Speech on the Reform of Parliament, vol. X, p

29. Reflections, Works, vol. V, p. 274: With the national assembly of France, possession is nothing, law and usage are nothing. I see the national assembly openly reprobate the doctrine of prescription, which one of the greatest of their own lawyers (Domat) tells us, with great truth, is a part of the law of nature. He tells us, that the positive ascertainment of its limits, and its security from invasion, were among the causes for which civil society itself has been instituted. If prescription be once shaken, no species of property is secure, when it once becomes an object large enough to tempt the cupidity of indigent power. I see a practice perfectly correspondent to their contempt of this great fundamental part of natural law. — Cf. Correspondence, vol. II, pp. 144-5 : lettre au capitaine Mercer, 26 fév. 1790.

30. Lelter to « noble lord, 1796. Works, vol. VIT, pp. 315 sqq.