must be the total amount of mental distress, physical pain, and raised mortality which these thousands of repealed Acts of Parliament represent!" (Herbert Spencer: Contemporary Review, May, 1884.) I have gone fully into this matter, as a caution is necessary to the public against their blind faith in Acts of Parliament. The last idea is for the nationalisation of the land, for the State to confiscate or buy up the land, and the substitution of "one landlord," the State, for the many, as at present. The attempt is not likely to succeed yet, but should be opposed and crushed in its infancy. The Legislature already has too much power, interferes too much with our freedom of action; let it attend to its legitimate functions-the protection of the lives and property of its subjects; the compelling by law men to observe the contracts they have entered into the repealing of all obsolete and injurious Acts still on the Statute-book; the careful management of the affairs of the nation, like honest stewards; doing all things necessary for the public good, and at the least possible cost. Meantime it has seemed to me advisable to warn the public against their faith, in the power of Parliament; and I quite agree with Herbert Spencer, that "the function of Liberalism in the past was that of putting a limit to the powers of kings; the function of true Liberalism in the future will be that of putting a limit to the powers of Parliaments."

In England ''The Nationalisation of the Land" is quite a new idea, and very few men indeed understand what is meant by those that use it. The expression is a symbol of extreme Socialistic theorists; and it must be readily admitted that the