[DM] Several States have reserved to themselves a similar right, but
generally on less liberal conditions. Massachusetts, however, has
adopted the same, extending the term of possession by the company to
twenty years. New Jersey has stipulated that it shall have the right of
acquiring the property of several works, at a price not exceeding their
first cost.
[DN] Mde. de Stael exclaims; "Strange destiny of mankind, condemned
ever to retrace the same circle by the passions, whilst it is ever
advancing in the career of thought!"
[DO] I have already said, that when the Puritans landed in New England
they wished above all things to found a religious society. They
organised themselves by the laws of Moses. Political society did not
exist in fact, although there was a nominal governor to represent the
temporal authority, or was swallowed up in the church; the town was
merged in the congregation. Thus in a short time, their government came
to resemble that of the Jesuits in Paraguay, with only this difference,
that each one here had his share in the tyranny. The Blue Laws of
Connecticut are a monument of this state of things, in which the common
acts of life were subjected to the most vexatious restrictions. The
New Englanders were soon obliged to renounce their Mosaic system of
government, and without perfectly separating politics from religion,
they gave to each of the two powers an independent existence. They
did not establish the political power firmly beyond the town; but the
municipal constitution was solid and firm, sometimes even to excess,
for the very reason that it started from the religious organisation.