The Private Ownership of Land [pp. 125-147]

THE PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LAND.
ERHAPS no one cause can be named, so deeply seated and
widely influential, of the political unrest which has per vaded Europe for nearly a century, as the discontent of millions
with existing systems of land tenure, and with the methods by
which the soil is distributed to its cultivators. It was the fore most of the causes which began to convulse the French monarchy in I789, and never ceased to convulse it till it was demolished down to its deepest foundations. That agitation rapidly
extended itself over all Europe, and has continued ever since;
and the world is witnessing its most recent effects in the disturbed condition of Ireland, and that dread of coming change
in the great Russian Empire which fills all Christendom with awe In no other direction are the efforts of those who are agitating in the interest of communism and socialism half so earnest,.
half so plausible, or half so successful as in their attacks on the
existing land tenures of the civilized world. This is precisely
what we ought to expect; for here is the weakest point in modern civilization. These levellers show their sagacity-not. their
wisdom, for they have none-in attacking the social order which
they wish to overthrow in its weakest places. The time has
actually come when it is indispensable to the conservation of all
which is precious in the institutions of society, that we should
ascertain, by strictly scientific methods, what laws exist, in the
nature of man and of things, by which it can be determined
what are the rights of individuals and of society in respect to
the possession of the soil from which the whole human race
must derive the necessaries of life. To indicate the answer to
this inquiry is the object of this essay.
How is it that any human being becomes the owner of any-.