' _Piozzi Letters_,
i. 154.
[520] They were abolished by an act passed in 1747, being 'reckoned
among the principal sources of the rebellions. They certainly kept the
common people in subjection to their chiefs. By this act they were
legally emancipated from slavery; but as the tenants enjoyed no leases,
and were at all times liable to be ejected from their farms, they still
depended on the pleasure of their lords, notwithstanding this
interposition of the legislature, which granted a valuable consideration
in money to every nobleman and petty baron, who was thus deprived of one
part of his inheritance.' Smollett's _England_, iii. 206. See _ante_, p.
46, note 1, and _post_, Oct. 22.
[521] 'I doubt not but that since the regular judges have made their
circuits through the whole country, right has been everywhere more
wisely and more equally distributed; the complaint is, that litigation
is grown troublesome, and that the magistrates are too few and therefore
often too remote for general convenience... In all greater questions
there is now happily an end to all fear or hope from malice or from
favour. The roads are secure in those places through which forty years
ago no traveller could pass without a convoy...No scheme of policy has
in any country yet brought the rich and poor on equal terms to courts of
judicature.
Pages:
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657