LETTERS ON THE LAND QUESTION. 517 



human race, we might make short work of the matter. But, unfortunately, most of 

 our present land-owners are men who have, either hy their own acts or by the 

 acts of their ancestors, given for their estates equivalents of honestly earned 

 wealth, believing that they were investing their savings in a legitimate manner. 

 To justly estimate and liquidate the claims of such is one of the most intricate 

 prohlems society will one day have to solve. 



What Mr. Spencer advocates is, in short, that the land should 

 revert (a) to the human race, (b) after payment of compensation. 

 And it seems to be generally admitted that the compensation 

 would amount in the shape of interest on purchase-money to a 

 greater sum than is now paid in rent. 



So far, Mr. Laidler and Mr. Spencer do not seem to have much 

 in common. The one point on which they do agree is that the 

 existing titles to land are not legitimate, because they are founded 

 on " force or fraud." Let us apply this view to England. When 

 this country was conquered by the Normans the land fell into the 

 hands of the sovereign, or, in other words, the State. It was then 

 granted out in part to Normans, and in part to existing owners. 

 How can it be said that the grantees obtained their land by force 

 or fraud ? They obtained it by grant from the State. The title 

 of the State which made the grants did, no doubt, depend on 

 conquest or force. But if this fact is to invalidate the title of 

 existing owners, it must, a fortiori, utterly destroy the title of the 

 State to resume its possession to-day. 



The schemes, then, for dealing with the land appear to be 

 three in number : (1) Mr. Laidler's, that the land should revert to 

 the State without compensation ; (2) that it should so revert with 

 compensation ; (3) Mr. Spencer's, that it should revert to the 

 human race with compensation. Of these, the first has been truly 

 described as robbery, and the second as folly. The third seems to 

 be a philosopher's dream. 



I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 



Darcy Wilson. 



Boodle's, St. James's Street, November 16th. 



MR. SPENCER'S THIRD LETTER. 



To the Editor of" The Times" : 



Sir : I suppose I may make a denial without continuing a con- 

 troversy ; and, unless I make it, a grave charge against me will 

 remain unrebutted. 



Over and over again Mr. Greenwood refers to the statement 

 that I have said that " to right one wrong it is sometimes neces- 

 sary to do another," and apparently wishes to force it upon me 

 notwithstanding what I supposed was a sufficient repudiation. 

 Being unable to recall all the contents of some ten thousand 

 pages, written during forty years, I said as much as it seemed pos- 



