Seeing that men are born into the world without their own wills, and being in the world they must live upon the earth's surface, or they cannot live at all, no individual or set of individuals can hold over land that personal and irresponsible right which is allowed them in things of less universal necessity.
— J. A. FROUDE, The English in Ireland in the 18th Century,
Book I., Chap. 2, Sec. 6, p. 131.
The character of landed tenures — it cannot be too often repeated — renders forfeiture the appropriate retribution. Private ownership in land is permitted because Government cannot be omnipresent, and personal interest is found, on the whole, an adequate: security that land so held shall be administered to the general advantage. But seeing that men are born into the world without their own wills, and, being in the world, they must live upon the earth's surface, or they cannot live at all, no individual, or set of individuals, can hold over land that personal and irresponsible right which is allowed them in things of less universal necessity. They may obtain estates by purchase. They may receive them as rewards of service, or inherit them from their ancestors. But the possession, however acquired, carries with it honorable and inseparable consequences in the respect, the deference, or even positive obedience which the possessor receives from the dependents by whose hands those estates are cultivated, and with the privilege is involved the responsibility. To some extent at present — to a far greater extent two centuries ago — the owner of the soil was the master of the fortunes and the guide of the allegiance of his tenants. He was an officer of the commonwealth — the natural governor of tens, hundreds, or thousands of human beings committed to his charge. If he was false to his trust, the sovereign power resumed its rights, which it had never parted with; and either sold or gave his interest, and his authority along with it, to others who would better discharge the duties expected of them.
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