History of the Landed Tenures of Great Britain and Ireland.
By Alfred A. Walton. (Clarke.)—From the Norman Conquest it appears there has been a great conspiracy on the part of the tenants of the crown and their successors to appropriate to their personal enjoyment the land of this country, which really belongs to the people. This work is devoted to the exposure of those evil doings, also a scheme is sug- gested by which justice may be done, and the national creditors, who are likened to the parasites that "adhere to the body of a large black- beetle," got rid of at the same time. A sum of 50,000,000/. is to be issued in Treasury notes, and with this 5,000,000 acres of land are to be redeemed, 101. an acre being considered fair compensation to the owners, who are reminded that their original title "consisted for the most part in fraud or favouritism." The land thus redeemed is to be let at 21. per acre, and from the profits thus obtained the operation is to be continued, until the property in the whole surface of the country has reverted to the State, which will then be able to provide for the extinction of the national debt. It is amusing to see the regard paid to the interests of the fundholders, whilst all the savings invested in land are ruthlessly swept into the public exchequer. Even the author of this wild pamphlet shrinks from plundering them, as he would most likely from confiscat- ing the contents of the banks in Lombard Street, but about land seems easy to get crazy, and to theorize as if the territory of a State expanded by some mysterious law in proportion to the prolific tenden- cies of the inhabitants.
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