THE LAW OF THE LAND.

Wellington Independent, Volume II, Issue 60, 22 April 1846, Page 4

THE LAW OF THE LAND.

A common phrase this—the " Law of the Land." ftlost fajniliar apd household-like its sound—grave and dignified in its meaning, and sonorous in its twang. People talk of the law of the land solemnly and senteniiously, as of something perhaps a little mystic and obscure; hut good, great, just, benevolent as a God, and,mighty as a God. The law of the land 1 It comes glibly of the tongue. Orators prate of it fluently; judges lay it down solemnly. It is a received and venerated phrase ; a most hallowed collocation of words. And no one seems to know or to think of the world ot satire it contains. Yes, salirei —keen, biting,.trenchant satire. It tells a mighty and a sad. truth most unconsciously; reveals the nakedness of the deformity it would cover; tells our laws and our what they are—how they have cheated us—and in all the most unsuspected,formula of words. The law o/,the land. Interpret .the sentence— the law for the land—the law so affectionate to the ow.ners of the land—ihe law which is proud to surround acres with a triple shield, while it leaves weak industry unprotected—the law made by landowners .for the benefit pf landowners —the law, their willing tool n their useful .slave—the lawj/hich stints out-the food ofcthe poor for the '-' landed which. creates fictitious crime for the landed interest—the law made by land for land—exalting land, lavishing upon it all tenderness,/blessing it with all immunity,—verily, the .law pf cqi?u_try is the " Law of the Land \" : Ages ago, when England was little but a broad' forest—when deer, and wolves, and wild-boars ranged where cities noy; stpnd—the law of the day,: such as it was, was made by the landpwners fo,r,thsir order. Feudal casiles—those chivalrjc receptacles for stolen goods—started up. Banditti, as ignorant as brutnl—the titled thieves from whom our aristocracy ore prpuJ to trace f their descent— wa-edjvar upon .honesty, and industry, and weakness; Hnd made laws too, enacted measures especially de.signed for their own disinterested purposes, established criminal,codes zs enlightened as themselves, and adpainis'ered them as humanely as they w,ere .conceived philosophically. Such were our first legislators. From the land spqingour national code. In the.land.it is still rooted, apd the land it still shelters. Nations suffer from hereditary legislation as individuals from hereditary disease; the first feature of acre legislation is its hereditary,character. The landowners took care not only to make Jaws, but to leave their descendants the privilege also. Tbe light, of plunder was a precious heioloom. It has descended from those who imposed the forest-laws to those who imposed the corn-laws; from the tyrant of white seifs to the holder of black slaves. It is the spell which crushes the many to exalt the few ; it is the hereditary curse.j the evil which clings to us.; .cramping our energies, blighting opr prospects. Class legislation means.no more or less than robbery committed under the forms of law- And in the long bead-roll of our laws, how few there are to be found which do not spring from class legislation—from one class legislation—from land legislation? Landowners have always been our legislators ; the inevitable consequence-has been that laws have been framed for ihe bent fit of land. True, this is what was to have been expected. Man is selfish—selfishness, like other bad passions, grows by what itieeds on. Our original legislators had a tolerably fair stock when they .commenced operation?, and, .God knows, it hac had plenty of food to batten upon since. We say, then, ..that all our interests iave been sacrificed to that of land ; the simple question of Who were our legislators,? we propound to any who deny the assertion. Landowners had the wand in their pwn possession, and for their own benefit they waived it. " Let us trace then some of the results of their handiwork, let us prop the charge with evidence; let usjlook to the blessings of a landed aristrocracy possessing political power, of which Parliament was once composed ; and which is still supreme in one House, and strong—very strong—in the other. And here let v* not be met by the cant objection of the sinfulness of arraying one class against another. We shall array one class against another when one is right and,the otfcer is wrong. We .battle for freedom of labour, for natural political right, in behalf of unprotected industry, of the toiling, sjifferin/' people of England. If any come forth to meet us' then God help the right! but to shrink from the contest, £o talk of hollow peace when wrongs have to be redressed, when grievances have to be smitten, is not humane and magnanimous, but cowardly. We are of the people ; our sympathies are with the Let tlie magnates of ihe land «• stand by their order." Wβ shall stand by ours. The first forshadowing of our Parliament was the " Great Council " of the Norman barons. The im. agination flies easily back to that formidable assembly. Grouped beaeath the arched roofs of castle

hnlle, we can sec in f&ncy. the mailed warriors Mk "•'-/,. t, ring in brass uud steely attended by their etand«r* • * bearers and menjat-arms; the whole assembly v '" bhzeof warlikffj|ttd heraldic pomp :we cau f a £ c J --' the short, etenippeqh'eß, more like words .of cbu/ mand than orations, whjoh proclaimed the birth of the landed legislation; that might w<B right would be the motto of the senate, and from Buch a legisU,' ". ture the law of the strong hand issued naturally forth* These our first legislators were the men wfa o built thick- willed fastnesses,—those massy kerps > 0 ( which one of the Scottish Jameses well said, that that thtir constructors were thieves in their hearts; and not only thieves in their hearts, butj n their deeds. In the dungeons of these chival r : j c palaces many a wretch died of slow torture, unfe. lentingly applied to drag from him the secret of lh e hiding places of his wealth. _ Within their vast bat. '■•- tlemente lived serfs, the iron-collard goods and '■* chatties of their proprietors The desert,forests and, ' /"' moors which formed England were the scene 0/ '• continued pillage where anything whs to be phi D , '- dered; of continued crutlty and death when any wretch dared to come between the aggressor and . * his spoil. And this.was the dawning of Merrie England. And such,,were the men. who made ii s j first laws. * ' Let us look at same of the oldrst pf them. ft \ was the law of this land in which we live that a peer j had the privilege ofxommiting auy crime with im. ' t munity for the first time. The fact wa?, of !' ■" that be could commjfc,it with immunity <my number J 1 of times, provided it did not cbauce to .interfere with, f*' the convenience of another peer. But the theory of the law pardoned guijt only once. Pioud privilege |«» of Parliament 1 with your sacred members once kil, f T ling was no murder—once shedding of blood was no t - shedding. The luxury of crime was only to be en- [ t) joyed by the amtocrucy, and perhaps the priest- f hood—witness the " benefit of clergy "—and even j * bounds were theoretically set to that, in order, c * J suppose, that frequent indulgence might not blunt . " the savour of the morsal. Murder was a dear ion- ' ne.louche when permitted for the first .time—it of ■ course had the additional flavour of forbidden froij 1 when enjoyed for the second. 1 J But although granted crime-.dispensa- i tions themselves, they took very good care to be f more strict in looking after the morals of the,canaille below them. For an unprivileged mortal in any way to attack them or their lackeys wis an offense to be far more severely visited than were (the assault . 1 committed merely upon the fellow of the aggressor. As times b> came more learned—as Capt-iin Pen be. gan to crow up a vet feeble note of defiance tq • * Captain Sword—the pters surrounded thi-onselveg •■' with a formidable defence of lible laws. Tv libel 1"_ a plain Fquire was an offence, but to Üble a Lord i _' —heaven help us !-=-was a dreadful thing. There ' was wisdom, however in the arrangem nt—m?n most liable to attack ought to be rao.\t ca eful in '"" guarding against it. The peere felt ihenm}ve« in fee ihis situation; aid .as their "order ,, and their policy would naturally be impugned having * " the power—as naturally took care to prevent it, " - Well, times became.commercial as well as literary, J and a curious custom, frequently repudiated in t practice by our legislators, arose of men payinj their debte. In order to gurnritee this should be done, a power wasg\ven to the creditor oyerjhe bidy of the debtor. It was the rude means of rude times, t ' But legislators good care that their precj. ' ous carcasses should have a bill of exemption, ''Should they," as one of them said, "muddle', away their fortunes,in paying tradesmen's bills? ,, . of course not. There is one large class who have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them, and another, somewhat smaller, who have littie to do * with the laws but make them. The vulgar debtor must pay or go to prison—the Lord or the Member must neither do the one thing or the other. And here the advantage is manifest of being a .real Lord, in&tead of a mere Member of the Commons o,f Eng. land. "Your M. P,, like Achilles, is vulnerable m the heel of parliamentary dissolution. Visions of bailiffs may flock round him, conjured up by the crash of the shutting doors of St. Stephen's. The Ring's Bench may fill as the ministerial and opposition benches empty. But your Lord has to dread „ no such vulgar consummation —once a Lord alwajs t a Lord—once a debtor he may be always a debtor, r for all the powers spunging.houses have to compel bj him to quit the character. Could legislative flesh F and blood be pent within four noisome wall like V that of ordinary men and women ? Powers of Qtn- fy tility forbid ! one subject of England be >\ placed upon the same footing with respect to the T' <hw as another ? Powers of Equity for,efend : l TM J dungeon for the raa,n—but the sunny air for .the peer; the creak of bolts for the c-e—.the clr|r>k of bonowed money sepds back no such -fearful echo to . •the ears of the other. , But, thank God, this is a state of things which [* is mending. The power of imprisoning the humble r* debtor will soon be added to the lawsagndust witch- I craft—the provisiqns for curing scrofula by the spell of Royal fingers, and various other shining f. evidence of the wisijom of our ancestors. The peo- P pie are physically being brought up to the levej of h of the peer. Imprisonment for debt will soon rexist no longer either for peer or peasant. And ' here let us do justice to all men. The last greet ! , step taken in this direction was taken by the peers! but it was proposed, urged and carried, not by ." the t tenth transmitter pf a foolish face,' , but by a map 1. ' who, whatever he is in some respects now, waaonca, a commoner and a democrat, and still bears in f his composition some of the leaven of a vrai ei\fan\ ' dupeuple. (To ie continued in our next.) \