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2. That under strong as well as weak kings "this nation has all along insisted upon resumptions." 5. That the House of Commons in their Bills of Resumption made very few savings as to the interests of private men!

13. That in these acts of resumption the salaries and wages are taken away of all superfluous offices which required no attendance and execution, and which were newly erected.

17. That most of these Acts not only resume the Crown lands, but revoke all unnecessary pensions!

18. That the 33 Henry VI. resumes the land passed away from the Crown, even by authority of Parliament!

19. That in all these Acts, except 28 Henry VI., the lands in Ireland are comprehended.

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A resumption was only thought of in the reign of King James I. But in the reign of King Charles II. a resumption was again agitated, for we find in the journals of the House of Commons, 22nd May, 1660, "a Bill for making void of grants made since May, 1642, of titles of honour, manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments passed under several great seals by the late King Charles I., or the King's Majesty that now is, or any other great seal, was this day read the second time, and, upon the question, committed," &c. (p. 166.)

I will close with a remark of the learned Sir Thomas Smith: "No man holdeth land simply free in England but he or she that holdeth the Crown of England. All free land in England is holden in Feodo, which is as much as to say in Fide, or Fiducia, that is, in trust and confidence that he shall be true to the Lord of whom he holds it and pay such rent, do such service, and observe such conditions as were annexed to the first donation.

Thus none but the Princes were veri Domini, but rather fiduciarii Domini and Possessores." (State Tracts, vol. ii., p. 751.)

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LEX.

WALES AND HER MEMBERS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DEMOCRAT.

SIR, It was with pleasure that I read your note in January number-short though it was-anent the above subject. As a Welshman, who feels intensely on behalf of his country, I beg your indulgence to say a few words, in the hope that they may awaken a right spirit among present-day Welshmen. As you say, the Welsh people are exceedingly Radical, and they are very dissatisfied with the majority of their present members. It is a fact clear to all Welshmen that their members, with two exceptions (Messrs. Abraham and Ellis), are not as Radical as themselves, and yet there is no attempt made to procure other and far better members. No doubt our present old members have done good service in the past, but this is no reason why their present want of sympathy with Welshmen should be condoned. Wales has over and over again been insulted in the peoples' Commons, and no voice until recently has been lifted in its vindication. Thank God we are beginning to shake off the shackles of landlordism, our emancipation is dawning, and I have but little doubt it is not far. We have long been awaking to the fact that our

landlord M.P.'s interests are directly antagonistic to the people's, and that they serve themselves first, and not those whom they are elected to represent.

It is the want of united effort that is the only cause of the continuation of this sad state of things. Wales must look to the best of its own people for fit and proper representatives, men whose interests are identical with the peoples, men who will always know how Welshmen wish them to vote. Its M.P.'s should be working men, their sons, or small farmers; a subscription should be levied to pay election expenses, and let the member maintain himself. There are plenty of us young Welshmen quite prepared to do this; our blood boils when we think how our Cambria is being passed on one side, and we would be no silent members should such a state of things continue. It is senseless and outrageous that we should be represented by Englishmen and Scotchmen who know nothing of our very musical language, and consequently know not our wants. We are prepared for free education, to disestablish the alien church, to nationalise the land, and for every Radical proposal. Why, therefore, should we not have Radical M.P.'s? - Yours truly,

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DAFYDD AP HYWEL

COMPENSATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE Democrat. SIR,-I observe that your compositor substitutes the word "landowner" for "landholder," and destroys the sense. The constant repetition of the former word induces a belief in private ownership, tenure, involving State responsibilities, and landwhich is contrary to fact. Ours is a system of land lordism is a political, not a commercial, institution, as moderns affect to treat it.

As a plea for enclosing commons, or annexing them to freeholds, landlordism declared that "a right ceased to exist whenever the reason for its creation became obsolete" (See Leslie Stephen's "Life of Fawcett "). So when the neighbours around Clapham Common ceased to rear geese, pigs, and donkeys, the freeholder was privileged to attach or annex it. Let us judge landlordism by the same canon. It was created to supply the State with funds, and defend the country by personal service with the aid of clothyard bows, crossbows, battle-axes, lances, javelins, coats of mail, &c., which are all become obsolete, and it is so long since landlordism provided the State with funds that the habit is also obsolete, therefore landlordism should cease to exist, and the people, the rightful owners, should resume possession of the soil. At present they derive no benefit from their estate. Rather the reverse.

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few remarks on the other side. The doctrine of moral restraint has been declared an absolute necessity in order to check the increase of population, but, beyond the prevention of indiscreet marriages, it is a great fallacy, against which I place the ancient injunction, "Be fruitful and multiply."

Under a proper state of society each additional child born would be regarded as a new customer for the markets of the world.

Now, sir, coming nearer home, is it not a fact that there are towns and villages in England, to say nothing of Ireland and Scotland, with a considerable smaller number of inhabitants than they had fifty years ago. Is it not a fact that there are scores of farms in the market to let, and tens of thousands of acres of land simply wanting hands and brains to cultivate them, and although it is equally a fact that the Anglo-Saxon race increases with astonishing rapidity, it should be borne in mind that certain other races are diminishing and passing away. As a nation do we not carry on a brisk trade as exterminators? Let American Indians, the Aborigines of Australia and New Zealand, with the sable sons of Ham in Africa, answer the question.

It may be conceded that our great centres of industry are somewhat congested. What is required is a little dispersion. The world is as wide and as wealthy as it ever was; let us, therefore, struggle for "Three acres and a cow," and when that patriarchal boon is gained we will gather our "Fruits of Philosophy" from the apple tree instead of the Upas.

20, Harcombe Road, N.

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WM. JOINER.

THE RULERS AND THE RULED.-The Speaker of the House of Commons has taken upon himself to say when and how the representatives of the people of Great Britain shall state their grievances. That is so much power taken from the people. The manner of taking the power away shows what will be done with it. A working-class question was under discussion, and Mr. Speaker Peel peremptorily closed the debate. If we do not put a stop to such arbitrary doings we will have enough of them. All power is in the hands of the working-classes. To power the aristocracy oppose cunning. means of Parliament much may be done to improve the condition of the people. We must not allow the cunning of the wealthy to over-ride the power of the poor. We must not forget that if Parliament rules the people, then the people must rule Parliament.

LETTER FROM THE CHILDREN'S
DEMOCRAT.

MY DEAR CHILDREN,-Most of you have, no
or "The Swiss
doubt, read "Robinson Crusoe
Family Robinson or "The History of Masterman
Ready," or some other story about persons ship-

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wrecked on a desert island.

Now I want you to imagine that some man, we will call him Mr. Crusoe, has an island all his own, by law his own, and that no one can have any of it to cultivate without his leave. And we will suppose that this Mr. Crusoe asks some man if he would like to come and live upon the island with his wife and children and have some land at a certain rent to cultivate. The man would reply, "It is quite out of the question my paying any rent. There are so few of us, and no manufacturers and shopkeepers to put things to our hand; so that our work will not produce more than will keep ourselves. It would serve your interests better in the end to pay men to come and live upon your land rather than ask them for rent for it." This would be true, indeed so true that the unlikely part of what I have supposed is that Mr. Crusoe should have thought of asking for rent. There, you see, would be a case of plenty of land, but few workers; and you may learn from this that it is work and not land which yields rent. The land has always been where it is, or, if not, we didn't put it there; and it can no more yield rent now than it could at first. Not that we could do without land; but land was given to all the world in one and at once, and it is work that makes differences.

But time goes on, and more persons come to settle upon the island, and children and grandchildren are born, so that now the tillers of the soil have plenty of helpers and plenty of customers. Now they can manage to get a living and to pay rent as well. But by-and-bye the people on this island find that by having corn brought to them from other countries they can have their bread cheaper. When the farmers find this to be the case they consider that they will have to lower their prices and the landlords to lower their rents.

Now, I cannot tell how the people on this imaginary island will settle the matter; but I know what they did in this country many years ago, when prices were likely to go down. Laws were By made compelling certain payments, called duties, on foreign corn when imported into this country. Of course, such laws as these made corn, all our land over, dearer than it would have been if things had been left to take their own way. Farmers could keep up high prices, and landlords could keep up high rents.

THE CIVIL SERVICE INQUIRY COMMISSION.-Mr. J. M. Cameron, writing on the 21st inst. from the Metallurgical Laboratory, Lime-street, E.C., to Lord Randolph Churchill, expresses a fear "lest those who are selected to give evidence might have their future advancement in the service retarded by reason of such evidence were it directed against the abuses and anomalies which unfortunately are known to exist in nearly every branch of the public service." The best way to prevent this is for members of the Civil Service to fearlessly express their opinions, and expose any attempt at intimidation..

But the nation didn't approve of such dear bread, and, therefore, about forty years ago these Corn Laws, as they were called, were repealed. And there are some who say that this repeal is the cause why our farmers nowadays cannot make fortunes; indeed, can hardly make a living, and why rents are paid with so much difficulty. And, indeed, when you come to think of it, how is the farmer to pay rent when people mean to get the corn from him as cheap as they can, that is to say, when they don't mean, if they can help it, to work more to pay him

for his corn than he has to work to raise it. What does that allow for rent ?

And yet the farmer ought to pay rent, and ought to have a price for his corn that would enable him to do it. The fact is this, that if the rents were properly divided amongst us all, and we thus received the value we create, farmers and labourers, manufacturers and working men would all be well off. Some men say we must have the Corn Laws back again, or laws of the same kind. This is what is meant by the doctrine of Protection. It means that money is to be charged on goods brought into this country, and this is to be done in order that certain parties here may sell their goods dearer. One class of sellers has as much right to this sort of protection as another, and we might come to have laws forbidding us, except on heavy payments, to import anything that could be raised or made in our own country, and terribly scarce and dear such things might become.

I am afraid that many men have to sell their goods or their labour at a cheaper rate than gives them a chance of living in comfort. But the proper remedy for this is that they should do something else, and not continue at the cheap work any longer. But, for this, a man must be able to turn about, and must have his brains active and in good practice. Therefore, dear children, use your brains, in all sorts of things, in field-work, in housework, in your lessons at school, and in your games. In this way, and also by having just laws made about rent, we shall bring matters into such a state that sellers will be able to afford to sell, and buyers be able to afford to buy, at such prices that will ensure comfort to all the industrious. Begin now to do your part, for it is likely that you will have to do the most of what has to be done in this direction. Your affectionate

:0: RECEIVED.

DEMOCRAT.

Kent Times, Highland News, Oban Times, Temperance Record, Reynold's Newspaper, Crofter Rerolt, Sheffield Echo, Jus, Scottish Highlander, Lifeboat Journal, Drogheda Argus, Northern Ensign, Labour Tribune, Western Morning Post, Alnwick Guardian, Weekly Bulletin, Pioneer, Observer and Chronicle, Western Morning News, Christian Million, Northern Daily Telegraph, Stirling Observer, Stroud Journal, The Union, Knights of Labour (Chicago), Arbeiter-Zeitung, True Witness (Montreal), Crédit Foncier of Sinaloa, Le Prolétariat, Evansville Courier (Evansville, Ind.), Weekly Star (San Francisco), Evening Reporter, Industrial News (Toledo, Ohio), John Swinton's Paper, Workmen's Advocate (New Haven), Standard (New York, U.S.A.), Canadian Labour Reformer, Kapunda Herald (Kapunda), Irish World, World's Advance Thought (Salem).

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THE Bishop of London, who presided at the Temperance Conference, is one of those strong men who are often used to buttress tottering institutions, but he may live to astonish his companions. We should not be surprised to find him limiting his own income to £500 a-year, and using the palace at Fulham as á convalescent home, for which it is so well adapted.

"FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH."

The following story of an American reporter's last despatch is taken from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. It says:

:

It is not many years ago that Tony B, the attaché of a Central Iowa paper, now defunct, rode out from a Southern Iowa city one fine morning, perched daringly on the brake of a flat car that was attached to a "wild freight" and loaded with iron rails. He had been in newspaper work for about six years, and was thoroughly capable. To make the story short, 40 miles out from its starting point the "wild" freight, with a leap of madness and a terrible crash, went through a bridge, down sixty feet, and Tony sitting on the brakebeam. It was over in an instant. When the conductor of the train (the only one uninjured) crawled out of the wreck his eyes first fell on Tony, lying across the side of a dismantled box car-on his chest a heavy rail, his legs crushed-and dying. Beyond him lay a dead brakesman: the engineer was buried under his machine, and by a larger boulder was the fireman with a broken back. Tony was conscious, and when the conductor reached him he asked for paper and pencil. They were found in his pockets. Unable to write himself, he dictated this, angrily ordering the men who had come up to let him alone:-"C-E-, Managing Editor, Star,-, Iowa:--Train through bridge at. Was on board and am hurt. Will send full particulars at once.-T.B." A farmer was secured, who carried it to the nearest station. Then this boy, true to his duty, and not flinching before death, suffering frightful agony, and while willing hands sought in vain to release him from his position, dictated a "special" of 1,500 words to his paper. What he suffered no one can ever know. It was with difficulty he could breathe, and every gasp cost him a wrench of agony. But he held death back down to the last few lines. "The killed were -," and so on, ending with the name of Tony B--, reporter." As he ended that his eyes filled with tears, and he looked up wistfully to the conductor, who had written the telegram for him, and who himself could not keep his tears back. "Tell my mother," said Tony, "that I did my duty; and, boys, rush that over the wires for me. It's a scoop." It went over the wires all right, and it was a "scoop"; but before it was printed Tony was dead.

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IN 1885 Austria exported eggs to the value of nearly 7,000,000 florins, Germany to the value of | 21,000,000 marks, Russia to the value of 3,500,000 roubles, Italy to the value of 37,500,000 francs. Nearly all these eggs came to Britain. And what prevented them from being raised in Britain? The rapacity, the cruel greed of British landowners and British railway companies. The one drive the British labourer from the country into the towns, the other refuse to take his productions at a fair and just rate. All that immense amount of money should easily, honestly, and in the way of trade, have gone to relieve the agricultural distress that is desolating the country and crowding the towns.

A WORKMAN'S SECRET.

PART IV.

Reader, Mr. Norman Firebrace; Mr. Norman Firebrace, the gentle reader.

Miss Firebrace, reader; reader, Miss Firebrace. We have met you, sir and madam, before, but not near-not at home. So I take this opportunity, &c. Mr. Firebrace called his house Mount Paradise. His workmen called it by a shorter and ruder name. The wits said that he did well, for that it was as much of Paradise as he would ever see.

You could not see Mount Paradise without being greatly struck with its appearance. Mr. Firebrace had said to the architect:

"Don't spare money. Do the handsome. By I have as much right to a good house as any aristocrat in the land! What's blood to money? want a slap-up aristocratic edifice."

I

The architect set his wits to work, and struggled for weeks with his inspirations. Then he was delivered of a plan. It was of the composite order. Greek temples, and baronial halls, and modern mansions were all robbed of their symmetries and jumbled into one vast pile of startling proportions.

When it was finished, a jocund professor brought the great art critic of the day-the man who has taught the world that English is as musical as Greek -to look upon its proportions. That noble gentleman stood regarding it in stunned silence. Mr. Firebrace felt his bosom swell with pride as he saw the evident emotion of this subtle critic, whose great and just fame inspired even him with awe. At last he said, in a sonorous and satisfied tone, and willing to hear his own praises from lips so great:

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Well, sir, you appear to be struck with the appearance of my house. I must say myself that I think it remarkable-very remarkable."

"Are you the man who caused these stones to be put together?" asked the critic, still keeping his eyes upon the gigantic pile.

"I am, sir; I am."

"Then may heaven forgive you !"

And, turning, the artist fled, as if the plagues of Egypt were behind him. This did not shake Mr. Firebrace's opinion of his own house-what ever does shake the opinion of such a man? There were those who said to him that a house so large should stand away from the road, amid broad acres of lawn and wood; that at present it was, in proportion to its ground, like a giant in boy's clothes. To this Mr. Firebrace would answer:

"Does a town hall stand back from the road, sir? Answer me that, sir."

"But people don't live in town halls. You could hardly speak of a town hall as an eligible residence." "And why not? If I choose to live in the Tower of London, is that your business?

Upon which Mr. Firebrace would look so unutterably fierce that the reasoner would be convinced. For fierceness is excellent logic, and of such logic Mr. Firebrace had a sufficiency. Very few people were able to sustain an argument when he took the other side. Not speedily will the Rev. Mr. Joseph Meek forget his interview with this iron autocrat. Mr. Meek was pursuing the usual business of a clergyman-he was calling for subscriptions. On this occasion he could not have been better employed, for he was collecting money to establish an ambulance society.

"Ambulance society," grunted Mr. Firebrace.

"Well ? "

"It will do a great good." "To whom?"

"Why, to the workmen." "Oh, it will, will it?"

"Surely, you can see that it will do so." "And what is that to me?"

"I do not understand."

"I am not a man." (How untrue!) I am a master. What good will an ambulance society do to the masters?”

This was said in a voice so thunderous that, half in fear, half in indignation, the Rev. Mr. Meek rushed wildly from the room and from the house, shaking, as he always took care to say, the dust from his feet as a testimony against Mr. Firebrace,

The interior of Mr. Firebrace's house harmonised with the exterior. To intrude upon the stock-intrade of the London Jourual, it was furnished with "gilded magnificence," Of course, it was not comfortable. When you glanced along the vast and stately drawing-room, you expected that you would have to take a ghost or a skeleton down to dinner; while you ate that dinner the dishes and the wines seemed to say to you, "We are the best that can be had for money.' The magnificence of everything was oppressive. If poor Charles Lamb had had to dine at that table for a week it would have driven him mad. You felt your brains freezing within you, and helplessly asked yourself, "Will they ever thaw?"

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Perhaps you looked at Miss Firebrace for a moment and felt a little better, Perhaps she looked at you, and then you felt the frost keener than ever. Never, surely, was a girl so cold and silent. When she looked down she seemed a girl like other girls. Her form shapely, lithe, elegant in all her movements; her face nobly and clearly cut (whence had she such features?); her hair of that gold in which the lights nimbly dance, with long and wavy lengths to drive an artist or a lover to despair. You waited for some spoken word or maiden's inner thought to break the stillness of that face and ripple it with laughter or animation. You waited in vain. She would look coldly and clearly into your eyes, and you would shiver at the iciness of her glance. Was it cruel ? Was it the glance of those patrician women who made firm their red lips while men and lions fought in the arena? Above all, was the ice above the living water, or was it the ice of hearts that no sun can melt? We shall see.

Meantime, think of the dreary and narrow life an intellectual, sensitive, and educated girl lives in a house of vulgar and gorgeous wealth. The servants have been selected because they have served the nobility. Therefore, they look down upon their new employers. She is perpetually thrust, by the ambition of her parents, among people who respect them nothing more than their dogs, but who must be on good terms with wealth. But young women treat young women with remorseless severity. I once listened to the conversation between three daughters of a poor baronet and the daughter of a very wealthy man. Their father owed her father more than would ever be repaid. Yet the three girls treated their good-natured and sensitive companion with an icy politeness, a cutting courtesy, a scornful style of compliments, that made me fly from the spot in horror. Now, cynical, sarcastic, icy coldness, is the

only defence that girls have against each other. But cynicism, assumed as armour, iciness put on for protection, become at last worn as a constant dress. Is this the case with Helen Firebrace?

At one of those feasts of reason and flowings of the soul that accompanied the dinners at Mount Paradise was present our young probationer, Mr. Arthur Robertson. Mr. Firebrace was fond of asking the clergy to dinner. I believe there is a vague sentiment among such men that it is good to know clergymen. A sentiment, a feeling hardly an opinion--that they will be able somehow to float into heaven on clergymens' coat-tails, like witches on goats, or at least that the clergy have some influence at the gate, like dramatic critics at the stage door of a theatre. Perhaps they feel that, by knowing a few clergymen they get into the swim. Mr. Robertson accepted the invitation with somewhat the same feeling as the beasts when the lion asked them to a feast.

"You know," said Mr. Firebrace abruptly, "a workman of mine called Makinnon. I saw you with him the day that rascal Clark defied me."

"Yes; I know Robert Makinnon. What has become of Mr. Clark?"

"He is starving. I hope to - that by this time he is in the poorhouse. The ruffian actually talked to me about his conscience. As if any man I employ has a right to a conscience. Does he ask less money when I take him on because he has a conscience? No, he does not. Well, I employ him, and he turns out to have a conscience. Is that honest ? Is that moral? It is as if you sold me a horse and didn't tell me that it had spavins."

"Still, a man may have a conscience, may he not?"

"We will not argue the point, sir. I wish to know about Makinnon. You are well acquainted with him?"

"Yes; I see him pretty often." "What do you think of him?

"I think," said Mr. Robertson boldly, "that he is a very good, and that he will be a very great, man." "Has he not a very pretty sister?" asked Miss Firebrace, as coldly and negligently as if she had asked how many miles is Jupiter distant from the sun. And yet she examined Mr. Robertson's blushes keenly as he stammered :

"Yes, I think he has-in fact, he has."

"I quite believe it," said Mr. Firebrace; "such men have always pretty sisters, or pretty nieces, or pretty daughters, and a pretty fuss they make about them. Hem !" Here Mr. Firebrace grew red and angry, for scandal did say that once the husband of a pretty wife-the man was his own workman-had given Mr. Firebrace so thorough a thrashing that for months he could not see a good looking woman without a shudder.

"But the point is," continued this eminent ship builder," do you know about his invention?" "What do you know about it?"

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I have seen it working."

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"Well, I say that a man who does that ought to be hanged; he is dangerous to society."

"He believes that his invention would turn so many people out of employment that he dare not face the risk of giving it to the public."

"That's blasphemy-rank blasphemy."

"I think that it is wrong, although I do not quite see how; but it can hardly be blasphemy." "But I tell you it is blasphemy. Did not God make all laws?'

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"All natural laws."

"And is not the law of trade a natural law? And what does the law of trade demand? It demands that some people-many people-shall always be starving in order that the other lazybones' may be forced to work. God made some men to starve as surely as He made you to preach and me to build ships. Now, is this man Makinnon to set himself up against the law of God? I say that it's blasphemyutter blasphemy!"

"But I refuse to admit that the law of trade is the law of God.'

"Then you will next refuse to admit the law of gravitation."

"No, sir; and neither do I refuse to admit the law of trade. But just as the law of gravitation would naturally drag us to the earth and make us crawl like brutes, so the law of trade drags our commerce into utter shame and misery. And just as we have that in us that enables us to overcome the law of gravitation and walk erect as civilised men, so we can overcome the law of trade and raise those poor unfortunates, whom at present it crushes lower than the brutes, to the rank and dignity of men."

All this was said very boldly and nobly, although Mr. Robertson blushed, when he had finished, at his own rhetoric. As to Mr. Firebrace, he was too indig. nant and surprised at such logic to make any reply except an indignant grunt. He only answered :

"Well, at any rate, I'm not going to lose that invention if I can help myself. I think I see a way of getting it. Look here, my girl, I am going to ask Makinnon to dinner."

"Very well, sir."

"You ain't too proud to meet a workman?" "Not if he isn't too proud to meet us." "Confound the girl, what does she mean?" "I mean that a man like him of whom you speak would be received into a society that would hardly care to meet us." And she swept from the room, leaving her father well-nigh purple with rage. (To be continued.)

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writing on the land question, says that any attempt THE LAND QUESTION. "A Radical Democrat," to settle it must be met with the most determined opposition, because it has not yet been thoroughly studied by the whole of the people, who are born with an equal right to the soil, and who must therefore be consulted before a just settlement can be made.

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