344 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Ce serait creer le plus faillible, le plus nniversel, le plus immediat, le plus 

 inquisitorial, le plus insupportable, et disons, fort heureusement, le plus impossi- 

 ble, de tous les despotismes que jamais cervelle de pacha ou de mufti ait pu con- 

 cevoir. 



The second course could only lead to the gradual pauperization 

 and ultimate bankruptcy of any country which had the folly to 

 embark in it. Such an experiment would be only comparable .to 

 that of a vast joint-stock company in which all comers were enti- 

 tled to shares without paying for them. 



The distinction drawn by Mr. Herbert Spencer, in common 

 with the late Mr. Mill, between private jjroperty in land and pri- 

 vate property in things produced by labor is one which I believe 

 to have no economic justification whatever. It ignores the funda- 

 mental principle, on which the institution of private property is 

 grounded viz., that a due relation between demand and supply 

 can be maintained in no other way consistently with personal 

 freedom. 



From this point of view the fact that the supply of land is 

 practically limited, and that it is, therefore, a natural monopoly, 

 renders it not less but more necessary that it should be allowed 

 to be the subject of private appropriation. 



Sir Henry Maine has summed up the whole question in a few 

 words, which can not be too often repeated : 



There are two sets of motives, and two only, by which the great bulk of the 

 materials of human subsistence and comfort have hitherto been produced and 

 reproduced. One has led to the cultivation of the Northern States of the Ameri- 

 can Union from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; the other had a considerable share in 

 bringing about the agricultural and industrial progress of the Southern States, 

 and in old days it produced the wonderful prosperity of Peru under the Incas. 

 One system is economical competition, the other consists in the daily task, per- 

 haps fairly and kindly allotted, but enforced by the prison or the scourge. So far 

 as we have any experience to teach us, we are driven to the conclusion that every 

 society of men must adopt one system or the other, or it will pass through penury 

 to starvation. (" Popular Government.") 



I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, 



Louis Mallet. 



13 Royal-Crescent, Bath, November 9th. 



MR. SPENCER'S SECOND LETTER. 



To the Editor of " The Times " : 



Sir : As Prof. Huxley admits that his friend A. B.'s title to his 

 plot of land is qualified by the right of the State to dispossess him 

 if it sees well as, by implication, he admits that all land-owners 

 hold their land subject to the supreme ownership of the State, that 

 is, the community as he contends that any force or fraud by 

 which land was taken in early days does not affect the titles of 



