There are no influences more conservative, or more conducive to the maintenance of order in society, than those which facilitate the acquirement of property in land by those who cultivate it,--“’Tis wonderful sweet to have something of one’s own.” There is no influence fraught with more danger than that which concentrates the ownership of the soil in the hands of the few, by impediments, legal or fiscal, to prevent lands freely passing from the hands of the idle into those of the industrious. Neither extreme poverty nor extreme opulence is the thing to be desired. Pauperism and plutocracy alike are the parents of vice in private and revolution in public life. The genius of revolution truly exclaims, “With wings twain do I fly;” of these wings one is discontented labor, the other is over-reaching wealth. The system of the subdivision of the soil among a multitude of small proprietors, for the most part energetic, industrious cultivators of their own holdings, is eminently conservative in its influence, and contributes in no small degree towards maintaining the national spirit of independence and self-reliance, the happy and contented condition of the Swiss peasant proprietors; at once the strength and the safety of the Confederation. This Swiss peasant has not only the responsibilities of a capitalist on a small scale, but also those qualities of foresight, thrift, and sobriety that such responsibility inspires. He has his home with the dignity, stimulus, and all the civilizing influence of ownership.