ter. It is a picture of cabinet size, and is in possession of
a gentleman of New Haven, descended from Elder Brewster, and of that
name.

NOTE B.--PAGE 45.

As the opinion of contemporaneous thinkers on this important subject
cannot fail to interest the general reader, it is deemed proper to
insert here the following extract from a letter, written in 1849, to
show how powerfully the truths uttered in 1820, in the spirit of
prophecy, as it were, impressed themselves upon certain minds, and how
closely the verification of the prediction has been watched.

"I do not remember any political prophecy, founded on the spirit of
a wide and far-reaching statesmanship, that has been so remarkably
fulfilled as the one made by Mr. Webster, in his Discourse
delivered at Plymouth in 1820, on the effect which the laws of
succession to property in France, then in operation, would be
likely to produce on the forms and working of the French
government. But to understand what he said, and what he foresaw, I
must explain a little what had been the course of legislation in
France on which his predictions were founded.

"Before the Revolution of 1789, there had been a great accumulation
of the landed property of the country, and, indeed, of all its
property,--by means of laws of entail, _majorats_, and other legal
contrivances,--in the hands of the privileged classes; chiefly in
those of the nobility and the clergy. The injury and injustice done
by long continued legislation in this direction were obviously
great; and it was not, perhaps, unnatural, that the opposite course
to that which had brought on the mischief should be deemed the best
one to cure it. At any rate, such was the course taken.

"In 1791 a law was passed, preventing any man from having any
interest beyond the period of his own life in any of his property,
real, personal, or mixed, and distributing all his possessions for
him, immediately after his death, among his children, in equal
shares, or if he left no children, then among his next of kin, on
the same principle. This law, with a slight modification, made
under the influence of Robespierre, was in force till 1800. But the
period was entirely revolutionary, and probably quite as much
property changed hands from violence and the consequences of
violence, during the nine years it