the most
disastrous results to private fortunes, which has justly
rendered American investments, taken as a whole, a reproach
wherever the name has traveled."

The opinion is expressed in this work that under certain circumstances
railroad securities should be aided by State credit, and is supported by
the following argument:

"Here we have no national funded stock in convenient sums
for small investment, and which, being sure, is really a
great blessing to the mass of those who wish to invest
moderate sums as a protection against age or calamity. In
those countries where such opportunities exist, it removes
all temptation to invest small sums in these enterprises,
which, however necessary for the public, such small owners
can but poorly afford to aid in carrying forward, and which
consequently should in justice either be guaranteed or owned
by the State, or at all events aided by State credit, when
they become indispensable for the public convenience."

Upon the subject of eminent domain Redfield says:

"That railways are but improved highways, and are of such
public use as to justify the exercise of the right of
eminent domain, by the sovereign, in their construction, is
now almost universally conceded."

Kent says in his "Commentaries on American Law":

"The right of eminent domain, or inherent sovereign power,
gives to the legislature the control of private property for
public uses, _and for public uses only_.... So, lands
adjoining New York canals were made liable to be assumed for
the public use, so far as was necessary for the great object
of the canals.... In these and other instances which might
be enumerated, the interest of the public is deemed
paramount to that of any private individual; and yet, even
here, the constitutions of the United States and of most of
the States of the Union have imposed a great and valuable
check upon the exercise of legislative power, by declaring
that private property should not be taken for public use
without just compensation.... It undoubtedly must rest, as a
general rule, in the wisdom of the legislature to determine
when public uses require the assumption of private property;
but if they should take it for a purpose not of a public
nature, as if the legislatur