gers _smart_ which injure the
venerable walls of Dudley, or of Kenilworth. Noble remains of ancient
grandeur! copious indexes, that point to former usage! We survey them
with awful pleasure. The mouldering walls, as if ashamed of their humble
state, hide themselves under the ivies; the generous ivies, as if
conscious of the precious relics, cover them from the injuries of time.

When land frequently undergoes a conveyance, necessity, we suppose, is
the lot of the owner, but the lawyer fattens: _To have and to hold_ are
words of singular import; they charm beyond music; are the quintessence
of language; the leading figure in rhetoric. But how would he fare if
land was never conveyed? He must starve upon quarrels.

Instances may be given of land which knows no title, except those of
conquest and descent: Weoley Castle comes nearly under this
description. _To sign, seal, and deliver_, were wholly unknown to our
ancestors. Could a Saxon freeholder rise from the dead, and visit the
land, once his own, now held by as many writings as would half spread
over it, he might exclaim, "Evil increases with time, and parchment with
both. You deprive the poor of their breeches; I covered the ground with
sheep, you with their skins; I thought, as you were at variance with
France, Spain, Holland, and America, those numerous deeds were a heap of
drum heads, and the internal writing, the _articles of war_. In one
instance, however, there is a similarity between us; we unjustly took
this land from the Britons, you as unjustly took it from us; and a time
may come, when another will take it from you. Thus, the Spaniards
founded the Peruvian empire in butchery, now tottering towards a fall;
you, following their example, seized the northern coast of America; you
neither bought it nor begged it, you took it from the natives; and thus
your children, the Americans, with equal violence, have taken it from
you: No law binds like that of arms. The question has been, whether they
shall pay taxes? which, after a dispute of eight years, was lost in
another, _to whom_ they shall pay taxes? The result, in a future day
will be, domestic struggles for sovereignty will stain the ground
with blood."

When the proud Norman cut his way to the throne, his imperious followers
seized the lands, kicked out the rightful possessors, and treated them
with a dignity rather beneath that practiced to a dog.--This is the most
summary title yet discovered.

Northfield