July 6, 2012 · 1 min
Ebenezer Elliott: Land
LAND.
He ties up hands Who locks up lands:
The lands which can’t be sold and bought Bring men and states to worse than nought: The lands which can be freely sold Are worth a world of barren gold.*
* Land, in Britain, is withdrawn from competition by the law of primogeniture, and in France by that of equal division among all the children of a marriage, to the great danger of both countries.