his favourite followers. One military follower received for his share of the spoliation, between seven and eight hundred manors. The county of Norfolk, containing about a million and three hundred thousand acres, was divided among sixty-six proprietors: one man received a grant of the whole palatinate of Chester, and in this proportion the soil of England was wrenched from the natives, and bestowed on a few barbarous warriors.

This is a matter of history long since past, and people may exclaim, what use can it be to bring it forward to the present generation! But it is of great use to refer to such passages of our history, in order to remind every individual at present living, that a similar principle pervades British law, and that in the British plans of colonization, put in execution within the present century, grants of waste lands have been as lavishly bestowed on the followers of a minister of the crown, as those which William granted to his subordinates.

The discovery of America interested the whole human race; and where is the man in Europe, at this day, who has not some direct or remote interest in that country?

The Pope, the Head of the Christian Church in the fifteenth century—in the plenitude of his power, and from the vast stores of his geographical knowledge-made a grant to the King of Spain of all the countries discovered by Columbus. His power was acknowledged and obeyed by the nations of Europe at that period; but as Galileo had not yet been born, to enlighten mankind, and to bewilder the Pope with a knowledge of this earth and its relation to the sun, it so happened that His Holiness was anything but precise touching degrees of latitude; and as respected the meridian of the countries granted, it was found afterwards, that the Bull of assignment was nearly

bringing the Spaniards into war with the Portuguese, for the right to countries situated on the coasts of Hindostan. So much for the Pope's interference, in granting the possession of newly-discovered countries!

In a work like this, the example of the Pope will be followed, in alluding to various important matters which come under notice, in a very sketchy sort of way, somewhat similar to His Holiness's sweeping outlines, described in his Bull of assignment of America to Spain.

If any country in the world is capable of affording lessons to Great Britain, it is Spain. Commanding the finest geographical position in Europe, and containing within. herself the most abundant natural resources, she is, in the present day, in a state of decrepitude and decay. Her history presents greater vicissitudes than those of any other nation in Europe.

In very remote ages, Spain was to the Carthaginian, and the other great commercial states on the shores of the Mediterranean, what America afterwards became to herself. Before the Christian era, she was one of the most wealthy countries of Western Europe; and making every allowance for the exaggerations of tradition, there are grounds for believing, that the population then was as great as in the present century. She was a most valuable appendage of the Roman empire; and the ruins of cities and public works testify to the former grandeur of the Roman dominion. Her whole history is exciting and instructive, but it presents the fearful details of contentions of different races of men, and the debasing effects on the population, of opposing creeds. Spain has been the battle-ground, not only of nations, but of entire sections of the globe; Europe, Asia, and Africa have struggled for the possession; and, as if to consummate her ruin, America was discovered, to strike

the fatal blow. And what is melancholy to reflect is, that though the populations are mixed, they are on the whole composed of good materials, and can excel in the arts of peace, as much as they have always shown themselves brave and skilful in war. In all ages, the greatest warriors have displayed their genius in its plains, or upon its mountains. Hannibal, Scipio, Pompey, Julius Cæsar, Napoleon, and Wellington, have all acquired that species of renown which gains so much notice in history.

One of the causes of the long-continued disturbed state of Spain may be assigned-the mixed nature of the population, and their want of a mutual interest. There is little to be perceived of a national or public spirit pervading all classes. The inhabitants of the four northern provinces differ as much, in their temperament and habits, from those of the southern and eastern shores, as the northern Germans differ from the Italians; but yet, contrariety of character among the inhabitants of a country is not an obstacle to a perfect national union; as we see in the northern and southern states of the united provinces of North America, where mutual interest, and love of the form of government, bind people of very opposite tempers very strongly together.

So it might happen with the various classes of people who live in Spain; but for want of a proper representation, they have not been able to agree on the points of compromise.

But it is in vain to expect any favourable change in that country, until an Agrarian law be enforced. A lay and theocratic Aristocracy, of the most withering character, has for centuries kept half the lands in the state of deserts. It used to be estimated, that a third of the lands in Spain. belonged to the church.

The pestilence which, about the middle of the fourteenth century, swept half of the human race from the earth, was severely felt in Spain, where it is said about two-thirds of the inhabitants perished. Those who survived took possession of the lands of them who fell, and for want of labourers the lands were converted into pasturage; hence the state of things that led to the establishment of the Mesta that singular system of pasturage-laws peculiar to Spain. Throughout a great part of that fine country, agriculture is actually prohibited in the districts inhabited by the sheep! Enclosures are not allowed to be made, and hence the vast plains destitute of timber.

Man, by his laws, acts as a curse on the soil; and will any one, after reflecting on the condition of Spain, say to the present generation, that there is no place for them at Nature's feast?

Spain carried to the vast regions of America, which she called her colonies, the principles which blasted her own soil; and all that now remains to her, is the tradition, that the sun at one period never set on her dominions!*

* It is extraordinary to relate, that in Mexico, the most valuable of all the former colonies of Spain, it has never occurred to any party to pass an Agrarian law, for the breaking up of those fertile wildernesses, called estates, belonging to private individuals. The mayorasgos, or entails, are still, I believe, allowed to exist; and those immense tracts of country, originally granted by the King of Spain, in virtue of the Pope's Bull, to Cortes, are administered for the benefit of the descendants, or the present representatives, of that bold and successful adventurer. The grand error committed by Mexico, and all the other countries of Spanish America, was the adoption of theoretical constitutions of government, in place of systems suited to the genius, customs, and habits of the people. The Mexican Congress imagined that it was legislating wisely and patriotically, when it decreed the abolition of titles, and the destruction of heraldic devices. What use was

it to change names, and leave substances untouched? To pass a law to call a man "Citizen" instead of "Marquis," and let him retain a power to keep

France was the next, that sent out to plant colonies in America. Canada was taken possession of, and, in the true spirit of the age, large tracts of land were granted on the Gothic military tenure; and the consequence has been, that the French population at this day in Canada present the singular spectacle of the laws and customs of Europe, of the sixteenth century, existing on the banks of the St. Lawrence; and, in many respects, the country is thus much behind the United States, on the right bank of that river.

Queen Elizabeth had no influence with the Pope; and even had she had faith in a papal colonizing Bull, she was too proud to ask for one. She therefore, on her own grant to one of her courtiers, disposed of a tract of country along the shores of North America, extending to more than a thousand miles in length. The royal prerogative was at that time in its greatest vigour, and continued still in strength, during the reigns of James I. and the two Charles's: hence all the settlements formed in America by the English, were chartered to men of rank, or to certain favoured individuals, with a view to enrich them.

As the population of England did not exceed at that period four millions of souls, we, who live in the present day, cannot assert that there existed a necessity for colonies, from superabundant numbers of people.

The evil principle of the British monopolizing system of colonization, lies in the placing of a third party between the state as the proprietor of the public lands, and the men by whose industry the lands are to be made productive. Throughout the whole system, from the first grant

a whole province unpopulated and uncultivated, was childish. It was similar to stripping the lace off the dresses of surrendered troops, instead of taking the arms out of their hands.