h and water from the state of Lacedaemon, to satisfy him, was thrust
into a well and earth cast upon him."

The earlier races seem to me, either by reasoning or by instinct, to
have arrived at the conclusion that every man was, in right of his
being, entitled to food; that food was a product of the land, and
therefore every man was entitled to the possession of land, otherwise
his life depended upon the will of another. The Romans acted on a
different principle, which was "the spoil to the victors." He who could
not defend and retain his possessions became the slave of the conqueror,
all the rights of the vanquished passed to the victor, who took and
enjoyed as ample rights to land as those naturally possessed by the
aborigines.

The system of landholding varies in different countries, and we cannot
discover any idea of abstract right underlying the various differing
systems; they are the outcome of law, the will of the sovereign power,
which is liable to change with circumstances. The word LAW appears to be
used to express two distinct sentiments; one, the will of the sovereign
power, which being accompanied with a penalty, bears on its face the
idea that it may be broken by the individual who pays the penalty:
"Thou shalt not eat of the fruit of the tree, for on the day thou eatest
thereof thou shalt die," was a law. All laws, whether emanating from an
absolute monarch or from the representatives of the majority of a state,
are mere expressions of the will of the sovereign power, which may be
exacted by force. The second use of the word LAW is a record of our
experience--e.g., we see the tides ebb and flow, and conclude it is
done in obedience to the will of a sovereign power; but the word in that
sense does not imply any violation or any punishment. A distinction
must also be drawn between laws and codes; the former existed before
the latter. The lex non scripta prevailed before letters were invented.
Every command of the Decalogue was issued, and punishment followed for
its breach, before the existence of the engraved tables. The Brehon
code, the Justinian code, the Draconian code, were compilations of
existing laws; and the same may be said of the common or customary law
of England, of France, and of Germany.

I am aware that recent analytical writers have sought to associate LAW
with FORCE, and to hold that law is a command, and must have behind it
sufficient force to compel submission. These writers find at the