
 was regarded as natural, nay, as divine ; " implanted " 
 by God in the human breast, as declared by Dr. 
 Chalmers, Professor of Auld Kirk Theology in the 
 Edinburgh University, and afterwards famous as " The 
 Father of. the Free Kirk!" 
 
 One thing is certain : The Earl Fife did not believe 
 one iota of that doctrine. • The so-called natural or 
 divine homage towards landlordism, he knew to be a 
 College manufactured article, and a saleable com- 
 modity : He paid hard cash for every one of these 
 Patronages. He neither trusted nature nor any " divine" 
 creed in the working of these Patronages towards pro- 
 curing the necessary homage due, in the shape of rents, 
 &c., to a commercial landlord. He knew that the House 
 of Argyll was maintained by the dexterous manipula- 
 tion of ecclesiastical influence ; and he well knew that the 
 Scottish sheep of 1715 and 1745 could easily be managed 
 by the Crooks of carefully selected shepherds. He, there- 
 
3/2 Biographical Notes. 
 
 fore, purchased the right to select suitable flockmasters 
 over all his lands. 
 
 He purchased from the Seven Wise Masters several 
 Church Patronages which had belonged to the University 
 from its foundation, including even the two Collegiate 
 Churches of Old Aberdeen. He was, therefore, bound 
 to join in the crusade against the proposed educational 
 college reforms of 1786 for reasons too obvious to 
 require any explanation. If his shepherds were to be 
 taught any new notions about his sheep having any right 
 to the land,, or even to their own wool, that would, be a 
 most dangerous doctrine ! He did not like the idea of 
 Parliament or the Crown interfering with the Christian 
 Knowledge promulgated in those days. The system 
 was perfect, and must not be meddled with. This 
 conservative doctrine was the political fraud in which 
 and by which the governing Whigs lived, moved, and 
 had their being. 
 
 Last year (1890) the Duke of Argyll issued a Pastoral 
 to his countrymen under the "indelible" title — ''Words 
 of Warning". It was in favour of continuing . the 
 Church of Scotland as at present established. He 
 admitted that he was the Primate Patron of Scotland 
 , in 1874- He then possessed the patronage of upwards 
 of thirty Churches ! Now, let us for one moment think 
 of a Christian Community whose " Christian Knowledge" 
 accorded with such a state of matters all the time 
 downwards from the Reformation until a Jew, named 
 Benjamin Disraeli, in the year 1874, re-discovered a 
 fragment of democratic truth as it was in jESUS, who, 
 by the way, had very little to do, when he was on this 
 earth, either with dukes or lords. 
 
 The Duke of Argyll in that Pastoral did not say 
 
Biographical Notes. 373 
 
 anything about this fact: that he and other Scottish 
 dukes, lords, and lairds annually plunder the Church of 
 Scotland of its tithes to the extent of about ^3,700,000 ! 
 and that they only give a mere pittance to the so-called 
 State-Established clergy of Scotland. In plain words and 
 figures, the great landlords annually divide all the tithes 
 among themselves, with the exception of ^240,302 4s. 3d., 
 which they throw to the clergy. Think of this: the 
 salary drawn by one landlord for doing nothing is more 
 than double the aggregate sum paid to all the State 
 clergy in Scotland ! ! ! And the clergy, like a pack of 
 starved curs, pick up the crumbs from under the table of 
 Tyranny's mighty feasts ! Yes, the clergy, as dumb 
 dogs, actually connive, and thus assist the robbers in 
 their " plunder of the Church," and in their unmolested 
 division of "that unhallowed booty" — "that sacrilegious 
 spoil," to use the " indelible " phrases of the " indelible " 
 Benjamin Disraeli, whose words, when he happened to 
 speak the truth — which he sometimes did — should not 
 be, and must not be, smothered, even -with primj'oses ! 
 
 The reader cannot fail to see the thing. Christianity, 
 like all other forms of religion which preceded it in this 
 world, once taken up by an aristocratic class, was bound 
 to become an instrument of oppression, and a means 
 whereby the bulk of mankind are kept in absolute 
 ignorance of their natural rights, and thus rendered 
 easy victims to the rapacity and avarice of their oppres- 
 sors. The Church of Christ, established and non-es- 
 tablished, is still utilised even in Scotland precisely like 
 that infamous woman of Jericho. The people are 
 betrayed and plundered on every hand of their Birth- 
 right. It is not the work of Fate ! We can see the 
 visible agency of wicked men at work all around us. 
 
374 Biographical Notes. 
 
 We know what the Church did in the past, and we can 
 catch her red-handed at the same game now if we like. 
 But, as Christians, we wink at the monopolising of land- 
 nay, we are the pioneers of that system in this world. 
 Like the Jews who worship MoSES and propagate usury 
 in every corner of the world, we worship jESUS and 
 propagate not only usury but landlordism also. Let us 
 study Moses and Jesus on these things, and then count 
 the knaves and fools in this world. Of all the Christian 
 churches in the world, -the Church of England, with its 
 8000 Livings for sale, is by far the most honest. She is 
 the most honest of all, because the least deceptive. Of 
 1 1,000. Wesley ans, and over 9000 other Nonconformist 
 clergymen in England, what have they done ? Did they 
 not aid in the robbery of the Common lands in George 
 IIL's time? What are they doing now? 
 
 The following Extracts from the Laws of Scotland 
 will astonish a few Scots, surprise more than one English- 
 man, especially among those learned Lords who sit upon 
 Scotch appeals in the House of Lords, and will not fail 
 to attract the bulk of the Irish race to Mr. A. J. Balfour's 
 policy of adopting Scots Law in Ireland. The last Coer- 
 cion Act was declared by him to have been borrowed 
 from Scots Law. The following slices of the genuine 
 article should tempt Pat to go in for the whole hog or 
 none : — 
 
 "Oppression is ordinarly but a quality of other 
 crimes, but yet there are sometimes special dittayes 
 founded thereupon, /er j^/ and there are some particular 
 Acts declaring several species of it to be punishable, as 
 reif, or by other specifick punishments mehtioned in the 
 said Acts ; and thus it is oppression to compel the King's 
 proper Tennents to ride, or do service. of Avara^ Car- 
 
Biographical Notes. 375 
 
 riage, Shearing, Leading, &c., and should be punished 
 accordingly; Act 21, Pari. 2, James IV. It is oppres- 
 sion to take Caups — that is to say, a duty for protection 
 to be given by privat men to such as thieves, and other 
 great men[!] ; Acts 18 and 19, P. 2, J. IV., vid. de verb, 
 signif. It is oppression for a Crafts-man to take cus- 
 tome, or any other taxation, from another of that same 
 Craft, or for them to make privat Acts among themselves, 
 prejudicial to the people; Acts 42 and 43, P. 4, J. IV., 
 Act 3, P. 7, J. v., and Act 4, P. 19, J. VI. It is op- 
 pression for Customers to exact more then their due ; 
 Act 46, P. 4, J. IV. It is oppression to molest Magis- 
 trates of Burghs, and othar Merchands to use their privi- 
 ledges and liberties ; Act 26, P. 4, J. V. It is a kind of 
 oppression to exact more fraught from Passengers, or 
 greater prices for Weavers and handy-work, then what is 
 allowed and usual ; Acts 21 and 23, P. 5, Q. M. It is 
 oppression to stop or make impediment of common high 
 ways, to or from Burghs; Act 54, P. 6, Q. M. It is 
 oppression for Officers to extort the Leidges ; Act 33, P. 
 5, J. III., and Act 83, P. 1 1, J. VI. Common oppressors 
 are punishable by death ; Act 88, P. 1 1, J. VI. Oppres- 
 sion is also punishable by death ; Act 42, P. 4, J. IV., 
 Act 88, P. II, J. VI." 
 
 This and the following paragraphs are taken, word 
 for word, from a boycotted book, written by Sir George 
 MacKenzie of Rosehaugh, and published by Royal 
 Auiliority in the year 1678, bearing the title : " The Laws 
 and Customes of Scotland in matters Criminal" . Sir 
 George is referred to {Appendix, p. 418) as a believer in 
 the divine right of Kings, but it is quite clear that he did 
 not believe in the divine right of "Oppressors, thieves, 
 and other great men ! " These passages, be it observed. 
 
376 Biographical Notes. 
 
 are taken from his Chapter on ROBBERY, of which the 
 following are the concluding paragraphs : — 
 
 " The Crimes answering in the Civil Law to oppres- 
 sion were vis publica, vis privata, and concussio. Those 
 were punishable, /.y«/?i2^f vi publica, who raised arms, or 
 did violently eject men out of their houses or lands; 
 those who assisted the Oppressors with men are guilty 
 thereof, and the punishment was aqucz et ignis inter- 
 dictio, Those were guilty of vis privata who oppressed 
 upon a privat account, and the punishment was the con- 
 fiscation of the third part of their goods, with infamy." 
 
 " Concussion was that Crime whereb)' money or any- 
 thing else was extorted by open force, or who imployed 
 their power and authority as the instrument of Oppres- 
 sion. I have seen processes and remissions relating to 
 this crime with us, and the punishment of it is arbitrary, 
 both by the Civil Law and ours." 
 
 " The taking of black-mail, is a kind of Concussion 
 in our Law, and by black-mail is understood the paying 
 of money or any gratuity to thieves \and other great 
 men .'] for their protection, and by our Law not only the 
 takers but the payers of black-mail are punishable as 
 thieves and robbers, by the 21 Act, P. i, J. VI., and 
 dittay is ordained to be taken up against them, Act 
 102, P. II, J. VL, and the reason why the givers are 
 liable is because they maintain the thieves, and keep 
 correspondence with them, and do not dilate them." 
 
 Sir George is almost the only Scottish Lawyer ever 
 known to have done anything for Liberty and Property, 
 hence the reason he and his books have been systema- 
 tically boycotted to this hour. He lived in the days of 
 witchcraft. The Argyll Religion was the " Order" ol 
 those days, and it became "Law" as well as '^ Order" 
 
Biographical Notes. 377 
 
 under cover of the English Revolution of 1688. Some 
 of the Scottish nobles then behaved very much like 
 thieves and robbers, who always make a good harvest 
 during any commotion or tumult of that kind. Sir 
 George was then obliged to leave his own country and 
 take refuge in England. Such is a sample of the 
 Revolution fruit in Scotland. The people were then 
 much agitated about religion. "The Church is in 
 danger," shouted the Nobles, while at the same time 
 they were busy nobbling the common property of the 
 people. Sir George is guilty of saying that the people 
 so hoodwinked were "fanaticks!" And the people 
 in turn gave him the designation of: "The blood- 
 thirsty Advocate, and persecutor of the Saints of God ! " 
 As Lord Advocate for Charles II. in Scotland, Sir 
 George, no doubt, interfered a little with a few 
 "Saints," but the unprejudiced reader cannot forget 
 how the surviving " Saints " behaved themselves in 
 regard to Glencoe, the moment they got a King's 
 Advocate of their own Religion, when Sir George 
 was no longer a terror to murderers, oppressors, thieves, 
 and other great men 1 There is no ambiguity about 
 who these "great men" were. "It is declared," says 
 he in his chapter on Robbery, "that landed men who 
 are convict of common theft, recept of theft, or stouth- 
 «zy [robbery], shall incur the crime and pain of treason ; 
 Act 51, P. II, J. VI." The italics are his. Sir George 
 — " the blood-thirsty Advocate " — saved many a poor 
 wretched woman from being cruelly murdered as a 
 witch by those self-styled "Saints of God!" He did 
 expose the manner in which they usually extorted 
 " confessions " from " witches ". Regarding the adminis- 
 trators of the law he was not so lenient. " And I 
 
378 Biographical Notes. 
 
 condemn," he said, " next to the witches themselves, 
 those cruel and too forward judges who burn persons 
 by thousands as guilty of this crime." George Mac- 
 kenzie was " a gentleman ". When the judges of the 
 Court of Session banished all the members of the 
 Scottish Bar from Edinburgh, in obedience to a letter 
 from Charles II., George Mackenzie appeared before them 
 as " a gentleman," he said, and he made these obse- 
 quious functionaries and also their royal master sprawl 
 under his feet. He, notwithstanding his weakness for 
 the divine right of kings, on that occasion manfully 
 vindicated the divine right of every man to defend 
 himself, and to oppose tyranny, injustice, or impudence 
 in a king as in a beggar. 
 
 No country in the world can boast of better laws than 
 Scotland. It is, however, not necessary to reiterate how 
 these laws were broken, and by whom ; or to make any 
 comment regarding the punishment which might and 
 ought to be inflicted on the breakers of these laws. It 
 is perhaps as well to quote a few passages from another 
 boycotted work, namely, A History of Scotland, published 
 in 1805, "for the use of Schools,'' but not yet introduced 
 into any School in Scotland. It is from an anonymous 
 pen. In dealing with the "Political State of Scotland 
 after the accession of James VI.,'' the writer proceeds as 
 follows : — 
 
 " The feudal aristocracy, which had been subverted in 
 most nations of Europe by the policy of their princes, or 
 had been undermined by the progress of commerce, still 
 subsisted with full force in Scotland. Many causes had 
 contributed gradually to augment the power of the 
 Scottish nobles ; and even the reformation [ ! ], which, in 
 every other country where it prevailed, added to the 
 
Biographical Notes. 379 
 
 authority of the monarch, had increased their wealth and 
 influence.'' 
 
 " Though Scotland, under the name, and with all the 
 outward ensigns of a monarchy, was really subject to an 
 aristocracy, the people were not altogether unhappy ; 
 and even in this wild form of a constitution, there were 
 principles which tended to their security and advantage. 
 The king, checked and overawed by the nobles, durst 
 venture upon no act of arbitrary power. The nobles, 
 jealous of the king, whose claims and pretensions were 
 many, though his power was small, were afraid of irri- 
 tating their dependants by unreasonable exactions, and 
 tempered the rigour of aristocratical tyranny with a mild- 
 ness and equality to which it is naturally a stranger. 
 And while the military genius of the feudal government 
 remained in vigour, the vassals both of the crown and of 
 the barons were generally not only free from oppression, 
 but were courted by their superiors, whose power and 
 importance were founded on their attachment and love. 
 
 " But, by his accession to the throne of England, James 
 acquired such an immense accession of wealth, of power, 
 and of splendour, that the nobles, astonished and intimi- 
 dated, thought it vain to struggle for privileges which 
 they were now unable to defend. Nor was it from fear 
 alone that they submitted to the yoke ; James, partial to 
 his countrymen, and willing that they should partake of 
 his good fortune, loaded them with riches and honours ; 
 and the hope of his favour concurred with the dread of 
 his power in taming their fierce and independent spirits. 
 The will of the prince became the supreme law in Scot- 
 land ; and the nobles strove, with emulation, ivho should 
 most implicitly obey commands, which they had formerly 
 
380 Biographical Notes. 
 
 been accustomed to contemn. Satisfied with having 
 subjected the nobles to the crown, the king left them 
 in full possession of their ancient jurisdiction over their 
 own vassals. 
 
 " The extensive rights, vested in a feudal chief, became, 
 in their hands, dreadful instruments of oppression, and 
 the military ideas, on which these rights were founded, 
 being gradually lost or disregarded, nothing remained to 
 correct or to mitigate the rigour with which they were 
 exercised. The nobles, exhausting their fortunes by the 
 expense of frequent attendance upon the English court, 
 and by attempts to imitate the manners and luxury of 
 their more wealthy neighbours, multiplied exactions upon 
 the people, who durst scarce utter complaints which they 
 knew would never reach the ears of their sovereign, nor 
 move him to grant them any redress. And from the 
 union of the crowns to the Revolution in 1688, Scotland 
 was placed in a political situation, of all others the most 
 singular and the most unhappy ; subjected at once to the 
 absolute will of a monarch, and to the oppressive juris- 
 diction of an aristocracy, it suffered all the miseries 
 peculiar to both these forms of government. Its kings 
 were despotic ; its nobles were slaves and tyrants ; and 
 the people groaned under the rigorous domination of 
 both." 
 
 On the advent of Charles I., the nobles, " provoked 
 by some encroachments of the king on their order, and 
 apprehensive of others, the remains of their ancient 
 spirit began to appear. They complained and remon- 
 strated. The people being, at the same time, violently 
 disgusted at the innovations in religion, the nobles secretly 
 heightened this disgust ; and their artifices, together with 
 the ill conduct of the court, raised such a spirit that the 
 
Biographical Notes. 381 
 
 whole nation took arms against their sovereign, with an 
 union and animosity of which there had formerly been 
 no example. Charles brought against them the forces 
 of England. But the disaffection which was growing 
 among his English subjects prevented the king from 
 acting with vigour." 
 
 "At the restoration, Charles II. regained full posses- 
 sion of the Royal prerogative in Scotland. During this 
 reign, and that of James VII., the dictates of the monarch 
 were received in Scotland with the most abject submis- 
 sion. The poverty to which many of the nobles were 
 reduced rendered them meaner slaves and more intoler- 
 able tyrants than ever. The people, always neglected, 
 were now odious, and loaded with every injury, on 
 account of their attachment to religious and political 
 principles, extremely repugnant to those adopted by 
 their princes. The rights of the people were scarce 
 ever mentioned, were disregarded, or unknown. 
 
 " The Revolution introduced other maxims into the 
 Government of Scotland. Attention began, hencefor- 
 ward, to be paid to the welfare of the people. By the 
 Claim of Right their liberties were secured. But the 
 aristocratical spirit, which still predominated, together 
 with many other accidents, retarded the improvement 
 and happiness of the nation.'' 
 
 The "aristocratical spirit," and the belief therein, 
 forced upon the people by courts, colleges, churches, 
 and schools, reigned supreme in the British Isles, and 
 in Scotland in particular, during the whole period of 
 Professor Ogilvie's life. Let us look at the following 
 picture from the indignant soul of Burns, recorded in a 
 letter from him in 1794 to Mr. Thomson, complaining 
 
 26 
 
382 Biographical Notes. 
 
 of the delay in publishing his " Scots wha hae ! " ; 
 " Alas the day ! and woe is me ! That auspicious 
 period, pregnant with the happiness of millions — that 
 golden age, spotless with monarchical innocence and 
 despotic purity — that Millenium, of which the earliest 
 dawn will enlighten even Republican turbulence, and show 
 the swinish multitude that they are but beasts, and, like 
 beasts, must be led by the nose, and goaded in the back- 
 side — those days of sweet chords, concords seem by no 
 means." 
 
 There is more than one reason for giving a place in 
 these Notes to the following letter, written to GENERAL 
 Washington by the Earl of Buchan, the mutual friend 
 of Burns and Ogilvie : — 
 
 " Dryburgh Abbey, 
 
 "2&th June, 1791. 
 
 " Sir, — I had the honor to receive your Excellency's 
 letter relating to the advertisement of Dr. Anderson's 
 periodical publication in the 'Gazette of the United States' 
 — which attention to my recommendation I feel very 
 sensibly, and return you my grateful acknowledgments. 
 In the twenty-first number of that literary miscellany I 
 inserted a monitory paper respecting America, which I 
 flatter myself may, if attended to on the other side of the 
 Atlantic, be productive of good consequences. To use 
 your own emphatic words, may that Almighty Being, 
 who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils 
 of nations, and whose providential aid can supply every 
 human defect, consecrate to the liberties and happiness 
 of the American people a Government instituted by 
 themselves for public and private security, upon the basis 
 of law and equal administration of justice, preserving to 
 
Biographical Notes. 383 
 
 every individual as much civil and political freedom as 
 is consistent with the safety of the nation ; and may He 
 be pleased to continue your life and strength as long as 
 you can be in any way useful to your country. I have 
 entrusted this sheet, inclosed in a box made of the oak 
 that sheltered our great Sir William Wallace after the 
 battle of Falkirk, to Mr. Robertson of Aberdeen, a 
 painter, with the hope of his having the honor of de- 
 livering it into your hands, recommending him as an 
 able artist, seeking for fortune and fame in the New 
 World. This box was presented to me by the Gold- 
 smiths' Company at Edinburgh, to whom, feeling my 
 own unworthiness to receive this magnificently signifi- 
 cant present, I requested and obtained leave to make it 
 over to the man in the world to whom I thought it most 
 justly due. . . . 
 
 " I am, with the highest esteem. Sir, 
 
 " Your Excellency's most obedient and 
 obliged humble servant, 
 
 " BUCHAN." 
 
 " P.S. — I beg your excellency will have the goodness 
 to send me your portrait that I may place it among 
 those I most honor, and I would wish it from the pencil 
 of Mr. Robertson. I beg leave to recommend him to 
 your countenance as he has been mentioned to me favour- 
 ably by my worthy friend Professor Ogilvie of King's 
 College, Aberdeen^ 
 
 It would seem from the words now italicised that 
 Ogilvie and Washington were not unknov/n to each 
 other ; and it is highly probable that the latter was pre- 
 
384 Biographical Notes. 
 
 sented with an early copy of The Right of Property in 
 Land, and with some MS. notes besides. The reader 
 will remember that he refers to North America (p. 107) 
 as having " lately enjoyed an opportunity of new model- 
 ling the establishment of landed property, even to 
 theoretical perfection ". 
 
 If Professor- Ogilvie visited Dryburgh Abbey in 
 June, 1791, he would then be within a day's ride of the 
 abode of Burns. Trying to catch the Twa Dogs to- 
 gether, oddly enough we again come upon a suppression 
 of dates and names. 
 
 "In the summer of 1791," says Dr. Currie, "two 
 English gentlemen, who had before met with Burns in 
 Edinburgh, paid a visit to him in Ellisland. He re- 
 ceived them with great cordiality, and asked them to 
 share his humble dinner- — an invitation which they ac- 
 cepted." They did not leave before midnight — they 
 " forgot the flight of time and the dictates of prudence". 
 No wonder ; for Burns, as described by one of the party 
 to Dr. Currie, " was in his happiest mood, and the 
 charms of his conversation were altogether fascinating. 
 He ranged over a great variety of topics, illuminating 
 whatever he touched. He related the tales of his infancy 
 and of his youth ; he recited some of the gayest and 
 some of the tenderest of his poems : in the wildest of his 
 strains of mirth he threw in some touches of melancholy, 
 and spread around him the electric emotions of his 
 powerful mind." 
 
 Who were these two " English gentlemen," and in 
 particular what name shall we call the one who gave the 
 information to Dr. Currie ; and why should Dr. Currie 
 suppress the name of any real Englishman ? One thing 
 is z\&3X—Twa sympathetic souls — whether they were the 
 
Biographical Notes. 385 
 
 " Twa Dogs " or not — did meet and spend a happy 
 night together. 
 
 Considering the state of poor Scotland then, and the 
 watching by " epauletted puppies " and other spies of all 
 the movements and meetings of persons suspected of 
 being possessed of any genuine I AM spirit, Professor 
 Ogilvie, no doubt, found it necessary as a rule to travel 
 incog, in his own country — most likely as an Englishman, 
 keeping his thumb upon the meaning of his own phrase — 
 'Hhe Northern Counties of England" . He wrote his Essay 
 as an Englishman, and inscribed it to Englishmen ! 
 
 We can hardly realise now-a-days the dangers and 
 difficulties that a reformer like Professor Ogilvie had to 
 contend with in his time — a time when the Soul of 
 Freedom had, in truth, fled from Scotland. There is 
 no doubt whatever of this, that if his notions of land- 
 law reform had been fully known to the landed gentry 
 and clergy, his life would have been taken either by a 
 paid assassin, or by a stirred-up mob. He was an 
 " ingenious recluse," and thus escaped more successfully 
 than his renowned contemporary Dr. Priestley,* whose 
 house was burnt by a Birmingham mob, his books and 
 MSS. torn and strewed for miles along the public road, 
 while he himself had to run for his life. This was the 
 work of a befooled English mob, led by — we know 
 — and marching to the old familiar tune of " The Church 
 
 * The Rev. Robert Hall of Cambridge, who defended Dr. Priestley 
 and vindicated the French Revolution as well as British Liberty, was an 
 ardent disciple of Professor Ogilvie. He attended his lectures during 
 four sessions (1781-85), and was charmed with his translations of the 
 Roman poets, which, in a letter to a friend, he described as "extremely 
 elegant ". It is well known that Robert Hall and Sir James Mackintosh 
 were fellow-students, but few are aware that they studied under such a 
 teacher as the author oi Birthright in Land. 
 
386 Biographical Notes. 
 
 in danger''. But in Scotland similar outrages were per- 
 petrated in those days by Law and Order ! 
 
 A military rabble, led by "epauletted puppies," to 
 use the designation handed down to us by Burns, sacked 
 the house of the Rev. John Skinner of Tullochgorum 
 fame, carrying with them his books, MSS., and " every- 
 thing ; leaving hardly a change of linen for father, 
 mother, or child " ; and they searched " even the bed- 
 chamber where Mrs. Skinner was lying-in of her fifth 
 child, and little able," says her son. Bishop Skinner, 
 " to bear such a rude, unseasonable visit". They spared 
 his Manse, but they burnt his Church to the ground. 
 More than once Tullochgorum saved his life by "skulking" 
 in some hiding place, or " attiring himself in the garb 
 of a miller, to escape the observation " of the military 
 miscreants of those times. And let us mention that the- 
 then Chief Secretary conferred upon him the honour of 
 spending six months on a, plank bed. 
 
 We can imagine the pangs felt by the highly sympa- 
 thetic soul of William Ogilvie for the "woes and pains'' 
 of others, in those days. As regards his own personal 
 sufferings, his weep-not-for-me spirit almost arrests us 
 from referring to them in these pages. In his soliloquy of 
 1776 we see a man who could bravely and contentedly face 
 death itself, " without reluctance and repining ". " Hav- 
 ing," says he, " abundant reason to return thanks for that 
 measure of good which I have already enjoyed, which 
 seems to have exceeded, at least in tranquillity and 
 contentment, the common standard of what is allowed 
 to man ". 
 
 We, however, cannot skip over another "rude" and 
 equally "unseasonable visit," as a companion picture 
 of the period. When the so-called Royal Army was 
 
Biographical Notes. 387 
 
 passing through Morayshire in 1746, a short halt was 
 made at Pittensear House, and three cannon shots were 
 fired at it. One of these shots struck the front wall 
 close to the dining-room window, and, we need not say, 
 caused the inmates much alarm. William Ogilvie, then 
 about ten years of age, in all probability witnessed that 
 scene — a sad example of what even a Whig Government 
 may do at the head of a mercenary army. He, without 
 any doubt, surveyed the wreck after the storm had 
 passed. We have it on the authority of old people still 
 living near Pittensear, that his mother, who happened to 
 be in childbed at the time, never recovered the shock 
 of that day's proceedings, and that shortly thereafter 
 she was laid in a premature grave. And a few years 
 later, when his disconsolate and broken-hearted father 
 had quitted life's stage, he was left alone, in place of 
 both father and mother, as guardian to four orphan 
 girls. Here we may trace the way in which, what we 
 may call a motherly feeling towards all the children of 
 men, was developed in his breast. His Essay on the 
 Right of Property in Land, in every line of it, says : 
 Suffer little children to come unto m.e, and I shall teach 
 them that God is no respecter of persons; that all 
 the children of men are entitled indiscriminately to an 
 equal share in the soil, in all wild animals, game, 
 fish, and the whole products of nature, necessary for 
 man's subsistence or enjoyment ; and that anything 
 contrary to this doctrine is a gross and blasphemous 
 slander on the Creator, as well as a most iniquitous 
 fraud on the bulk of mankind. 
 
 Vive, vale. Si quid novisti rectius istis, 
 Candidus imperii; si non, his uiere mecum. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 I. — Letter from, the Chancellor of King's College {Lord 
 Deskfoord) to Principal Chalmers. 
 
 " CuLLEN House, 27M Octr., 1761. 
 
 "Sir, — I have just now the favour of yours of October 
 24th, intimating to me that the Sub-principal's state 
 of health makes it necessary for him to employ an assis- 
 tant in teaching his class, and that he as well as you, 
 and his other friends in the College, have agreed to refer 
 the choice to me, and that Mr. Burnet agrees that his as- 
 sistant shall have the profits of his class, and what other 
 encouragement shall be thought reasonable. 
 
 " I am extremely sensible of this mark of your con- 
 fidence in me, but at the same time I doubt extremely 
 if any proper person would be willing to undertake that 
 charge, except he was assured of succeeding Mr. Burnet 
 as Regent. 
 
 " William Ogilvie of Pittensear, having merited the 
 approbation of all the members of the College, would 
 naturally have occurred to my thoughts, if I had not 
 known that he was so engaged that he cannot possibly 
 leave his pupil this winter, and, besides, he is so agree- 
 able to the people he is with, that it would be very 
 injudicious in him to leave his present charge, even next 
 year, upon any other terms than being actually chosen 
 
Appendix. 389 
 
 Professor. I think, therefore, till that point is settled 
 by a majority of the University, that it would be in vain 
 for me to take any steps in the matter you propose. I 
 must therefore beg the favour of you to have a meeting 
 with Mr. Raid, the Rector, and other members of the 
 University, and fix the thing in such a footing as may 
 enable me to make the proposal to William Ogilvie or 
 some other person of merit, capable of exercising the 
 office properly. 
 
 " I am with very sincere respect. Sir, 
 
 " Your most obedient and humble Servant, 
 
 " Deskfoord." 
 
 II. — Letter from William Ogilvie to James Anderson of 
 Matthewmiln, near Elgin* 
 
 " Edinburgh, November 19, 1761. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — About 10 days ago I received a piece 
 of good news, which considering the part you take in 
 all my concerns, I ought to have communicated to you 
 before this time ; but the hurry of settling myself and 
 my pupil in Edinburgh has not allowed me. The Uni- 
 versity of Old Aberdeen have chosen me assistant and 
 successor to one of their number, who is superannuated, 
 and unfit to teach a class. My encouragement during 
 his life is only the emoluments of the class, but then, it 
 secures to me, if I live, an income of about ;^iOO a 
 year, and in the meantime I shall enjoy £1$ of Divinity 
 
 * Mr. Anderson, the husband of Ogilvie's paternal aunt, acted as 
 his guardian, in virtue of his father's Will. 
 
390 Appendix. 
 
 Bursaries for four years. It gives me a determinate 
 view for life, and leaves me more at liberty, and gives 
 me more opportunities of serving others, than being a 
 minister I could have. It is a much better thing than 
 that Regency in the Newtown College, which you were 
 so fond of my getting about a year and a half ago. I 
 must not forget to tell you that I owe it entirely to 
 Lord Deskfoord, who is certainly, of all patrons, the 
 most unwearied and generous. I know, my dear aunt 
 will rejoice in my good luck, and I desire to be affec- 
 tionately remembered to her. I hope what has happened 
 will not oblige me to leave Edinburgh this winter, and 
 I am at all times, 
 
 " Your affectionate and much obliged humble Servt, 
 
 " William Ogilvie." 
 
 III. — Letter from the Chancellor to the Principal. 
 
 "Castle of Banff, list Nov., 1761. 
 
 " Sir, — In return to my. letter to Mr. Ogilvie, I 
 understand from him that he with thankfulness accepts 
 the proposal made to him to be assistant to Mr. Burnet, 
 with the assurance the members of the University think 
 proper to give him of his being to succeed to the first 
 vacant Regency. But he informs me at the same time 
 that his engagements to Mr. Graeme are such as make 
 it impossible for him to come north this winter ; and, 
 further, that he apprehends that his attending the most 
 eminent professors at Edinburgh for this session may 
 qualify him better than he is at present for teaching after- 
 wards in the College of Aberdeen. He therefore desires 
 
Appendix. 391 
 
 that I would interpose with Mr. Burnet and with the other 
 members of the University that Mr. Temple, tutor to 
 Mr. Pattoun of Grandhome, may be permitted to act in 
 his place as assistant to Mr. Burnet for the session, if 
 Mr. Temple appears to Mr. Burnet a proper person. 
 L would be extremely obliged to the members of the 
 University for this indulgence to Mr. Ogilvie. 
 
 " Mr. Ogilvie very properly leaves the security for his 
 succession to the Regency to the University and to me. 
 And I should apprehend that, as he has accepted of 
 being assistant to Mr. Burnet upon a minute of the 
 University promising this, no other form will be useful 
 but a letter to him signed by you and the other mem- 
 bers of the University, narrating the fact that he had 
 quitted his present employment upon an assurance from 
 the College that he should be chosen into the first vacant 
 Professorship, and promising that each of you will vote 
 for him when such vacancy happens. 
 
 " I enclose a letter to you from Mr. Ogilvie, which I 
 conceive he means to be a public letter to the Univer- 
 sity, and I consider the letter I now write in the same 
 light. I beg therefore that you would be pleased to 
 communicate it to a meeting of the University, and 
 assure Mr. Burnet and the other gentlemen of the sense 
 I have of their attention to me upon this occasion. If 
 I had not been sure that Mr. Ogilvie's qualifications were 
 well known to you all I would not have thought of sug- 
 gesting him as a proper person to be a member of the 
 University. 
 
 " I am, with very sincere esteem and regard, Sir, 
 " Your most obedient and most humble Servant, 
 
 " Deskfoord.'' 
 
392 Appendix. 
 
 IV. — Mr. Ogilvie's Letter to the Principal. 
 
 "Sir, — Lord Deskfoord has been so good as to 
 acquaint me with a resolution of a meeting of the 
 University, which does me much honour, and lays 
 me under the greatest obligations. I accept with 
 thankfulness of the offer which is made, and shall 
 endeavour to show myself in every respect not un- 
 deserving of it. As to any security I am to have 
 of succeeding to any vacancy that may happen, I 
 leave that entirely to Lord Deskfoord and the members 
 of the University, in whose friendship and goodwill I 
 place all confidence. 
 
 " I beg you will make offer of my most respectful 
 compliments to Mr. Burnet, and I am with great regard, 
 and a grateful sense of your favours, Sir, 
 
 " Your most obedient and most humble Servant, 
 
 "William Ogilvie." 
 
 V. — In accordance with the wishes of Lord Deskfoord, the 
 following Letter was sent to Mr. Ogilvie, confirming his 
 appointment : — 
 
 " King's College, 25<A November, 1761. 
 
 " SiF, — The Masters of the College have this day 
 before them a letter from Lord Deskfoord, and an- 
 other from you signifying your willingness to accept 
 of becoming Mr. Burnet's assistant for teaching his 
 class. 
 
 " We are sorry that your engagements with Mr. 
 Graeme will not permit your being with us this 
 
Appendix. 393 
 
 winter. Since that is the case, Mr. Burnet will 
 employ Mr. Temple in your place in case he shall 
 find it necessary. 
 
 "As you have quitted your present employment 
 upon the assurance which the members gave Lord 
 Deskfoord that you should be chosen into the first 
 vacant office that might happen of a Regent's place, 
 we judge it proper to renew the same assurance to your- 
 self, promising that each of us will vote for you to 
 succeed to the first vacancy that shall happen of a 
 Regent's place, and we are, 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " Jo. Chalmers [Principal]. 
 " Jo. LUMSDEN [Prof, of Divinity]. 
 " Jo. Gregory [Mediciner]. 
 " Al. Burnet [Sub-Principal]. 
 " Tho. Gordon [Humanist]. 
 " RODK. MACLEOD [Regent]. 
 "Tho. Reid [Regent]. 
 "John Leslie [Eegent]."* 
 
 VI. — Letter from the Chancellor to Professor Ogilvie. 
 
 " Leven Lodge, near Edinburgh, i6tt October, 1764. 
 " Dear Sir, — Lord Deskfoord t being indisposed at 
 
 * These were all the Masters of the College at the time, with the 
 exception of David Dalrymple, Civilist, and George Gordon, Professor 
 of Oriental Languages. 
 
 + The Chancellor having succeeded to the Earldoms of Findlater and 
 Seafield, his eldest son is now called Lord Deskfoord. 
 
394 Appendix. 
 
 Forglen lost us a day, which deprived me of the 
 pleasure of seeing you and the other gentlemen of the 
 University of Aberdeen. 
 
 " I have this day received Dr. Reid's* resignation of 
 13th October, which I have enclosed in a letter to the 
 Principal ; but being hurried with company, and not 
 having time to write particularly to Mr. Middleton, the 
 Rector, whom it was my duty to attend to, I have 
 enclosed the Principal's letter to him. As soon as 
 this comes to your hand, I would have you wait on 
 Mr. Middleton, who will probably employ you to 
 convey the Principal's letter to him. I think you 
 should likewise call for the other gentlemen of the 
 University without delay, and put them in mind of their 
 engagements to you contained in the letter to me which 
 I transmitted to you. You may acquaint Mr. Macleod 
 that his chief was here to-day in perfect good health. 
 Remember me kindly to Whitehaugh. Offer my best 
 compliments to all the gentlemen in the University, and 
 be assured that, 
 
 " I am most sincerely, dear Sir, 
 
 " Your most obedient humble Servant, 
 
 " FiNDLATER AND SEAFIELD." 
 
 VII. — Letter from the Chancellor to the Principal. 
 
 " CuLLEN House, ibth September, 1765. 
 " Sir, — Some time ago in a correspondence w' you 
 
 * Dr. Reid then went to Glasgow to succeed Dr. Adam Smith as 
 Professor of Moral Philosophy. 
 
Appendix. 395 
 
 I suggested that I thought the Humanist's Profession 
 might be made of more use & ornament to the Society, 
 if, besides the merely teaching the Elements of the 
 Language, he threw in a set of Lectures upon Antiqui- 
 ties & History, both Political & Natural, & likewise 
 upon Criticism & Rhetorick. Seeing the great resort 
 there is to Dr. Blair's Class at Edin'^ confirms me in 
 this opinion ; & as the Humanist , gives Lectures to 
 two different sets of People at the College, I should 
 think these things might easily be included in the 
 course of the four years. I mentioned this to Mr. 
 Ogilvie when he was here, & I find in consequence of 
 my doing so that he & the Humanist have, had some 
 conversation about an exchange. But before men- 
 tioning it publicly they want to know my opinion 
 about it. 
 
 "I am apt to think that it will be easier for Mr. 
 Ogilvie to enter upon a new manner of teaching the 
 Humanity Class than it would be for Mr. Gordon * to 
 leave the tract he has been used to, & that these ad- 
 ditional Branches being taught in your College would 
 put it more on a level w' some other Universities than 
 it is at present. If you are of the same opinion, I 
 should be glad that you would propose the Exchange 
 to the other members of the College & promote it. 
 I enclose this Letter open for Mr. Ogilvie 'to deliver, 
 & have likewise written a short Letter to Mr. Mid- 
 dletonf on the same subject. I beg that Mr. Burnet, 
 Mr. M'Leod, & all our friends in your College may 
 
 * Thomas Gordon, Assistant to Mr. Alex. Fraser, Sub-Principal 
 1734, Humanist 1739, Regent 1765, Professor of Greek 1796, died 1798. 
 t George Middleton of Seaton, then Rector of King's College. 
 
396 Appendix. 
 
 be assured of my best wishes, & am, w' very much 
 regard, * " Sir, 
 
 " Your most obedient & most humble Servant, ^ 
 " FiNDLATER AND SEAFIELD." 
 
 VIII. — Letter from Professor Ogilvie to Principal J ack^^ 
 
 " Aberdeen, 26th February, iSiy. 
 " Dear Sir, — Finding my health declining very fast, 
 I have for some time employed Mr. Patrick Forbes as 
 an Assistant, and in the hopes that the meeting will 
 be so good as to elect him Conjunct Professor with 
 myself I hereby demit my Office of Professor of 
 Humanity into the hands of the Principal & Masters 
 with all Emoluments from this date, & on account of 
 the present state of my health, I wish the meeting to 
 proceed without delay. 
 
 " I remain, dear Sir, 
 
 " Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 "William Ogilvie." 
 
 * On the 23rd September, the Masters approved of the suggested 
 exchange, and, Messrs. Gordon and Ogilvie having demitted their offices 
 (the former "with reservation of regress on death or demission of Mr. 
 Ogilvie), they elected Mr. Gordon a Regent, and (having, in accordance 
 with the terms of the Foundation, conjoined with themselves four Pro- 
 curatores Nationum) t they appointed Mr. Ogilvie Humanist. 
 
 + William Jack, Regent, 1794, Sub-Principal and Professor of 
 Mathematics, 1800, Professor of Moral Philosophy, i8ii, Principal, 
 181 5, died 1855. 
 
 It is interesting to note the length of period of office of the different 
 Masters mentioned above : Alexander Burnet, 54 years ; William Ogilvie, 
 58 years; John. Chalmers, 60 years; William Jack, 61 years; Thomas 
 Gordon, 64 years; Roderick Macleod, 67 years. 
 
 J Dr. Alex. Gerard, Prof, of Divinity in Marischal College, for 
 Lothian ; Patrick Wilson, Esq., for Murray ; Lieut. Robert Hay for 
 Mar ; Hugh Maclean, Esq. of Coll, for Angus. 
 
Appendix. 397 
 
 IX. — Letter from Professor Ogilvie to Principal Jack. 
 
 " yith June, 1817. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — In order to give immediate effect to 
 that article of the general agreement which refers to 
 Mr. Forbes and me, we have agreed to propose that 
 he be elected, without delay, Assistant and Successor 
 to me as Professor of Humanity. Will you then be so 
 good as to call a College Meeting as soon as may be, 
 and lay this our request before them ? * 
 
 " I am, &c., 
 
 "William Ogilvie." 
 
 X.— Words spoken by THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY at 
 a Primrose League " Demonstration " in Edinburgh, 
 on 10th November, 1888 ; ivith, inter alia, a Requiem 
 by The Duke of Argyll, on his own behalf:— 
 
 "I wish to say one word upon the question of arrears, and I 
 wish to say it because it has received a Scottish application. 
 The only argument which I know that at all has any plausibility 
 for remitting the arrears which are complained of in Ireland is 
 that in a bill which was passed to relieve the Scottish crofters 
 _ the question of arrears was dealt with. Now I can conceive no 
 mistake greater than to confuse the question of Irish land with 
 the question of the Scottish crofters. The Scottish Crofters Bill 
 was no measure for which I am responsible — and I do not 
 profess to admire it in all respects, but it had this particular 
 
 • On i8th July the Masters, with Procurators as usual, elected the 
 Rev. Patrick Forbes, Minister of the second charge of Old Machar, 
 Assistant and Successor to Prof. Ogilvie, with a special appointment to 
 teach a class of Cheinistry and Natural History. 
 
 27 
 
398 Appendix. 
 
 note, it was not a disturbance of old long-established 
 rights. The ground on which you interfered with the position 
 of the Scottish crofters was that you said that up to a com- 
 paratively recent period they had held upon a tenure 
 not the general tenure of these islands, and that that tenure 
 had by lapse, by carelessness, by use, by encroach- 
 ment, been converted into a condition of things wholly 
 and unjustly disadvantageous to themselves. It was 
 said that the old clannish tenure, which was very different 
 from the ordinary law of landlord and tenant in this country, that 
 that had slipped into the law of landlord and tenant, 
 entirely to the advantage of the landlord, without any 
 consideration for the valuable interest which the 
 clansman formerly had in the land on which he lived. 
 Well, that is a very fair argument, and the Act of Parliament 
 \The Crofters' Act, 1886] which flowed from it was that the rule 
 of prescription observed generally in this country should be 
 considerably extended — extended from sixty to eighty years— 
 and that all who these eighty years had been in the condition 
 of crofters should have their case specially considered. Well, 
 that was a decision perfectly consistent with ordinary 
 doctrines of the rights of property— whether you thought 
 it wise or thought it foolish, there was nothing in it which 
 affected the rights of property in general. Tl^e case of 
 the Irish tenant was very different. Parliament in its 
 wisdom set aside the rights of landlords, which had 
 existed for many many hundred years, had existed by full 
 confession and approval of the law, in many cases by the 
 direct provision of Acts of Parliament. Now, of course 
 I do not wish to discuss the policy of that measure. I was 
 myself opposed to it, but I do not wish to enter upon discussion 
 of the point — that is not my present point. What I wish is to 
 show how different it was from the case of Scotland. What 
 you did in the case of Ireland was that you took away 
 from the landlord that which the landlord had always 
 
Appendix. 399 
 
 had a right to in Ireland for centuries, that which he had 
 a right to in every other country in the world — that is to say, of 
 occupying as he pleases, and subject to all contracts and subject 
 to compensation for improvements, occupying if he pleases the 
 land which he owns. You have taken that away from 
 the Irish landlord. It is a tremendous measure, and 
 it has nothing ■whatever in common with the very moderate 
 and limited measure which in their peculiar circumstances 
 you have passed for the crofters of Scotland. Therefore 
 I say the fact that in dealing with the crofters of Scotland, you 
 have also dealt with the arrears which have arisen unrfer 
 a system which you determined to be faulty has nothing 
 whatever to do with the larger and more revolutionary measure 
 which you applied to Ireland." 
 
 Note. — The conversion of Lord Salisbury, and the con- 
 fession of it are strange facts. Well, facts require no philo- 
 sophy, no theology, to support them. It is not necessary 
 "to gild refined gold," and Lord Salisbury had the wisdom to 
 present some grains of sense and truth to the women of 
 Edinburgh, instead of the blarney with which he tickled the 
 ears of the other sex in the Corn Exchange, and in the 
 Conservative Club, during the earlier part of the same day. 
 Let us thank the Edinburgh Primrose Dames for his confession, 
 if not for his conversion also. 'I he incident is worth noting as 
 an example of woman's good influence over stiff-necked 
 politicians. ' Stronger than the King, stronger than wine, 
 are women — the Law of Nature conquers all things ! ' is 
 still a true saying. 
 
 The Edinburgh women did well, but the women of Skye 
 who bravely fought the Battle of the Braes, in 1883, must not 
 be lost sight of. To them we owe the agitation which produced 
 the Crofters' Act — the wedge by which the rights of the people 
 may be re-established in every corner of the British Empire. 
 It only needs hammering in. It is the first Government 
 recognition of Birthright in Land, as far as England and the 
 
400 Appendix. 
 
 '■'■Northern Counties of England" zxe.conc&xne.A. "Vaz Crofters! . 
 Act is based upon Natural Rights, what Lord Salisbury calls 
 " Clannish tenure^' which being interpreted, means the rights 
 of children in the land of their birth, in Father-land. And these 
 rights, be it observed, his Lordship denies to the children of 
 every Lowland or English mother, as well as Irish mothers. 
 The Skye women defended the old long-established rights of their 
 children, because their maternal instincts impelled them to do 
 so. On the other hand, the Roman mothers were at one time 
 so corrupted by despotism, that they abandoned their children 
 to slaves ; and they wished to teach them to forget that their 
 fathers had been free. Here we learn how the character and 
 fate of a Nation, or an Empire, depend almost entirely on the 
 mothers of the people. British mothers have stood a most 
 severe test for ages. They had to contend with poverty and 
 oppression, on the one hand, and to withstand debasing and 
 debauching temptations on the other ; the landlord systeih of 
 despotism being mainly responsible for these encompassing 
 evils. 
 
 Lord Salisbury's Confession should be read along with Lord 
 Beaconsfield's Confession of 1 844, with special reference to the 
 Clannish tenure of the people of England. It also " slipped into 
 the law of landlord and tenant," with the same result as in the 
 Highlands, " entirely to the advantage of the landlord" ^ In. 
 short, freebooting, ajthough managed in England by the aid of * 
 such things as Acts of Parliaments — where all the members 
 were landlords ! — only shows the bare-faced audacity of the 
 English Freebooter as compared with his Scottish brother in 
 trade. Even the Duke of Argyll and Mr. Balfour may holdup 
 their heads in England ; and they do so ! During the reign of 
 George III, a person whose name should not be omitted in 
 any work on the Land Question, the English i^;-«£(5(7o/«w passed 
 3446 Acts of Parliament — Acts of theft, they should be called 
 —by which they enclosed!^:) 5469 square miles of common lands. 
 This immense area was " slipped into the law of landlord and_ 
 
Appendix. 40 1 
 
 tenant" was made private property, in the most scandalously 
 dishonest manner possible. 
 
 These landlords, sitting in Parliament, under the pretext of 
 looking after the interests of the people, robbed the people to that 
 extent openly, and by means of Law and Order t Where were 
 the clergy of the Church of England then ? And what were 
 the clergy of the Non-conformists doing ? It was too bad to 
 allow such a mean advantage to be taken of poor George III., 
 whose name is still left connected with such public robbery, 
 was it not? Can we trust the genuine loyalty of such Free- 
 booters, or of such consenting clergy ? 
 
 We must hang one or two other things on the hooks which 
 Lprd Salisbury's Confession has furnished. Let us glance at 
 His Grace the Duke of Argyll as he perused the Scotsman's 
 report of that Confession, and then began to sing his own death 
 song, pouring forth a gushing torrent of envy at the "perfect 
 sluinber " of the, remains of a small bird : — 
 
 " A Ring-Plover found dead in Tyree. 
 
 In a hollow of the dunes 
 
 Its wings were closed in rest, 
 And the florets of the eyebright 
 
 Stood guard around its breast. 
 
 * # * * * 
 
 No more its tuneful whistle 
 
 Would mingle with]]the surf ; 
 Its busy feet weire idle, 
 
 Once nimble on the turf. 
 
 No ruffle marred its plumage. 
 
 No struggle stretched its head ; [!] 
 
 It lay in perfect slumber. 
 The happiest of the dead. 
 
 So could I wish that death 
 
 Would make his lair for me 
 Among the list'ning pastures 
 
 And margins of the sea." 
 
 " Argyll." 
 
402 Appendix. 
 
 His Grace is practically weaker as a philosopher than as 
 a poet. Would it not have been wiser to try to live an 
 innocent and love-inspiring life like this ring-plover, and 
 with "tuneful whistle" cheer up the Crofters of Tyree, 
 whose own whistle is kept so dry by His Grace's Estate 
 Regulations, rather than pray to "death" for the repeal of 
 one of Nature's fixed Laws, the benefit of which might be 
 much easier earned by His Grace than by any little piping 
 bird of Tyree ? The Duke can pipe by proxy, and he can 
 even pipe after he is "found" dead" by founding a piper 
 in Tyree ! Alas ! the ring-plover can not bequeath any of 
 its notes I 
 
 The "dunes," by the way, suggest a little borrowed inspira- 
 tion from Victor Hugo, a true loter of his race, whose spirit 
 slumbers not, but lives in the hearts of mankind. When His 
 Grace raves so much about the slumbering spirit of a dead ring- 
 plover, what would he not give for the " lair " of a Hugo or 
 a Burns ? 
 
 His Grace is painfully conscious that the Tyree Crofters, 
 who revolted against his oppression and rack-reriting, will 
 «(?/ i-/a«^ " guard around his breast" They have learned to 
 say ; — 
 
 Yes, we shall weep o'er each lamented grave 
 
 Of those who joined us in stern Freedom's cause ; 
 
 And, as the moistened turf our tears shall lave 
 These tears shall freedom honour with applause.* 
 
 MuiR. 
 
 * From Thomas Muir's Farewell, written on 12th March 1794, on 
 board the " Surprise " Transport, at Portsmouth. 
 
 The fact that Muir courted the Muses was doubtless known to Burns, 
 who was affectionately fond of his brother poets ; hence the news of the 
 Braxfield sentence, mentioned supra, in connection with the suppressed 
 date of composing Scots wha hae, must have touched the innermost 
 chord in his heart. 
 
Appendix. 403 
 
 How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, 
 By all their country's wishes blest ! 
 When spring, with dewy fingers cold, 
 Returns to deck their hallow'd mould. 
 She there shall dress a sweeter sod 
 Than fancy's feet have ever trod. 
 
 By fairy hands their knell is wrung, 
 By forms unseen their dirge is sung ; 
 There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray. 
 To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; 
 And Freedom shall awhile repair. 
 To dwell a weeping hermit there ! 
 
 Collins. 
 
 Faith in human nature is inspired by these lines. Without 
 such faith this world would indeed be a veritable "vale of 
 tears,'' as the orthodox clergy love to describe it. Alas ! the 
 description is too true as regards a very large section of 
 the human race. But are we not on the road towards 
 •a better hfe in this world? It may interest some new 
 converts to Lord Salisbury's Primrose League that the 
 following benevolent principles of Land Reform, so much on 
 Professor Ogilvie's lines, were adopted in Skye, as preached 
 by Mr. Henry George, before the Essay now re-published 
 was unearthed : — 
 
 " Resolutions by the Skye Crofters, passed at Meetings addressed 
 by Mr. Henry George in January, 1885. 
 
 " Whereas the land was made by God, who is no respecter of 
 persons, for the equal use and enjoyment of all the people whom 
 He brings into life upon it, we hereby declare, that any system 
 which compels the people to pay rent to other human creatures, 
 for the privilege of living upon God's earth, is a robbery of 
 labour, and a wicked violation of the benevolent intention of 
 the Creator. 
 
404 Appendix. 
 
 '■^Resolved. — That while we shall thankfully welcome * any 
 measures that will lessen the tyrannous power which the so 
 called landlords of Skye have exercised over us, we will not 
 consider, any measure as a settlement of the land questionil 
 which does not restore our God-given rights in our native soil, 
 and does not restore the same full rights to our brethren of the 
 cities, towns, and mineral and agricultural districts of England, 
 Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, by taking all rent for land for the 
 common benefit of the whole people, and putting an end to the 
 wicked wrong which compels labouring men to want, suffering, 
 and untimely death, in order that idlers may live in luxury. 
 
 "Resolved. — That we call upon our brethren, the working 
 men of the whole country, to give us their support in obtaining 
 our natural rights, as we shall give them ours in obtaining 
 theirs, and especially we call upon them to enter their strongest 
 protest against the invasion of Skve by armed forces from the 
 mainland, with the object of enabling the landlords to deprive 
 us of the means necessary for the support of our families, by 
 virtue of laws in the making of which we have had no voice. 
 
 "Resolved. — That the attention of the Right Hon. Sir Wm. 
 Vernon Harcourt is hereby called to the unconstitutional 
 manner in which the Sheriff and Procurator-Fiscal of the 
 County of Inverness have acted ^ith regard to the people of 
 Skye, and that he is hereby requested to institute an open 
 inquiry into their proceedings, with a view to their impeach- 
 ment, removal, and punishment, and that the present Com- 
 missioners of Police of the County be at once suspended, 
 and a measure introduced into the next session of Parliament' 
 
 * The Crofters thankfully welcomed the Crofters' Act in 1886, but 
 'NOT as a settlement of the land question — they want " the adjacent islands 
 of Great Britain and Ireland ! " to share in God's blessings as well as their 
 own Isle of Skye. Lord Salisbury, it will be observed, draws the line at 
 the "old clannish tenure" Is he a patriotic Briton, or a member of 
 The Clan na Gael ? 
 
Appendix. 405 
 
 abolishing all such hereditary-landlord-authorities * not founded 
 on the voice of the people. 
 
 '•■ "Resolved. — That this meeting tender heartfelt thanks to the 
 Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone for having successfully carried 
 through Parliament an Act which enables crofters, for the first 
 time, to exercise their right in the making of laws which affect 
 their interests.'' 
 
 It is from little insignificant facts, observed here and there, 
 that we are sometimes able to discover the course of human 
 affairs, and those movements which now and again lead to the 
 overthrow of long-established systems of despotism and slavery. 
 We discover the currents of the sea by watching the ripples on 
 the surface, and the mere straws which float in it. The little 
 nuts stranded along the shores of Western Europe, thousands 
 of years before Columbus was born, carried to our forefathers 
 the tidings of another world beyond the Atlantic. The great 
 labour and life problem convulsion in darkest England is 
 manifesting itself as a lock-fast land problem in Ireland, in Skye, 
 in Tyree, in Lewis, all along the fringe of the British Isles. In 
 Wales, we have the tithe agitation. It is our old friend, the 
 greased cartridge! In 1843, Scotland passed through a 
 "spiritual" grease agitation, and, then for forty years ! the 
 spirit of priestcraft and death reigned until the Battle of the 
 Braes in 1883. Religion always blocks the way of all earthly 
 reforms. Even now, in Scotland, the cry of " the Church in 
 danger "- is raised, purposely to divert the attention of the com- 
 munity from the agitation for the abolition of landlordism. The 
 tithe movement in Wales is perhaps helped by the enemy in the 
 
 * The Local Government {Scotland) Act, 1889, gave partial effect to 
 this suggestion, but owing to the sickly condition of the children of 
 Liberty in Lowland Caledonia, Scotland is still held under Landlord 
 thraldom, excepting that the Crofters' Act, 1886, has produced an effect 
 something like the taking of the Bastille. Rents in the Lowlands came 
 tumbling down without any Land Court ! 
 
4o6 Appendix. 
 
 same way. Irish landlordism always flourished amidst the gore 
 of religious strife. 
 
 While we feel the pulse of landlordism at the extremities, 
 and there see its unmistakeable ravages, the heart of the evil is 
 in England, whence it had its source and development.- It is 
 there also, in all probability, the problem of its abolition will be 
 finally solved. At any rate, it is safe to say that a grand co- 
 operation for concentrating the agitation there, would lead to 
 the speediest and wisest mode of settlement. England, with its 
 deserted fields,. and with its increased and, increasing landless 
 and- /fli5o«r/M.f population, is the great question of the coming 
 hour. It is there that the question of real Hotne Rule will come 
 up. What a charming chapter for the future historian to describe 
 the incidents of the glorious year in which England abolished 
 landlordism and parcelled out every acre of land for the use and 
 enjoymfitit of her people ! The descendants of the men 
 and women who will bring about that blessing must feel 
 proud of such ancestors. Or is the English race destined 
 to rot, and leave the fair land to strangers? There is 
 a ray of better hope in the following incident : — At one of the 
 great open air Demonstrations at which the Skye Resolutions 
 above quoted were passed in 1885, the most earnest Land 
 Leaguers were some of the English Marines ; although sent for 
 by the landlords to keep down the agitation 1 Several of them 
 came to shake hands with Mr. Henry George after he concluded 
 a speech to the Crofters in favour of the adoption of the No- 
 rent policy. One of these Marines on coming forward said :— 
 " I know you Mr. George although I never saw you before, I 
 have read your books, and I have purchased three copies of 
 Progress and Poverty for my comrades since I came here ". 
 
 XI. — Extracts, from Reports of Royal Commission^ 
 1826, 1836, and 1837. '"' 
 
 (i.) Sale Of the patronage of Bursaries: ''In 1764, King's 
 
Appendix. 407 
 
 College Professors offered for sale, by public auction : ' The 
 sole and perpetual right of presentation to 20 Bursaries* 
 viz., 12 at the School of Fordyce, and 8 at the King's College ' ". 
 "These Bursaries are termed ' Redhyth,' having been founded 
 by Walter Ogilvie of Redhyth. The patronage is said to be 
 now vested in the Earl of Seafield, or his Commissioner ; 
 although in the original foundation, the Principal and Pro- 
 fessprs, with the ministers of Fordyce, Banff, Boyndie, Cullen, and 
 Deskford, were patrons, and Ogilvie of Boyn Comptroller over 
 the whole. The time whe^. this transference of patronage took 
 place does not appear in any of the Returns by the College, 
 nor any mention of a sum got by the Sale." — Documents, pp. 
 2038. 
 
 "The property of these Bursaries appears to have been 
 vested in lands, of which the College sold the superiority, 
 retaining the feu duty payable to the fund, but there is no 
 exact account of the money arising from the sale of the 
 superiority having been carried to the Bursary Stock, or 
 General Mortification Fund." — Docutneiits, p. 208. 
 
 (2.) Censure of King's College by the Commission as to the 
 Ogilvie Bursaries : " The Lord Advocate (Rae) and the 
 
 * The aggregate annual value o{ these Redhyth Bursaries amounts to 
 £648 ; a tidy sum for presentation yearly, among the son.s of landlord 
 favourites who fatten on servility ; while the deserving sons of poor par- 
 ents, whose souls stillcling to independence, are excluded from competing (!) 
 for such presentation bursaries. 
 
 When the " Wise Masters " sold the " perpetual right of presenta- 
 tion" of these and other college bursarres, they used the price "as money 
 in their purse ! " and why not ? Had they not as good a right to do so 
 as the feudal landlords ks regards the original and contingent value of 
 lands sold by them ? They most undoubtedly had, and therefore we must 
 not be too hard on these Wise Masters. They only appropriated the 
 property of the public, because the public stupidly permitted them to 
 do so. As public dispensers of knowledge, they were not more guilty 
 than the Landlords who were the public dispensers of Justice at the time 
 they stole the land from the people. 
 
4o8 Appendix. 
 
 Solicitor General (Hope) were appointed in 1828 to frame an 
 answer to Professor Scott's Letter on these Bursaries. And in 
 1830, after reading a letter from him, the Comtnission directed 
 that the Principal and Professors of King's College be requested 
 to take care to prevent all similar misappropriations of the funds 
 of this or of any other endowment connected with that College." 
 — Minutes, pp. 41, 60, 65. 
 
 (3.) The Leys Bursaries misappropriated: "The late Sir 
 Robert Burnett complained to the Commission that the College 
 only paid his Bursars, three in number, ^^5 each, while the 
 lands in which the property is vested, being Dee Street, Gordon 
 Street, &c., yielded in 1825 an annual income of _;^3i8 6s. yd. 
 These lands Sir Thomas Burnett, when founding the Bursaries 
 in 1648, had mortified to the College, retaining the patronage 
 of the Bursaries for himself and heirs." It was admitted that 
 from the surplus, " there was given to each of the stated 
 members (professors) of the University upon an average ;^io 
 annually". — Report of Kin^ s College, p. 326-7. 
 
 (4.) Disappearance of Bursaries : " Lorimer's and Reid's 
 Mortifications do not appear at all in the accounts. That there 
 were such, there is no doubt. They are mentioned in an 
 Abstract prefixed to the accounts in 1700 ; but the Accounter 
 states that he had no intromissit)ns with them, and' there had 
 been none that can now be ascertained." Evidence, p. 60. 
 
 (5.) King's College Debt: "The College has contracted a 
 very considerable debt. In 1775 the amount of debt appears, 
 from the accounts transmitted, to have been ;63,944 5s. 2d. 
 In 1800, ^^6,283 8s. 7d., and in 1824, ;^8,46s 6s. lod. It 
 thus appears that, during the last 50 years, the debt has 
 increased at the rate of about ;^9o annually." Report, p. 311.* 
 
 * In 1786, the Seven Wise Masters successfully opposed a Government 
 Visitation, yet strange to say they managed to get ;^I700 from Govern- 
 ment in 1807 as a grant to help the College to pay its debts, and in 1808 
 a Government Grant of ;£70o per annum was secured to the College or 
 
Appendix. 409 
 
 (6.) Alienations. " The College sold the superiorities of its 
 lands in 1752." " Sold the patronages often churches in 1765." 
 Report, p. 311. — " Sold the lands of Lochhills on the west side of 
 Old Aberdeen, presently in the hands of Mr. Leslie of Powis. 
 The date of alienation is not known." — Evidence., p. 59. 
 
 " Part of Canonist's Glebe alienated in feu rights to different 
 persons." — Documents, p. 196, 233. 
 
 "On the 1 2th October, 1784, a majority of the Senatus 
 (one* only having dissented) agreed to feu to Mr. Leslie of 
 Powis the part of the canonist's Glebe, lying next to his grounds, 
 at ;£3 los. per acre. About the same time part of Humanists' 
 Glebe was alienated." — Document^, p. 196 (p. 218 Ante). 
 
 " Lands called Cairntradlin and Scots Mill were sold witA 
 the consent of the Synod of Aberdeen by way of feu in 1753." 
 Documents, p. 200; Report, p. 312. 
 
 N.B. — The oath taken in those days by each Professor 
 
 the same end. (Report, p. 310.) The Wise Masters, however, managed 
 after all to go on increasing the College debt, as above stated. But they 
 wisely arranged to postpone all Visitations to a convenient season. They 
 were all gathered to their fathers before 1826. 
 
 During the sixteen years, from 1808 to 1824, the college debt would 
 have increased to ;^3o,ooo, counting interest, if Government had not 
 come to the rescue. Compare such mismanagement of funds with the 
 proposal by the practical Professor Ogilvie of an Accumulating Fund ; 
 whereby the whole college debt might have been cleared off without 
 taking one penny out of the Public Purse. This " Accumulating Fund," 
 after all debts were paid, was intended for the endowment of a chair of 
 Practical Husbandry. See pp. 224 and 229 Ante. Professor Ogilvie's 
 Protests against the mismanagement of the Wise Masters were set aside 
 as too " frivolous " — they refused to enter them in the college Minutes 
 (April 9, 1785) ; and he then inserted them by his own hand (p. 225, Ante). 
 
 *This is ix sample of the way in which Whig and Tory reformers 
 systematically boycotted Professor Ogilvie's name, not only while he lived, 
 but also after his death. Even the College Reformers who took up his 
 cue in 1839 and 1858, in favour of the union of the colleges effected in 
 i860, when actually quoting the words of his Protests and Dissents, care- 
 fiiUy avoided mentioning his name. 
 
41 Appendix. 
 
 concludes thus : " That I will defend every right and privilege 
 of the College ; and as far as in my power see to its advantage 
 and utility in all things. So help me God." — Documents, p. 151, 
 
 The seven wise jnasters pleaded that oath-, as binding on 
 them, against all the college reforms advocated by Professor 
 Ogilvie and others in 1786; they were marvellously conscientious 
 in other things — were they not ? 
 
 (7.) Opittion of the Royal Commissioners as to Alienations of 
 Property: — "With the exception of Marischal College, Aber- 
 deen, there have been many alienations of property belonging 
 to all the colleges. We are disposed to think that the alienations 
 which have hitherto taken place have been altogether illegal, and 
 that they are in opposition to the provisions of an Act of Parlia- 
 ment of Scotland. Resolved, that no sales, feus, or alienations 
 of any description whatever, of any part of the properly 
 belonging to the colleges, or the granting of any building or 
 beneficial leases of any part thereof, ought to be allowed without 
 the authority of Parliament." — General Report Abstract, p. 131; 
 General Report , p. 24; Minute of the Commission, 22nd October, 
 1829. 
 
 N.B. — Compare with Professor Ogilvie's Opinion in his 
 Protest in 1784. Vide pp. 220 and 227 ante. 
 
 XII. — Extract/w;« Documents compiled hy a Committee 
 of Graduates, Aberdeen, 1839, P- 26.- 
 
 Tfie Professors of King's College sell the Chime of Bells given 
 by their Founder: — "There is in this Universitie a magnifick 
 and illustrious Colledge, built at commandement of the Most 
 Noble King, James the Fourth of happy memory, and hence 
 called the King's Colledge, having a Collegiate. Kirke and 
 Steeple, both of hewn stone, curiouslie wrought, and the steeple 
 hath within it ane musical harmonie of costly and pleasant 
 bells ". — Memorial to Charles I. in 1634. 
 
Appendix. 41 1 
 
 " These bells survived 300 years, till about the close of the 
 last century, when they were sold ; but there is no mention of 
 the price obtained in the accounts yet published. There were 
 five bells; the largest, 3 feet 10 inches across." 
 
 XIII.— Extracts /wwz 'M Complete Collection of the 
 Papers relating to the Union ~of the King's and 
 Marischal Colleges of Aberdeen',' published in 1787. 
 
 (i.) How long is it since the Professors of King's College 
 became so solicitous for the education of the poorer sort? How 
 long is it since they avowed in public a different system, 
 declaring, almost in the words of Mandeville, that education 
 ought to be confined to those who had property, or the certain 
 prospect of a settlement in a learned profession ?* For this 
 good purpose did they not reduce their bursaries to one half 
 the number ? Where was then their scrupulous attention to the 
 spirit, or the letter, of Bishop Elphinston's foundation ? 
 
 (2.) Is a royal Visitation any attack on their rights ? Will 
 they misapply the college revenue bestowed by royal bounty in 
 feeing lawyers, to contest a salutary, constitutional, and hitherto 
 undisputedj exercise of the royal prerogative ? But they have 
 too great a regard for liberty to acquiesce. In zeal for liberty, 
 and a true comprehension of its interests, Buchanan was at 
 least equal to any modern Professor. Yet he, in the reformation 
 of St. Andrews, recommends Quadriennial Visitations by the 
 Crown. 
 
 (3.) Is it a becoming application of the money of either 
 society, to employ it in consulting lawyers to oppose a Govern- 
 ment Visitation ? And should the Principal of King's College, 
 with his adherents proceed to employ lawyers for resisting a 
 
 * See their advertisement, p. igo, ante. 
 
412 Appendix. , 
 
 Visitation ; will not that be acting just as the old lady, some- 
 what disordered in mind, who sent for her attorney and feed 
 him, to keep the physician from entering her house ? 
 
 (4.) In general it will be allowed, that where enquiries of this 
 nature are called for by any part of the public, the more they 
 are resisted by ' individuals having interest, the more their 
 necessity becomes evident. ' 
 
 (5.) When a founder distinctly declares the end he has in 
 view, and afterwards points out the m'eans by which that end 
 may be accomplished ; a strict regard is due to the former, and, 
 in order to carry it more effectually into execution, a liberal con- 
 struction should be applied to the latter. 
 
 (6.) We maintain that establishments of a public nature, 
 and for purposes of public utility, may be altered and improved, 
 while the intention of the founders is observed, by authority of 
 the legislature, in order to render them more extensively use- 
 ful ; and such changes have been frequently made, though 
 seldom so soon, or so extensively as they ought. The opinion 
 of unalterable rules is now generally exploded ; the propriety 
 of reasonable innovations is agreeable to the common sense of 
 mankind, and of such innovations in our Universities, in- 
 troduced by competent authority, we have many instances. 
 
 (7.) Whether, from the salaries of the Professorships pro- 
 posed to be suppressed, and the savings to be made by that 
 most excellent scheme of a sinking fund, an endowment should 
 be settled upon some well qualified person for giving lectures 
 on Practical Husbandry, and the best method of improving a 
 farm ? Whether the instituting a professorship of this kind 
 unknown in other seminaries, would not do much honour to 
 the United College, and prove of more real service to the com- 
 munity than many of those frivolous comtemptible arts that are 
 so eagerly cultivated, such as singing, fiddling, dancing, spout- 
 ing, declamation, and the like, for all which there are schools 
 and professorships, but none for agriculture, the most useful of 
 all arts ? Sola res rustica, quee sine dubitatione proxima at 
 
Appendix. 413 
 
 quasi consanguinea sapientise est, tam discentibus eget, quam 
 , magistris. 
 
 (8.) Whether Jt is probable that the Royal Visitors will 
 examine very minutely into the present state of both Colleges, 
 the modes of education, the course of prelections, the manage- 
 ment of the revenue, its application, improvement, or dilapida- 
 tion from time to time, the condition of the Public Libraries 
 and Museums ; and into the abihties, learning, and assiduity of 
 the Masters, in the exercise of Academical functions ? 
 
 (9.) Whether it is not probable that the Royal Visitors will 
 ex nobili officio, declare it to be essential to the future economy 
 of these public seminaries that neither Principal nor Pro- 
 fessors be on any pretext excused from residence, from active 
 labour in their vocations, or from giving a regular course of 
 lectures in some department of science ; and that sinecures 
 shall be everlastingly abolished in the University? 
 
 (10.) When an institution is intended \o promote education; 
 to apply the funds to any purpose of a quite different nature, 
 however useful to the public, is to abandon the end of the 
 founder ; to alter the regulations, the number and departments 
 of the teachers, or the course of sciences taught, is only to 
 change the means, and if the alterations be proper the end is 
 thereby more effectually promoted. 
 
 (11.) Systems of pretended science the most chimerical, 
 contentions about unintelligible words, and a superstitious 
 theology which inculcated tenets subversive of the Spirit of 
 Christianity, and degrading to human nature, were long the 
 only objects of study in the Universities, and some of them are 
 not yet entirely exploded. 
 
 (12.) An attachment to old rules and customs is a principle of 
 powerful and general influence. They have the advantage of 
 present and long possession, and are not easily overturned. 
 Improvements of undoubted utility have often been long post- 
 poned after the circumstances of the times required them, and 
 in some instances altogether neglected. 
 
 28 
 
414 Appendix. 
 
 XIV. — The Chronicle of Strathconon, continued. 
 
 The Strath, or great glen, of the river Conon is a High- 
 land district extending to about twenty miles in length. In 
 the beginning of this century it maintained a comfortable, 
 healthy, happy and virtuous population of not less, it is said, 
 than 3000 souls. It is now chiefly under deer, grouse and 
 sheep. There is no branch of the Land League within its 
 boundaries ; peace, contentment, desolation, death and Bal- 
 fourism reign in that happy region ! There is some hope for 
 Ireland yet! In the year 1850 there was a famine in the 
 Highlands. " God sent it" the clergy said. And under cover 
 of that divine visitation \hQ Balfours effected the last "clear- 
 ance" of Strathconon. And the Almighty, as the Supreme 
 Ruler of the universe, is believed to co-operate with evicting 
 and sporting gentry of that kind, and to put His Amen to all 
 their acts of oppression and robbery, as if He had specially 
 created this world for landlords only, and given them full 
 power to treat the rest of mankind as mere vermin. Mr. 
 Balfour keeps two clergymen in -the Strath, who are still bound 
 to preach such doctrine. One of them, the Free Church 
 " divine," has no fixity of tenure, has no right to tithes, and 
 the Sustentation Fund and other estate perquisites would be 
 stopped the moment any sign of agitation appeared in the 
 place. The other, the Established "divine," is more inde- 
 pendent; and why he does not agitate^ gives rise to the ques- 
 tion : Does he also get Sustentation Fund from the landlord, 
 over and above his stipend ? 
 
 The area of Strathconon is stated at 71,900 acres; and 
 the question, plainly put, is this : Is Mr. Balfour responsible 
 to the people of this country for the mismanagement of that 
 place, or are we to believe the divines who tell us that "he is 
 only an unfortunate instrument in the hands of an angry 
 God, whose decrees against a sinful people must be submitted 
 
Appendix. 4 1 5 
 
 to?" There is much need of the real I AM of Moses in 
 Strathconon and such like places. 
 
 There are many men, women, and children starving in 
 UarJiest England for want of land — for want of labour ; and the 
 evicted and rack-rented Celts of Scotland and Ireland help to 
 glut an already glutted English labour market. Let the reader, 
 therefore, consider the question in connection with the follow- 
 ing economic picture of Mr. A. J. Balfour's Home Rule: — 
 
 Rental of Strathconon, as per County Valuation 
 Roll, 1889-90. 
 
 Four sporting tenants, and one absentee landlord, ... ^£^2535 o o 
 Two absentee sheep graziers, ... ... ... ... 760 o o 
 
 Desolation area represents a rental of ... ;£'330i 
 
 One Free Church clergyman, ... ... £i o o 
 
 Four tenant farmers, who pay the fol- 
 fbllowing rack-rents : £'io, £•}<:>, £yei, 
 and ^100 respectively — in all, ... 295 o o 
 Sixteen crofters, chiefly retained as 
 hewers of wood and drawers of 
 water, who pay an aggregate rack- 
 rent of, ... ... ... ... 143 o o 
 
 Population area represents a rental of ... 446 
 
 Total yearly. rent, £3747 
 
 It is right to mention here that Mr. Gerald Balfour, M.P., 
 the proprietor's brother, in giving evidence before a Select 
 Committee of the House of Commons,' on 21st July, 1890, 
 said that the population was. not less than iioo souls in 1829, 
 and that it is now reduced to 233 souls. Of these— the dregs 
 of the old population — it -would appear that 128 souls are 
 landless parasites who hang about the kitchens and dunghills 
 of Mr. A. j; Balfour's shooting lodges. He admitted that all 
 the sixteen crofters also belong to the same Balfour-parasitic 
 
4i6 Appendix. 
 
 species ; and he added that they " are perfectly contented". 
 He also admitted that his brother built a manse for the Free 
 Church minister, and that he pays a portion of his stipend be- 
 sides. He referred to the evictions carried out by his father 
 in 1850, as "a weeding out of the population". He said 
 there had been no evictions since 1850, but, nevertheless, he 
 was obliged to admit that the population has decreased more 
 than one-third since then. What does this mean ? It means 
 that death has done its work among the old folks, and that 
 marriages are forbidden in Strathconon. And yet "the 
 people," says Mr. Gerald Balfour, "are perfectly contented" 
 They desire no " agitators " among themj he also said. 
 
 The children of Israel were precisely in the same "per- 
 fectly contented" condition when Moses first tried to stir 
 them up, were they not? When Moses returned from exile 
 with the I AM spirit within him, and his serpent wand in his 
 right hand— the wand of studied wisdom, exchanged for the 
 Mack thorn with which he, as an impetuous youth, killed an 
 Egyptian — how did the children of Israel regard the first out- 
 go of his "agitation?" They said: "The" Lord look upon 
 you, and judge ; because ye have made our savour to be ab- 
 horred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants 
 to put a sword in their hand to slay us''. — Exodus, v. 21. 
 
 That Moses must have felt quite scunnered at these "per- 
 fectly contented" slaves, we need not say; but being prompted 
 by his I AM — the light of Nature in the inward soul — and aided 
 by his SERPENT wand — the powers of Reason — he persevered, 
 and told his kinsmen about the freedom which Jehovah was 
 prepared to bestow upon them if they would only behave like 
 men. " But they hearkened not unto Moses, for 'anguish of 
 spirit, and for cruel bondage." This was an eye-opener even 
 to Moses himself. He then clearly saw the cause which pro- 
 duced the "perfectly contented" condition of his kinsmen. 
 And there and then his I AM spirit resolved to " speak unto 
 Pharaoh," notwithstanding that his Reason protested thus: 
 
Appendix. 417 
 
 " Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me ; 
 how then shall Pharaoh hear me?" and thus: "I am not 
 eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto 
 thy servant ; but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue "- 
 We know the rest; he utilised Aaron as an "agitator"; he 
 made Aaron's tongue speak the I AM principles of Revolution 
 against the Law and Order of Egypt ! There was some 
 diplomacy there ; and he succeeded with his plans in a most 
 expeditious manner. But, after all, the aid of the clergy, though 
 seemingly diplomatic at the time, was a mistake. He admits 
 that " the anger of the Lord was kindled against " him ; and 
 we know that the "Golden calf" tomfoolery and other diffi- 
 culties, which he had to contend with in the wilderness, were 
 entirely due to the evil influence of Priestcraft. 
 
 Moses was a marvellously advanced man. Were he to 
 visit the world of to-day he would unhesitatingly tell the people 
 that the "divinity" professors, who profess to teach the mean- 
 ing of his books, understand less about old Hebrew poetry 
 than almost any other class in the community. And as for 
 their having any sympathy with his unmistakable I AM prin- 
 ciples of Revolution against tyranny, they have none ; they 
 stick fast by the slavish creed of the brickmakers referred to in 
 Exodus, V. 21. How can we expect these "professors" to be 
 able to penetrate the vail of ancient allegory, or eastern 
 metaphor, if incapable of realising the double nature of man, 
 brought out so clearly, and with such homely simplicity, in the 
 Twa Dogs, who argue with each other like the I AM and the 
 ME of Moses. And further, if such " professors " are blind, 
 deaf, and dumb, in regard to tyranny and oppression in full 
 swing all around them, how can we expect these persons to 
 understand or appreciate the doings of a man like Moses, and 
 far less to have any respect, sympathy or veneration for that 
 I AM SPIRIT which prompted his glorious actions as a leader 
 of Liberty ? Heaven help all young men frotn the country, 
 who come to town to learn divinity I 
 
Appendix. 
 
 It is not strange that Professor Ogilvie desired to revive the 
 Agrarian laws of Moses ; neither is it strange that he touched 
 the clergy with a gentle hand, knovfing, as he did, the polluted 
 fountains of thtir inspiration. He, with Adam Smith and 
 other distinguished contemporaries, regarded Universities as 
 the sanctuaries of ignorance, and the seminaries of " a super- 
 stitious theology which inculcated tenets subversive of the 
 spirit of Christianity, and degrading to human nature ". 
 
 What did Oxford do to bring about the I AM Revolution 
 of 1688? Oxford, on the eve of that Revolution, burnt the 
 political works of Buchanan and Milton ! Oxford, in a solemn 
 decree, congratulated Sir George Mackenzie (a believer in 
 the supernatural power of witches and Kings), ''for having con- 
 futed the abominable doctrines of Buchanan and Milton, and for 
 having demonstrated the divine right of kings to tyrannise and 
 oppress mankind." And Oxford has not yet recanted. On the 
 contrary, this Alma Mater has only lowered her degrees — lowered 
 them, from kings to landlords ! And now the "divine right" 
 to oppress mankind can be bought and sold in the market like 
 a pig ! But dealers in pigs are restrained by the rules of com- 
 mon honesty, and are also restrained from oppressing the pigs- 
 by the laws "for the prevention of cruelty to animals"; which 
 rules and laws, however, do not apply to landlords. They can 
 rack-rent and evict as they like, barring , some recent restric- 
 tions on pig-legislation lines, in Ireland and in some parts of 
 Scotland. 
 
 Thomas Chalmers, speaking in 1841 from the Professor of 
 Divinity's Chair in Edinburgh of " the public feeling of re- 
 verence for the grandee of a neighbourhood," which he then 
 recommended to the people of Scotland as the truly I AM 
 divine principle in human nature, did admit the twofold nature 
 of man. " It is true," he then said, " that this reverence of 
 which we have spoken, forms part of man's nature. But his is 
 a compound nature, made up not of a single, but of various 
 affections — any of which, as the afifection of rank [!], mighfbe 
 
Appendix. 4.1 g 
 
 neutralised, even prevailed against, by the operation of the 
 rest." He then argues why " the deference for rank is by 
 itself so strong ? " And his explanation is, because it " is in- 
 serted, we have no doubt [!], as a principle in the human con- 
 stitution, by the author of our frame." " Yet," says he, '• it is 
 not so strong, but that it might be nullified, nay reversed, by 
 passions stronger than itself" Who "inserted" these, and 
 made thevi stronger ? 
 
 Let us examine the logic of this alleged divine principle of 
 homage and revei-ence '■'■ for grandees" — the insignificant petty 
 tyrants " of a neighbourlwod ! " In the same breath with 
 the great grandee Moses had to do with, let us not mention 
 Brunwiagem Pliaraohs ! But let us note this, that l^homas 
 Chalmers, in 1841, had a very confused notion of the real I 
 AM principles of Moses. He resembled Moses after he had 
 cast down his rod, and was afraid to pick it up again. Two 
 years later, he headed the Free Church revolt against the 
 same " grandees ". His staff, " we have no doubt" wriggled in 
 the interval somewhat like the staff of Moses. It, however, 
 did not become a serpent. It actually became a hermaphro- 
 dite, resembling a Liberal- Unionist ; and it took the unfortu- 
 nate Thomas Chalmers two long weary years to catch it " by 
 the tail " in proper orthodox fashion ; because its head and tail 
 could not be distinguished from one another, and, unlike the 
 serpent^ it had no appearance of a wisdom-bump anywhere 
 about it. 
 
 It was only in 1843 that the Light of Nature (" the burning 
 bush ! ") dawned upon the soul of Thomas Chalmers. It was 
 only then that his I AM resolved "to speak unto Pharaoh". 
 But he entirely failed to tell the people about his revelation — 
 his discovery that the great I AM principle was never inserted 
 in the human constitution by the author of our frame for the 
 purpose of coercing the bulk of mankind to submit to the 
 tyranny of despots or priests ; but, on the contrary, the I 
 AM principle is the principle of Revolution ! After its mani- 
 
420 Appendix. 
 
 festations in the way Moses was " commanded^^ and in the way 
 he carried out his Plan of Campaign, is it not the very essence 
 of impudence to attempt to Wind mankind by such misrepre- 
 sentations as the " professors " of modern theology, as a rule, 
 indulge in ? 
 
 In the circumstances, considering the ignorance actually 
 taught in our Universities and Colleges, we ought to pity 
 rather than blame the rank and file of the clergy in town and 
 country when we meet the blind leading the blind. How can 
 things be otherwise, so long as the "crime" oi Free Inquiry 
 remains on the Ecclesiastical Statute Book ? , Can the example, 
 as well as the precept of Moses help us here ? Emphatically, 
 Yes. He was not only the Prince of Revolutionists, but he 
 was also the Prince of Fret Thinkers and Free Inquirers. When 
 " the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire 
 out of the midst of a hush " {Ex. iii.) ; " and the Lord said, I 
 have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in 
 Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their task- 
 masters " : " Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto 
 Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children 
 of Israel, out of Egypt " ; What did Moses say to this ? "And 
 Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children 
 of Israel, and shall say unto them, ' The God of your fathers 
 hath sent me unto you ' ; and they shall say unto mej ' What 
 is his name ? ' what shall I say unto them ? " Moses was not 
 to be satisfied with the " God of his fathers^' or the " God of 
 Abraham ! " lie must have a God for himstlf namely, the 
 I AM. " And God said unto Moses, I AM that I AM : and 
 He said, ' Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I 
 AM hath sent me unto you '." " And God said, moreover, 
 unto Moses : ' This is my name for ever, and this is my me- 
 morial unto ALL GENERATIONS I '" It is not I WAS, or my 
 Fathers were, but I AM ! 
 
 Reader ! have you got an I AM ? Because, if not. Nature 
 has made a mistake : you should have been born with four 
 
Appendix. 42 1 
 
 feet, a long nose for smelling along the ground, and a tail 
 which you could occasionally wag by way of expressing your 
 reverence and homage for some Master, whose will, even when 
 he is kicking you, must be your pleasure 1 Remember that 
 every day brings forth its own light and heat, its own Truth 
 and God, and the Truth and God of yesterday, like the light 
 and heat of yesterday, are no longer available. Behold, the 
 light of the past is darkness, and the heat of yesterday sus- 
 taineth not the life of to-day. It is enough to say that the 
 fossilised "■Jehovah " of modern Theology is the God of Mr. A. 
 J. Balfour at Strathconon, and of the Duke of Argyll at Inve- 
 rary. The same fossilised "Jehovah " is the God of the 
 British House of Commons, and has been the God of that 
 House for centuries, when making many anti-I AM laws : 
 laws of oppression, coercion, slavery, wars, and murders, in- 
 cluding the murders of starvation caused by the monopolising 
 of land — preventing its use and cultivation. The landlords — 
 murderers (!) ? Yes. St. Gregory the Great said so, more 
 than twelve hundred years ago, long before Buchanan, the 
 Saint-Andrews, Oxford, and Spanish Inquisition " daiiinable 
 heretic," was born : — 
 
 "Let them,'' said he, "know that the earth from which 
 they are created is the common property of all men ; and 
 that, therefore, its products belong indiscriminately to all. 
 Those who make private property of the gift of God pretend 
 in vain to be innocent. For in thus retaining the subsistence 
 of the poor they are the murderers of those who die every day 
 for want of it." 
 
 Next to the I AM creed of Moses, who was the Greatest 
 and Grandest of all Spartans, we have here, perhaps, the 
 most clear and the most concise economic creed ever uttered 
 or penned. But it is only an amplification of the I AM 
 creed. The First Commandment is only an amplification of 
 that same everlasting creed ; and, as • a Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence — the independence of an enslaved people — the 
 
422 Appendix. 
 
 inspired and inspiring God-given words I AM are unsurpass- 
 ably comprehensive, unsurpassably tyrant-proof, unsurpassably 
 laconic. 
 
 From the First Commandment, the amplification proceeds 
 in the Second, and enjoins the prevention of sham gods, sham- 
 dukes, sham lords, and ^^ dummies" of all sorts; and implies the 
 exclusion of all sham creeds descriptive of spurious gods recom- 
 mended for "homage," "reverence," or "worship," in room 
 of the I AM genuine God of mankind, the God of Liberty, 
 Justice, and Impartiality. The "grandee" spurious gods 
 generally require their worshippers to adopt the Egyptian ' 
 Faith of Passive-Obedience, which is the very opposite of the 
 anti-tyrant I AM Faith— the Faith of all who believe in, and 
 actually worship, the true and living God, who is not an / was 
 dead and gone God. 
 
 From the Second Commandment the amplification still 
 proceeds in the TJiird ; and urges practical manliness on the 
 part of mankind. " Thou shalt not take the name of The 
 Lord thy God in vain." You are not to palaver about this 
 I AM, as your God, as the Jews hypocritically did about their 
 father Abraham in the time of Je.sus Christ, until Jesus was 
 at last so tired of their cant that he exclaimed: "Ye are of 
 your father the Devil ! " It is a human weakness many have, 
 this boasting of the nobility of their ancestors, and the creed 
 and god or gods of their forefathers. Many people are thus 
 satisfied ; and no doubt the slavish Israelites in Egypt dis- 
 gusted Moses with their useless, dead, dry-bone and rotten 
 " divinity " of Father Abraham at the time he was stirring them 
 up against Pharaoh. He knew very well that any man who 
 has the I AM spirit in him rebels at once against all forms of 
 tyranny. And, therefore, the Third Commandment forbids all 
 palaver and boasting, and all vain petitions and prayers on the 
 part of a swinish multitude of slaves who are afraid to do any- 
 thing that would make their " savour to be abhorred in the 
 eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants". Yes, even 
 
Appendix. 42J 
 
 afraid of the "factors, grieves, trustees, and bailies " of Land- 
 lord Pharaoh ! ! ! 
 
 There was also much need for the Third Commandment in 
 the Wilderness, where these bom and bred slaves actually 
 '^murmured against The Lord" (!), and sought to go back 
 again to Egypt. There was just as much need of it in Scot- 
 land when Burns wrote his War Song — 
 
 K " Scots ! wha hoc wi' Wallace bled". 
 
 A.nd the real spirit of the Third Cotnmandment will be found 
 in the lines : — 
 
 , "Avaunt! thou caitiff servile, base," &c. , 
 
 ilready quoted on page 172; and the lines: — 
 
 " Hear it not, Wallace," &c. 
 
 (page 165) also explain how disgusted all I AM spirits like 
 Burns felt in those days. It is not to be wondered at that 
 William Ogilvie took his Political Economy from the Books 
 of Moses. He had the I AM spirit — 
 
 " Let us Do— or Die ! ! ! " 
 
 F 
 
 But what could he do, when the powerful, soul-stirring songs of 
 Burns fell quite flat on the ears of the enthralled multitude. 
 There was scarcely one Helen MacGregor in poor Scotland 
 then brave enough to say : — 
 
 " My foot is on my native heath ! " 
 
 No ! The I AM Faith was dead and buried in the churches 
 and church-yards, or "fled" or transported to foreign lands. 
 A great many did not die a natural death, it is true — they were 
 murdered by the Law and Order of those times, and the 
 "Christian" Church of Scotland said Amen ! 
 r Having touched the Pohtical Economy of Moses, let us 
 glance at his Manna. Regulations. He said: "This is the 
 
424 Appendix. 
 
 thing which the Lord hath commanded, ' Gather of it every 
 man according to his eating, an omor for every man, according 
 to the number of your persons ; take ye every man for them 
 which are in his tents'" And he tells us that some greedy 
 scoundrels gathered more than they required, and that " it bred 
 worms and stank" Now, we clearly see the doctrine of 
 "equality of justice" which Moses recommended. Each got 
 an equal share, and no more. Moses did not even make any 
 exception, like Joseph and such-like politicians, in favour of 
 one single Priest ! For once in the history of this world there 
 were no poor — actually no poor I — and all were equally rich, 
 and were satisfied ; with the exception of those who gathered 
 more than their own share, and who thus began the breeding 
 of worms., and the raising of stinks 1 Can this be true, or is it 
 a mere fable ? 
 
 To test the Political Economy of Moses, the modern 
 sceptic need not remain long in doubt. Without going to 
 Ireland, one can always view the crawling worms of Strath- 
 conon, and feel the stink of the Balfours twenty miles off. It 
 is enough to go the length of Strathpefifer. The railway stations 
 nearest to Strathconon, called by the natives — " Sodom and 
 Gomorrah" need not be visited. Like Inverary, the county 
 town of Argyll, which, in reality, is simply the dunghill of 
 Inverary Castle, where sits His Grace the Duke of Argyll, it is 
 necessary to warn the tourist not to tarry at Sodom or Go- 
 morrah. The worms bred by x\rgyll may be met with in the 
 slums of London and Edinburgh, not to mention Glasgow, 
 and the ducal stink will certainly be felt strong enough in that 
 last-mentioned city. The most recent visit by an I AM soul 
 to Inverary was in the year 1787. The visitor was Luath ; 
 and, as matters have not changed, in the least, since then for 
 the better, let us accept the warning of this 
 
 " gash an' faithfu' tyke 
 
 As ever lap a sheugh or dyke " 
 
Appendix. 425 
 
 This is what he said about Inverary : — 
 
 " Whoe'er he be that sojourns here, 
 I pity much his case, 
 Unless he come to wait upon 
 The Lord their God — his Grace ! 
 
 " There's naething here but Highland pride 
 And Highland scab and hunger ; 
 If Providenqe has sent me here 
 'Twas surely in an anger." 
 
 Lucretius directed his electric darts against the priests of 
 Venus, but they struck equally straight at the equally-besotted, 
 lecherous, and superstitious Jewish priests of the days of 
 Christ. Buchanan levelled his cross-bow at the Romish 
 monks, but his arrows were dreaded quite as much by the 
 Protestant clergy of the days of Burns ; and the arrows of 
 Burns hit the " unco guid " Free Kirk " divines " of the present 
 day, though directed by him against the Auld Kirk " divines " 
 It has been found necessary to slander Lucretius as a madman, 
 Buchan£tn as a fool, and Burns as a drunkard, in order to save 
 the reputation of spurious Christians, who "profess" the prin- 
 ciples of the Christian Faith — a profession on a par with the 
 Jewish "profession " of the I AM " Memorial unto all genera- 
 tions". — Ex. iii. 15. 
 
 It is not said that the priests murdered Moses ; but, when 
 we consider his mysterious death, the hiding of his body, and 
 the hot haste with which Jericho was sacked, as soon as they 
 got rid of him, and that they " utterly destroyed all that was 
 in the city, both man and woman, young and old, with the 
 edge of the sword " — all except " Rahab the harlot, and her 
 father's household, and all that she had," what jury of sensible 
 men would hesitate to bring in a verdict against them for the 
 murder of Moses? His murder was nothing to the Jericho 
 massacre. And the blasphemy of blaming God for it is quite 
 worthy of the perpetrators. They held Calvinistic views in 
 
426 Appendix. 
 
 those days ! It is very difficult to discover any new evil 
 under the sun. The whole genius of Man, until yesterday, 
 was held in serfdom, closely chained to the cultivation of evils 
 — hence the over-production of such goods I The chains could 
 be easily broken, were it not that the bulk of men and women 
 are " perfectly contented " to wear chains and collars, like the 
 crofters of Strathconon, who worship their master as a model 
 landlord, and who pray every day, and especially every Sunday : 
 " God bless the Duke of, Argyll 1 and have mercy on the 
 Balfours ! Amen I " 
 
 Having now travelled through the glens and hills of Strath- 
 conon — did so incog., the only way of getting any information 
 for " agitating " purposes — we feel game for further discussion 
 with our old friend. The Reverend Maister Whatefer, who is 
 still enjoying a holiday at Strathpeffer, where we picked him up 
 the other day. Two or three days at the Strath did him no 
 harm, he said. " The water is ferry goot, but ferry tangerous 
 for all teetotallers, or such as take too much of the dram, and 
 too much of the water itself is not ferry goot neither. As for 
 myself," he added, "I am ferry moderate in eferything except re- 
 ligion ". Having discussed a moderately good dinner, together 
 with various facts connected with landlordism in the country of 
 Wallace, Bruce, Buchanan, Burns, and Ogilvie ; and as to 
 whether the last two ever met, it was an agreeable surprise to 
 hear an antiquated Free Kirk " divine " exclaim : — 
 
 " Nae doubt but they were fain o' ither, 
 And unco pack and thick thegither ! " 
 
 He then resumed, what he calls,, his " Chronicle " : — 
 
 Now, although I hafe, as a minister, to keep town all agita- 
 tion, I must show a sort of sympathy with it ; and notwith- 
 standing it is the Kospel of peace I always preach, still I must 
 sympathise in reality with those who come to look at the land, 
 and at the ruins of the old twellings, from which their ancestors, 
 or maype their parents, or themselves when children were 
 
Appendix. 427 
 
 ^evicted. It would pe a kreat wonder if these were not Land 
 Leaguers whatefer. Even my own poys are krowing up on the 
 side of the agitation in spite of me — especially since that visit 
 of their uncle from Australia. And what to you think of more 
 than one of my taughters turning Land Leaguers too ? They 
 nefer kot over the 'prisoning of the Skye and Clashmore 
 women, and the poinding py Lord MacTonal of that papy at a 
 sixpence whatefer ! For they tell me to my face that that papy 
 had a soul as valuable as a papy porn to Lord MacTonal him- 
 self, and perhaps a body as goot, if not petter, too. 
 
 It was apout the fery time that ungodly poinding took place, 
 that Rory Bawn, from Ixwis, came to my district to hold a 
 Land League meeting, — which he made me open with prayer. 
 For he said, if I refused, he would ferry soon get the moderate 
 minister to do it. And that was the sort of man was Rory 
 Bawn ; but otherwise he was a ferry godly man, and the pest 
 in the whole country for making a prayer, or speaking on the 
 question at Communions^ or lecturing on a portion of Scrip- 
 ture when the minister happened to pe from home. And 
 he was a ferry powerful agitator whatefer, for the eleven Free 
 Church ministers in the Isle of Lewis could not make a stem 
 against him, and could not keep him under whatefer. 
 
 And the agitation grew so strong in the Lewis, with police, 
 soldiers, marines, and teer raiders, that Lady Matheson at last 
 ran away and left the island there ! But she was no ferry wise 
 whatefer ; for when the crofters and cottars came to her with 
 some grievance, she stamped her foot, and said this, in the face 
 of the people : " The land is mine, and I can do with it as I 
 like ! " Now Rory Bawn.wns well up in the Scriptures of the 
 Old and New Testaments, and he ferry easily controverted that. 
 And all the people followed him, and some of the wildest of 
 them cared ferry little for ploodshed, if matters were pushed. 
 And the police, and soldiers, and marines were of ferry little 
 use whatefer, except for helping on the agitation ; and they 
 only took away to prison a few innocent outsiders — some of 
 
428 Appendix. 
 
 them sailors who were at home in Stornoway on hoUdays. And 
 they took goot care not to go near Rory Bawn whatefer ; al- 
 - though eferypody knew that he was the most real T.and Leaguer 
 in the island of Lewis, for he refused all sorts of pribes from 
 the Tories and Unionists, who offered to kive him_a yearly 
 salary. 
 
 And 'he was ofer eighty years of age then ; and I ton't 
 pelieve the crofters ever oifered him one penny, although he 
 himself was not aple to go to the fishing to make money. Putt, 
 as he is now tead, they will ferry likely raise a stone on him. 
 It is generally after teath that the people do anything for any 
 one who works on their side as Rory Bawn tid ; for it was 
 well known that he tid not, like some others, work for his own 
 interest whatefer. There are some " agitators " who are not 
 ferry reliaple or true to the cause, or to anything — men who 
 never tid any goot except mischief since they were porn. These 
 are like some pad ministers, putt, you see, theology and the 
 Biple are not to plame for that whatefer ! 
 
 By the way, it was at King's College, Aberdeen, that my 
 wife's father studied, and he had many stories apout all the Pro- 
 fessors there, although I forget their names. If my wife's 
 prother William, who tied only a year ago, was alive, I am sure 
 he could tell something apout such a man as Professor Ogilvie, 
 for he knew all his father's old stories. I remember hearing 
 apout a ferry radical Aberdeen Professor of that time, who had 
 to do with the innovation which spoilt the Universities ; py 
 opening the doors to the children of poor men, without kiying 
 any compensation to those who formerly enjoyed the exclusive 
 privileges and endowments of education. Now, that unjust 
 and wicked innovation was fully as pad as the Crofter^ Act of 
 1886, which kives no compensation to landlords for the reduc- 
 tion of their rents, or cancelling of arrears, or the privilege of 
 evictions, and taking over kratis the houses and improvements 
 of tenants put away. And there you see, when innovations 
 were allowed as to College privileges, it was not likely that they 
 
Appendix. 429 
 
 should stick at landlord privileges whatefer. For no privileges 
 should be held more sacred from confiscation than those con- 
 nected with colleges and education. 
 
 Look on England — there is no land agitation there what- 
 efer ! For they have still conserved all the privileges of Oxford 
 and Cambridge for the nobility and gentry, and that's the 
 reason why so many of the English, who ton't pelong to the 
 privileged classes, have to send their poys to the Scottish 
 Universities. There pe now from one to two thousand English 
 poys attending the Scottish Universities, and many of them 
 come as far north as Aberdeen, in order to ket the penefit of 
 the University there, although it was specially instituted origin- 
 ally for poor Highland poys ; while at the same time the sons 
 of the Scottish nobility and gentry, and of the Irish too, along 
 with the sons of the English upper ten, are enjoying all the 
 endowments and privileges of Oxford and Cambridge. 
 
 Putt things in England may go wrong ferry soon too, for 
 they took in Professor Robertson Smith there, after he was put 
 out of the Free Church College of Aberdeen. For you see, 
 that innovation about colleges and education is the first step of 
 the mischief, and it will pe a wonder if Professor Robertson 
 Smith refrains from writing a Land League pook too. That 
 indeed would be a kreat tanger not only to England and Ire- 
 land but to Scotland as well, pecause the Scots, .except ferry 
 few, tid not pelieve in his new toctrines apout Moses, putt if he 
 turned a Land Leaguer, like Moses himself, all the Highlanders 
 would then pelieve in him whatefer. 
 
 You see clearly how that old radical Professor Ogilvie who 
 pegan the innovations of the Aberdeen Colleges was also the 
 author of a Land League pook. 
 
 ' Putt he tid a much wickeder thing than that, when he 
 wrote a jubilee treatise on the Land Laws of Moses ; which 
 laws commanded the people to apohsh not only all landlordism 
 and slafery, but likewise all money-lenders and mortgagees too. 
 And it is a ferry tangerous argument to say ihdX Jesus came to 
 
 29 
 
430 Appendix. 
 
 fulfil those Laws, and that efery landlord must " return efery 
 man into his possession " of the land, all in accordance with 
 chapter xxv. of Leviticus. The parable of the Tuke of Argyll 
 — who i5 a Campbell I — having to go through the eye of a needle, 
 is also a. ferry wicked argument whatefer. And, moreofer, it is 
 ferry much against the Confession of Faith to say that the 
 clergy, after the example of Jesus, should try to save the souls 
 of the rich py advising them to kive up all their lands to the 
 industrious poor ; or to sell for a price such latids in towns, 
 villages, and cities as are valuable for building stances, and to 
 kive the whole price thereof to the poor, especially the poor 
 whose labour earned the wrongly-called ' K«-earned increment ' 
 of the value of such lands. For this is the Kospel Notice to 
 quit ! And to the clergy who fail to deliver this Notice, and to 
 the landlords who fail to obey it, the Lord says : — " If ye will 
 not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary 
 unto me ; then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will 
 punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a 
 sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant. 
 And 1 will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, 
 and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and 
 my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, 
 and bring your sanctuaries into desolation '' — all as foretold in 
 chapter xxvi. of Leviticus, which raises a ferry tifficult point in 
 the minds of all those who pelieve in the Scottish Confession of 
 Faith, and in the English and Irish Faiths too, more especially 
 on account of the French Revolution fulfilment of that ferry 
 old law.* 
 
 * Lord Macaulay, speaking in the British House of Commons, on 
 Parliamentary Reform in 1831, appealed to the English Aristocracy, to 
 take warning by the fate of the noblesse of France. "And why," asked 
 Macaulay, " were those haughty nobles destroyed with that utter de- 
 struction ? Why were they scattered over the face of the earth, their 
 titles abolished, their escutcheons defaced, their parks wasted, their 
 palaces dismantled, their heritage given to strangers ? Because they had 
 
431 
 
 Putt, as I was going to say, the story of Professor Ogilvie's 
 Essay on the Ldnd Question, written in Scotland apout the 
 year 1781, is ferry strange, and pririgs to my mind a tifficulty 
 my wife and myself always had apout Purns and his Twa Dogs. 
 Where tid Purns get all his information apout the outs and ins 
 of the private life of the shentry, and how they lived aproad too ? 
 My wife always pelieved that Casar was a real man, and, more- 
 ofer, a real shentleman too, who knew from his own ob- 
 servation all apout the ways of the shentry. She thinks he was 
 a confidential friend of Purns — 
 
 " Nae doubt but they were fain o' ither, 
 An' unco pack and thick thegither " — 
 
 and that Purns disguised him as well as he could py saying 
 
 that 
 
 — " he was nane o' Scotland's dogs, 
 But whalpet some place far abroad, 
 Where sailors gang to fish for cod." 
 
 She is of opinion that Dr. Currie, when he inquired so specially 
 apout it, must hafe strongly suspected that there was a real 
 Casar — the most of Purns's characters being from real life 
 whatefer. The answer which his prother, Gilbert, gave, she 
 thinks, is what might pe expected for several reasons. He 
 was not so foolish, my wife says, as to tell who Cxsar was, 
 supposing he knew it ; and it is also quite clear that, at that 
 time, Gilbert would, if he could, have concealed who Luath 
 was too. As for Casar, peing an imaginary dog, and aple to 
 kive such real information ! — she puts the closure on all my 
 arguments with that. She may be wrong, but she holds that 
 she is right, " because she is ! " 
 
 no sympathy with the people, no discernment of the signs of the times ; 
 because, in the pride and narrowness of their hearts, they called those 
 whose warnings might have saved them, theorists and speculators ; be- 
 cause they refused all concession till the time had arrived when no con- 
 cession would avail." 
 
432 Appendix. 
 
 After that arch Land Leaguer, Henry George, came ofer to _ 
 this country, I used to say to my wife : " There's your Casar 
 now ! " And I myself loolted on his coming from America to 
 Ccesarize us a la Furns, as a sort of prophecy fulfilled, putt the 
 answer I always kot from my wife was " Fiddlesticks ! " Now, 
 if I tell her that Professor Ogilvie was a Land Leaguer and a 
 contemporary of Purns, she will at once say that he was Casar 
 whatefer. You know how strange women are for shumping at 
 conclusions ! 
 
 Well, shust to try her, I'll not tell her a word, at first, apout 
 what sort of a man Professor Ogilvie was. I'll not say that he 
 was of the real landed shentry. or that he was the " shentleman 
 and scholar" who acted as travelUng tutor to the Tuke of 
 Gordon on a grand tour of Europe, which tour is so vividly 
 pictured in the Twa Dogs as to suggest the pencil of an eye- 
 witness — a philosophical Land-law-reforming eye ! 
 
 Of course I'll tell her all these things quietly and py tegrees. 
 Putt there is one thing I'll tell her ferry cautiously whatefer, 
 namely this — that it was in the same year (1786) Purns wrote 
 and published his Twa Dogs,.2LXiii Professor Ogilvie wrote and 
 published his plan of campaign against the Highland shentry 
 and klergy, for the apolition and confiscation of their own Col- 
 lege at Aberdeen, which, pefore his innovations, was generally 
 known as The Highland University. 
 
 Were I to tell her that Professor Ogilvie had a kreat affec- 
 tion for pastoral poets like Virgil, and that he was ferry fond of 
 Horace and Ovid, and that he was "tinctured with the sublime 
 melancholy of Ossian," she would at once conclude that he, 
 when maturing \i\% plan, in that year, 1786, must have visited 
 his academic friends in Glasgow, for it was the Glasgow Uni- 
 versity he took as his model for the proposed united University 
 of Aberdeen. She could ferry easily put me in a corner by 
 asking me, whether I thought any reasonable person could 
 imagine that a Land Leaguer and a lover of pastoral poetry 
 like Professor Ogilvie could refrain from going the length of 
 
Appendix. 433 
 
 Ayrshire to visit another Land Leaguer, and a maker, as well 
 as a lover, of - pastoral poetry? You see- /could not say 
 "■Fiddlesticks" to that whatefer. Professor Ogilvie had his 
 knife ready for the " Highland Gentry " at that time, as shown 
 by his Plan of Campaign, which came out in print on the 20th 
 of July, 1786. And it was "upon a bonie day in June," 1786, 
 that the Twa Bogs 
 
 " began a lang digression 
 About the Lords o' the Creation ". 
 
 My wife pelieves efery word of the Twa Dogs as Kospel, and 
 she often wishes, and so tid her mother peforeher, that her own 
 krandfather, theoldlaird, had taken the words of /««//% and Ccesar 
 to heart, and prevented the ^'downright wastrie," py which the 
 
 braw estate of was alienated from the family. I'll pe 
 
 ferry careful in discussing dates with her whatefer. For Purns 
 also had his knife in the Highland gentry at that time ; which 
 comes out ferry clearly in the Address of Beelzebub on the ist 
 of June, 1786, putt kept from being published until 1818; 
 and the true story of it is still expunged from all editions^;' the 
 people ! You see the Glengarry men revolted against their 
 Chief in 1786 pecause he took all their lands from them. 
 Eviction was the reward or bounty they received for fighti.ng 
 under the false colours of British Liberty in the American War 
 of Independence. They fought for the liberty of landlordism 
 — the liberty to ewzV/— and they got it ! Other chiefs attempted 
 to treat the Highlanders as mere slaves ; they held a meeting in 
 London, on hearing that the Glengarry men resolved to emigrate 
 to America ; and these " noblemen and gentlemen agreed to 
 co-operate with Government " to prevent by force these landless 
 Highlanders from emigrating "/« search of their natural 
 rights!" It was this that moved Purns to write :— 
 
 " To the Right Honourable the Earl of Breadalbane, President 
 of the Right Honourable and Honourable the Highland Society, 
 which met on the 2T,rd oj May last (1786) at the Shakespeare, 
 
434 Appendix. 
 
 Covent Garden, to concert ways and means to frustrate the 
 design of five hundred Highlanders, who, as the Society were 
 informed by Mr. Mackenzie of Applecross, were so audacious as 
 to attempt an escape from their lawful lords and masters, whose 
 property they were, by emigrating from the lands of Mr. 
 McDonald of Glengarry to the wilds of Canada, in search* of 
 that fantastic thing— LIBERTY " 
 
 ' ' Faith, you and Applecross were right 
 To keep the Highland hounds in sight ; 
 Poor dunghill sons of dirt and mire 
 May to Patrician rights aspire ! 
 Then up amang thae lakes and seas 
 They'll mak' what rules and laws they please ; 
 Some daring Hancocke, or a Franklin, 
 May set their Highlan' blude a-ranklin' ; 
 Some Washington again may head them, 
 Or some Montgomery, fearless, lead them ; 
 Till God knows what may be effected 
 When by such heads and hearts directed ! , 
 But hear, my lord ! Glengarry, hear ! 
 Your hand's owre light on them, I fear ; 
 Your factors, grieves, trustees and bailies, 
 I canna say but they do gaylies ; 
 Yet while they're only poin'd and herriet, 
 They'll keep their stubborn Highland spirit; 
 But smash them 1 crash them a' to spails 
 And rot the dyvors i' the jails ! 
 
 They ! they be d d ! what right hae they 
 
 To meat, or sleep, or light o' day ? — 
 Far less to riches, pow'r, or freedom, 
 But what your lordship likes to gie them ! " 
 
 In the following year, 1787, when addressing the water- 
 fowl of Loch Turrit, the poet's eye was evidently still fixed on 
 the Glengarry exodus. He said : — 
 
 * Compare these words with Professor Ogilvie's phrase — " in search 
 of their natural rights "- Page 39 of Essay. 
 
Appendix. 435 
 
 " Swiftly seek, on clanging wings, 
 Other lakes and other springs, 
 And the foe you cannot brave. 
 Scorn at least to be his slave." 
 
 Were it not that my wife was always ferry fond of Purns, I 
 would pe as ignorant of him as any other Free Church Minister 
 in the Highlands whatefer. For it is always our recognised 
 duty to put in the fire efery copy of Purns, or such pooks, we 
 get a hold of in the hands of our people. Putt this copy of 
 Purns my wife has is a ferry old one that pelonged to her 
 mother, which was always kept locked up ; and my wife got a 
 hold of it when her mother tied. She also keeps it locked up. 
 And we must not read ■ it, except on the sly, so that nopody 
 discovers there is a Purns in the Free Manse whatefer. The 
 people are all so treadfully prejudiced, ever since the old 
 moderate ministers taught that prejudice ; and they poycotted 
 Purns pecause it was against themselves that he spoke. Al- 
 though there are some crofters who still pelieve that any 
 minister who joins the land agitation is not ferry holy, because 
 they were always instructed that the land belonged to the land- 
 lords ^'■by God's authority," and that the clergy should not meddle 
 «ith the affairs of this world whatefer, yet there are others who 
 are ferry cute ; for when one of the Free Church ministers in 
 the island of Lewis recently warned his congregation that those 
 who didn't pay their rent were forbidden to take the holy 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper, they were not long in telling 
 him to confine himself to the things of the next world only ! ex- 
 actly as the majority of the Irish said in reply to the Pope's 
 Rescript, when they accused him of meddling with politics, and 
 travelling peyond his own holy sphere as a tool of oppression. 
 
 The agitation prought apout many curious things whatefer. 
 There is a Roman Catholic priest near me, who was always a 
 Tory, and a real Jacobite too,' although he is now a Unionist 
 like myself, and we both agree with the Pope's Rescript. For, 
 you see, the lairds of , being Roman Catholics, always 
 
43^ Appendix. 
 
 sheltered priests and papists on their lands, ever since the 
 Reformation, in the same way as the lairds in my district kave 
 shelter to the Free Church since 1843. A'ld there is no agita- 
 tion in our district except on the part of some radical Protestant 
 crofters and two or three Catholics, who assert and maintain 
 that the land was originally appropriated by spoliation and 
 robbery, and that the landlords have no right to it whatefer ',' 
 and they say it is the Teffil, and not Providence, -that worked 
 all the mischief ; and they call the priest and myself the Teffil's 
 agents too, and they look upon the Crofters' Act as real Pro- 
 vidence from God in their favour. And they say that the 
 doctrine preached in favour of landlordism is ferry much op- 
 posed to the Law of Moses, and, moreover, that it is quite 
 contrary to the letter, as well as the spirit,, of the Gospel of 
 Jesus. They also say that all those who pray, " Thy kingdom 
 come : Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," but who 
 nevertheless stand by, and do nothing to disapprove of rack 
 rents, evictions, and other oppressions on the earth, are not much 
 petter than Judas Iscariot. And one young Highland priest said 
 that the old priest and myself were "a pair of apostates !" And 
 he is a Jacobite too ; and, therefore, ferry angry at the old priest 
 for joining a whig like the Tuke of Argyll on the land question 
 whatefer. And, moreover, he said that the true Christian 
 Church is based upon Temokratic principles, although Chr's- 
 tianity has been abused as a pretext for war, slavery, and land- 
 lordism for a ferry long time. " Think," says he, "what's to be 
 the outcome of compulsory and free education, and take 
 Hamlefs advice — assume a virtue if you have it not I" 
 
 "I have seen some nations like o'erloaded asses, 
 Kick off their burthens — meaning the. high classes."