That Feudal Aristocracy, I say, was no imaginary one. To a respectable degree, its _Jarls,_ what we now call Earls, were _Strong-Ones_ in fact as well as etymology; its Dukes _Leaders,_ its Lords _Law-wards._ They did all the Soldiering and Police of the country, all the judging, Law-making, even the Church- Extension; whatsoever in the way of Governing, of Guiding and Protecting could be done. It was a Land Aristocracy; it managed the Governing of this English People, and had the reaping of the Soil of England in return. It is, in many senses, the Law of Nature, this same Law of Feudalism;--no right Aristocracy but a Land one! The curious are invited to meditate upon it in these days. Soldiering, Police and Judging, Church-Extension, nay real Government and Guidance, all this was actually _done_ by the Holders of the Land in return for their Land. How much of it is now done by them; done by anybody? Good Heavens, "Laissez- faire, Do ye nothing, eat your wages and sleep," is everywhere the passionate half-wise cry of this time; and they will not so much as do nothing, but must do mere Corn-Laws! We raise Fifty- two millions, from the general mass of us, to get our Governing done,--or, alas, to get ourselves persuaded that it is done: and the 'peculiar burden of the Land' is to pay, not all this, but to pay, as I learn, one twenty-fourth part of all this. Our first Chartist Parliament, or Oliver _Redivivus,_ you would say, will know where to lay the new taxes of England!--Or, alas, taxes? If we made the Holders of the Land pay every shilling still of the expense of Governing the Land, what were all that? The Land, by mere hired Governors, cannot be got governed. You cannot hire men to govern the Land: it is by a mission not contracted for in the Stock-Exchange, but felt in their own hearts as coming out of Heaven, that men can govern a Land. The mission of a Land Aristocracy is a sacred one, in both the senses of that old word. The footing it stands on, at present, might give rise to thoughts other than of Corn-Laws!--