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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



It will be noticed that Mr. John 

 Laidler, " bricklayer," is disposed to be 

 severe upon Mr. Spencer for having in 

 part abandoned the views expressed by 

 him as long ago as the year 1852, in his 

 work on " Social Statics." It is hardly 

 worth while, however, to be a philoso- 

 pher if a man can not mature and, if 

 necessary, modify his views as he ad- 

 vances in life and gathers the fruits of 

 experience and reflection. Mr. Spencer 

 long ago recognized that in his " Social 

 Statics " he had expressed himself some- 

 what unguardedly on the land question; 

 and he has refrained for many years 

 from giving any currency to his earlier 

 opinions on that subject. Had his health 

 permitted, it is not improbable that he 

 would have taken some recent occasion 

 for reviewing the whole question, and 

 giving the world the benefit of his latest 

 thought. As it is, he is obliged to con- 

 tent himself with indicating the germ 

 of truth in his former views, and the 

 modifications and safeguards he would 

 now attach to the enunciation of the 

 general principle which they em- 

 bodied. 



Mr. Frederick Greenwood, who par- 

 ticipates in the discussion, undertakes 

 to point a serious moral, to the effect, 

 namely, that philosophers should be 

 careful how they scatter abroad ideas 

 which may serve as the seeds of revo- 

 lution. The caution reminds us of a 

 famous one given by St. Peter to St. 

 Paul, some of whose writings, the for- 

 mer apostle thought, " the unlearned 

 and the unstable" might "wrest to 

 their own destruction." It was St. 

 Paul, however, with his bent toward 

 philosophy, who moved the ancient 

 world to embrace Christianity. What 

 his critic did in that direction is not 

 very conspicuously recorded on the page 

 of history. Mr. Spencer has labored 

 hard to rationalize the thought of his 

 age, to bring the minds of men into 

 contact with the laws that whether 

 we recognize them or not govern hu- 

 man life ; and if, by some, his teachings 



are misunderstood and misapplied, we 

 must judge of his total influence, not 

 by such cases, but by the whole volume 

 of mental activity that owes its origin 

 to his writings. 



The general impression which the 

 controversy will leave on the minds of 

 most readers will be, if we mistake cot, 

 that the land question is a good one 

 to leave alone at present. Not that 

 there are not many abuses connected 

 with the tenure of land waiting to be 

 corrected ; but that the correction of 

 such abuses can best be accomplished 

 without raising the fundamental ques- 

 tion as to whether land can or can not 

 be held by as good a title as chattel 

 property. In this country, a few years 

 ago, we had a slight wave of excitement 

 in connection with the theories pro- 

 pounded in Mr. George's " Progress and 

 Poverty " ; but the conviction has been 

 strengthening, we believe, in most 

 thoughtful minds that, plausibly and 

 eloquently and earnestly as Mr. George 

 has presented his ideas, their adoption 

 could only lead to social and political 

 confusion. The world at large will be 

 better when men individually are bet- 

 ter; and social justice will reign when 

 individual justice reigns. The land re- 

 quires to be appropriated to and by in- 

 dividuals in order that the best and 

 most profitable use may be made of it ; 

 but it does not follow that the individ- 

 ual occupier should act the part of a 

 tyrant toward his fellow-men. A man 

 may do that without owning a foot of 

 land. Every man who follows a gain- 

 ful trade or profession has an interest 

 in the land, seeing that those who own 

 and till it, own and till it for him to the 

 extent of the demand expressed by his 

 wages or emoluments. The world wants 

 justice and wants it now ; but it would 

 be a poor inauguration of justice to turn 

 title-deeds to which society has given 

 every possible sort of sanction into 

 waste paper, and virtually confiscate 

 the honest earnings, invested in land, of 

 millions of honest men. 



