LETTERS ON THE LAND QUESTION 507 



This ceremony, which is one of the most important of those 

 her Majesty has to perform during the year, is a great incentive 

 to the silk-raising population, who can not neglect their own 

 work when they see their sovereign occupied in the same way. 

 An old proverb says that " an idle farmer causes two persons 

 to die of hunger, and a woman who will not weave will see ten 

 dying of cold." The proverb illustrates the value of encourage- 

 ment, and shows that silk- worm raising and weaving are duties 

 of the women. Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from 

 La Nature. 



LETTERS ON THE LAND QUESTION. 



[ Con tinned. ] 



By Prof. HUXLEY, HEEBERT SPENCER, AUBERON HERBERT, FREDERICK 

 GREENWOOD, and DARCY WILSON. 



PROF. HUXLEY'S SECOND LETTER. 



To the Editor of " The Times " : 



SIR : After a careful perusal of Mr. Spencer's letter in " The 

 Times " of to-day, I fear I can only reiterate my declaration 

 that he " has not helped us much." So far as anything said in 

 that letter goes, it remains an open question whether Mr. Spencer 

 agrees, in principle, with Mr. Morley's " hecklers " or whether he 

 does not. If any one maintains that private ownership in land 

 was originally set up by force or by fraud, and consequently has 

 no ethical foundation, I think, as matters stand, he has a right to 

 cite Mr. Spencer's authority in favor of that position ; and I, for 

 one, very much regret that any person should possess that right. 

 It seems to me lamentable that the "absolute political ethics" 

 of to-day should have got so very little further than the point 

 reached by Rousseau, the absolute political philosopher of one 

 hundred and thirty years ago, who tells us that 



Le premier qui ayant enclos un terrain s'avisa de dire Ceci est d moi, et tronva 

 des gens assez simples pour le croire, fut le vrai fondateur de la societe civile.* 



Rousseau laments that there was no one to pull out the stakes 

 and fill up the ditch of this primitive land-grabber ; and to warn 

 mankind that "the fruits of the earth are everybody's and the 

 land nobody's." 



These passages are cited from the famous " Discours sur l'Ori- 

 gine de l'lnegalite' par mi les Hommes," published in 1754, in which 

 I think will be found, implicitly or explicitly, all the propositions 



* [The first one who, having inclosed a field, took it into his head to say " This 

 is mine," and found people simple enough to believe it, was the true founder of civil 

 society.] 



