outset
of their examination, that customary law, the "Lex non scripta," existed
before force, and that the nomination to sovereign power was the outcome
of the more ancient customary law. These laws appear based upon the
idea of common good, and to have been supported by the "posse comitatus"
before standing armies or state constabularies were formed. Vattel says
(book i., chap. ii.), "It is evident that men form a political society,
and submit to laws solely for their own advantage and safety. The
sovereign authority is then established only for the common good of all
the citizens. The sovereign thus clothed with the public authority,
with everything that constitutes the moral personality of the nation,
of course becomes bound by the moral obligations of that nation and
invested with its rights." It appears evident, that customary law
was the will of small communities, when they were sovereign; that the
cohesion of such communities was a confirmation of such customs of each,
that the election of a monarch or a parliament was a recognition of
these customs, and that the moral and material FORCE or power of the
sovereign was the outcome of existing laws, and a confirmation thereof.
The application of the united force of the nation could be rightfully
directed to the requirements of ancient, though unwritten customary law,
and it could only be displaced by legislation, in which those concerned
took part.

The duty of the sovereign (which in the United Kingdom means the Crown
and the two branches of the legislature) with regard to land, is thus
described by Vattel:

"Of all arts, tillage or agriculture is doubtless the most useful
and necessary, as being the source whence the nation derives its
subsistence. The cultivation of the soil causes it to produce an
infinite increase. It forms the surest resource, and the most solid fund
of riches and commerce for a nation that enjoys a happy climate. The
sovereign ought to neglect no means of rendering the land under his
jurisdiction as well cultivated as possible.... Notwithstanding the
introduction of private property among the citizens, the nation has
still the right to take the most effectual measures to cause the
aggregate soil of the country to produce the greatest and most
advantageous revenue possible. The cultivation of the soil deserves
the attention of the Government, not only on account of the invaluable
advantages that flow from it, but from its being an obligatio