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

THE PRINCE TON RE VIE W.
or the wild grass, digs the soil, and plants it with the seeds
of those trees and plants which yield food for the sustenance of
man. He also surrounds it with a fence for necessary pro —
tection of his crop, and builds upon it a permanent dwelling.
He found this piece of land in a condition in which it could con —
tribute nothing to his support; he has converted it into a most
efficient means of procuring sustenance for himself and those
dependent on him. On the same principle therefore upon which
he who made the bow and arrows owns them, this man owns the
land which he has rendered serviceable to human uses.
If it is objected to this that the productive power of the land
is the free gift of God to all, the answer is, so were the natural
qualities of the hickory withe and the strong bark of which
the bow and string were made the free gift of the Creator to all,
as truly as the productive powers of the land. One of these:
men has converted the natural qualities of the wood and the
bark-to the use of man; the other has done the same thing for
the natural powers of the soil. Each has therefore equally become the owner of that upon which he has wrought. The same
law covers both cases. The same law embraces the relation of
all material substances to the labor of man.
It may perhaps be objected to the application of this law to
land, that while other products of human industry wear out, land
lasts forever, and therefore the ownership is perpetual. It is.
difficult to see how this could invalidate the argument, if it were
true; but it is not true. Land once brought under cultivation
will soon wear out, just like any other product of human industry, unless it is renewed by timely repairs. There are probablymillions of acres even in our comparatively young country which,
by the neglect of such repairs, were long ago worn out and abandoned, so that it would be far more difficult to bring them again
into productiveness than it was originally to subdue them. All
land is much like Rev. Sidney Smith's carriage which he called
"The Immortal," because it had been repaired till nothing of
the original structure remained, and by a continuance of the,
same treatment it would last forever. It would have been hard
indeed if some leveller of the time had declared that the reverend gentleman was for that reason no longer the owner, and
deprived him of it. In the common speech of the new settle
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