Sometimes the inhabitants have merely the right of making the essartage and afterwards sowing broom in the sarts ; theyhave to restore the land to the disposition of the commune as soon as they have gathered in the broom. In this case theperiod of enjoyment is tbree or four years. Sometimes these lands are given over to the inhabitants for fifteen or twentyyears. They pay the commune an annual rent; and at the expiration of the term the commune resumes possession of the landsas they then are.
The inhabitants have the right of turning on to the common pasture all their cattle, whatever the number, and without regardto the time when they came into possession of them. The owner of a large herd therefore derives more profit from thecommon pasture than the inhabitant who has few cattle or none at all; but hitherto there has been no attempt to alter thisrule. It follows that the principal farmers, who generally are charged with the administration of the commune, have a greatinterest in preserving the common pasturage. Accordingly the communes are very much opposed to the alienation of thewaste, which the law authorizes. In more than one instance, for fear of such alienation at the instance of a large neighbouringproprietor, a commune has been ready to divide among its inhabitants the domain which it supposed to be coveted. Thus,quite recently, in the village of Ville-duBois, the inhabitants, for fear of legal dispossession, allotted about 50 hectares in fullownership. The allotment was effected in this way. Equal parcels, of very moderate value, were formed; these weredistributed by lot among the affouagers. Any parcels that were declined were put up for public sale, but affouagers alonehad the right to bid for them.
In 1862 Vielsalm sold in the same way a large common waste; and a clause was inserted in the conditions to the effect thatfor five years the purchasers should not have the right of re-selling. A similar sale took place recently (1873) in the communeof Lierneux.
In certain communesthose, for instance, in the neighbourhood of Ciney, at Braibant, Sovet, and Emptinnecommunal landsare found divided for a long term. They are cultivated, like the Swiss Allmends , in a permanent manner, and even better thanthe large farms in the neighbourhood. At Braibant every "fire," or family, has the enjoyment of abeut a hectare of good land.
The partition is effected in equal portions among all the "fires" of the commune,the greater part for terms of thirty years,the remainder for nine years. Formerly these lands were sarts cultivated every eighteen years; but now they are cultivatedwithout any fallow, although the tenant-farmers still let a portion of their land lie idle. The parcels thus allotted are wellmanured, because the occupier is sure of retaining a long enjoyment of them, and also because the terms of allotment imposeprecise obligations in this respect. Whoever does not put on the prescribed quantity of lime and manure loses his parcel,which is granted or let to the oldest commoners, if there are any who have not yet received parcels. Lands distributed fornine years are not so well cultivated, because the occupier neglects them as the end of his occupancy draws near. Thisinstance, which confirms that of the Swiss Allmend, shews that the Russian system, which is subject to so many attacks, maylead to good results, when it is applied in accordance with the prescriptions of well ordered agrarian economy. It ismoreover an undoubted fact, that in the poorer villages of Luxemburg the least well-to-do of the inhabitants, who receivetheir fuel from the commune and have the right of depasturing their beasts on its meadows, have much less ground ofcomplaint than those of the richer Flemish villages. The position of the Flemish labourers is also better when they have asmall field for the cultivation of potatoes or rye.
1. This point has attracted little attention from historians; but it has been well demonstrated in the learned work recentlypublished by M. Leon Vanderkindere: Notice sur L'origine des magistrate communaux , 1874. Many facts here given areborrowed from him.
2. At Soignies, the mayor with the assembled jury of surveyors ( verejurati ) allotted to every one his share in the lands of thecommune of St Vincent:the cachepoul carries the rope, the Germanic reeb, used for the measurement.
3. Wauters: Preuves , p. 172.
4. See La propriété foncière au XV' Siècle dans le quartier de Louvain , par E. Poullet, 1866.
5. M. Gachard quotes a regulation of 1248, as to the extraction of the coal in the communes of St Guislain, Dour,Quaregnon, Boussu, &c. "Et en tous ces ovrages chi devant nommés ne puet-on foir carbon devens les 4 ans deseure escris,en toute l'oeuvre et le justice S. Gillain et ses parceniers ka xx pints, en le justice et l'uevre Sainte Wanidruth ka xx puits, etc.
6. Meitzen: Ueber Bildung von Dörfern in the Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie , 1872, p. 134.
7. See the author's Economie rurale de la Belgique .
8. See Ordonnance, de Police for the town of Termonde, published by authority of the commune (1868).
9. Belgique judiciaire , 1869, p. 761.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE STATE AS LANDOWNER, AND PROPERTY IN INDIA.
It is well known that in Mohammedan states the sovereign is regarded as owner of the soil, by virtue of the principles of theKoran. But it is particularly interesting to see how a European government, on becoming master of an immense territorywhere Mussulman principles were in force, took advantage of this right of property. We have already seen the materialadvantage derived by Holland from the application of this system to its colony of Java. Let us now examine how Englandsolved the problem in India. (1)
