Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/18

 6 ther's property; and, after much contention with the Philitines, was uffered to enjoy it in peace.

this while the oil and pature of the earth remained till in common as before, and open to every occupant: except perhaps in the neighbourhood of towns, where the neceity of a ole and excluive property in lands (tor the ake of agriculture) was earlier felt, and therefore more readily complied with. Otherwie, when the multitude of men and cattle had conumed every convenience on one pot of ground, it was deemed a natural right to eie upon and occupy uch other lands as would more eaily upply their neceities. This practice is till retained among the wild and uncultivated nations that have never been formed into civil tates, like the Tartars and others in the eat; where the climate itelf, and the boundles extent of their territory, conpire to retain them till in the ame avage tate of vagrant liberty, which was univeral in the earliet ages; and which Tacitus informs us continued among the Germans till the decline of the Roman empire. We have alo a triking example of the ame kind in the hitory of Abraham and his nephew Lot. When their joint ubtance became o great, that pature and other conveniences grew carce, the natural conequence was that a trife aroe between their ervants; o that it was no longer practicable to dwell together. This contention Abraham thus endeavoured to compoe; "let there be no trife, I pray thee, between thee and me. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyelf, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then will I go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then will I go to the left." This plainly implies an acknowleged right, in either, to occupy whatever ground he pleaed, that was not pre-occupied by other tribes. "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, even as the garden of the Lord. Then Lot choe him all the plain of Jordan, and journeyed eat; and Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan." Rh