ough it confers no political power; it is called a
patent of nobility, though it neither gives nor takes away; and it is
hated, and you with it, for the very reason that you can sit in it and
not make yourself ridiculous. I suppose you have not examined very
closely the papers I gave you to read?"

"Enough so to ascertain that they are filled with trash."

"Worse than trash, Hugh; with some of the loosest principles, and most
atrocious feelings, that degrade poor human nature. Some of the
reformers propose that no man shall hold more than a thousand acres of
land, while others lay down the very intelligible and distinct principle
that no man ought to hold more than he can use. Even petitions to that
effect, I have been told, have been sent to the legislature."

"Which has taken care not to allude to their purport, either in debate
or otherwise, as I see nothing to that effect in the reports."

"Ay, I dare say the slang-whangers of those honourable bodies will
studiously keep all such enormities out of sight, as some of them
doubtless hope to step into the shoes of the present landlords, as soon
as they can get the feet out of them which are now in. But these are the
projects and the petitions in the columns of the journals, and they
speak for themselves. Among other things, they say it is nobility to be
a landlord."

"I see by the letter of Mr. Dunning, that they have petitioned the
legislature to order an inquiry into my title. Now, we hold from the
crown----"

"So much the worse, Hugh. Faugh! hold from a crown in a republican
country! I am amazed you are not ashamed to own it. Do you not know,
boy, that it has been gravely contended in a court of justice that, in
obtaining our national independence from the King of Great Britain, the
people conquered all his previous grants, which ought to be declared
void and of none effect?"

"That is an absurdity of which I had not heard," I answered, laughing;
"why, the people of New York, who held all their lands under the crown,
would in that case have been conquering them for other persons! My good
grandfather and great-grandfather, both of whom actually fought and bled
in the revolution, must have been very silly thus to expose themselves
to take away their own estates, in order to give them to a set of
immigrants from New England and other parts of the world!"

"Quite justly said, Hugh," added my uncle, joining in the laugh. "Nor is
this half of the argument. The Sta