te, too, in its corporate character,
has been playing swindler all this time. You may not know the fact, but
I as your guardian do know, that the quit-rents reserved by the crown
when it granted the lands of Mooseridge and Ravensnest, were claimed by
the State; and that, wanting money to save the people from taxes, it
commuted with us, receiving a certain gross sum in satisfaction of all
future claims."

"Ay, _that_ I did not know. Can the fact be shown?"

"Certainly--it is well known to all old fellows like myself, for it was
a very general measure, and very generally entered into by all the
landholders. In our case, the receipts are still to be found among the
family-papers. In the cases of the older estates, such as those of the
Van Rensselaers, the equity is still stronger in their favour, since the
conditions to hold the land included an obligation to bring so many
settlers from Europe within a given time; conditions that were fulfilled
at great cost, as you may suppose, and on which, in truth, the colony
had its foundation."

"How much it tells against a people's honesty to wish to forget such
facts, in a case like this!"

"There is nothing forgotten, for the facts were probably never known to
those who prate about the conquered rights from the crown. As you say,
however, the civilization of a community is to be measured by its
consciousness of the existence of all principles of justice, and a
familiarity with its own history. The great bulk of the population of
New York have no active desire to invade what is right in this anti-rent
struggle, having no direct interests at stake; _their_ crime is a
passive inactivity, which allows those who are either working for
political advancement, or those who are working to obtain other men's
property, to make use of them, through their own laws."

"But is it not an embarrassment to such a region as that directly around
Albany, to have such tenures to the land, and for so large a body of
people to be compelled to pay rent, in the very heart of the State, as
it might be, and in situations that render it desirable to leave
enterprise as unshackled as possible?"

"I am not prepared to admit this much, even, as a general principle. One
argument used by these anti-renters is, for instance, that the
patroons, in their leases, reserved the mill-seats. Now, what if they
did? Some one must own the mill-seats; and why not the Patroon as well
as another? To give the argument any