We publish to-day a very interesting article on the actual
state of the evidence as to Irish landed tenures in the sixteenth century ; but we cannot quite concur with the writer that because historical precedent furnishes us with no fresh argument for recurring to an obsolete and barbarous custom, therefore historical precedent furnishes us with no fresh argument for recurring to a custom neither obsolete nor barbarous. On the contrary, we think it is a real element in the justification for any proposed reform that that reform is conceived in a historical spirit. An old custom favourable to the spirit of any enactment really makes all the difference between a dangerous innovation and a natural develop- ment. And for this reason, we do not at all see the irrelevancy which our contributor appears to see in the historical discussion. Rifacimentos are not always mistakes. When they are not, when they are partial restorations of institutions which are in themselves beneficent, though no longer recognized by the law, they are amongst the ntost useful of reforms.
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