foundation of this right. Pleased as we are with the possession, we
seem afraid to look back to the means by which it was acquired, as
if fearful of some defect in our title; or at best we rest satisfied
with the decision of the laws in our favour, without examining the
reason and authority upon which those laws have been built. We think
it enough that our title is derived by the grant of the former
proprietor, by descent from our ancestors, or by the last will and
testament of the dying owner; not caring to reflect that (accurately
and strictly speaking) there is no foundation in nature, or in
natural law, why a set of words upon parchment should convey the
dominion of land; why the son should have a right to exclude his
fellow creature from a determinate spot of ground, because his
father had so done before him; or why the occupier of a particular
field, or of a jewel, when lying on his death bed, and no longer
able to maintain possession, should be entitled to tell the rest
of the world which of them should enjoy it after him.--(2 _Blac.
Comm._ 2)

"The _two sheriff's of London_ are the _one sheriff of Middlesex_;
thus constituting in the latter case, what may be denominated, in
the words of _George Colman the Younger_, (see his address to the
Reviewers, in his _vagaries_,) 'a plural unit.' Henry the First,
in the same charter by which he declared and confirmed the
privileges of the City of _London_, (and among others, that of
choosing their own sheriffs,) conferred on them, in consideration of
an annual rent of 300_l._, to be paid to his majesty and his
successors for ever, the perpetual sheriffalty of _Middlesex_. This
was an enormous price; 300_l._. in those days were equal to more
than three times as many thousands at the present time.