or art galleries, and for natural
history galleries, and for many precious--many, it seems to me,
needful--things; but this book plan is the easiest and needfullest, and
would prove a considerable tonic to what we call our British
constitution, which has fallen dropsical of late, and has an evil
thirst, and evil hunger, and wants healthier feeding. You have got its
corn laws repealed for it; try if you cannot get corn laws established
for it dealing in a better bread;--bread made of that old enchanted
Arabian grain, the Sesame, which opens doors;--doors not of robbers,
but of Kings' Treasuries.

50. Note to Paragraph 30.--Respecting the increase of rent by the
deaths of the poor, for evidence of which, see the preface to the
Medical officers' report to the Privy Council, just published, there
are suggestions in its preface which will make some stir among us, I
fancy, respecting which let me note these points following:--

There are two theories on the subject of land now abroad, and in
contention; both false.

The first is that, by Heavenly law, there have always existed, and must
continue to exist, a certain number of hereditarily sacred persons to
whom the earth, air, and water of the world belong, as personal
property; of which earth, air, and water, these persons may, at their
pleasure, permit, or forbid, the rest of the human race to eat,
breathe, or to drink. This theory is not for many years longer
tenable. The adverse theory is that a division of the land of the
world among the mob of the world would immediately elevate the said mob
into sacred personages; that houses would then build themselves, and
corn grow of itself; and that everybody would be able to live, without
doing any work for his living. This theory would also be found highly
untenable in practice.

It will, however, require some rough experiments, and rougher
catastrophes, before the generality of persons will be convinced that
no law concerning anything, least of all concerning land, for either
holding or dividing it, or renting it high, or renting it low--would be
of the smallest ultimate use to the people--so long as the general
contest for life, and for the means of life, remains one of mere brutal
competition. That contest, in an unprincipled nation, will take one
deadly form or another, whatever laws you make against it. For
instance, it would be an entirely wholesome law for England, if it
could be carried, that maximum limits sh