646 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



land has no value except as labor lias made one for it. So I sug- 

 gest the possessory and usufructuary interest of the individual in 

 land is not the absolute ownership and proprietorship of the soil. 



Let us see if anything more than occupation, by successive 

 individuals, is contemplated by social law, or by statute law in 

 England or America. In England the proprietary ownership of 

 all land is by common law in the people as represented by the 

 king, the trustee under the social system of all their common in- 

 terests, rights, and properties. In the United States it is vested 

 directly in the people. By the Constitution and statute of New 

 York State, "the people of the State in their right of sovereignty 

 are deemed to possess the original and ultimate property in and to 

 all lands within the jurisdiction of the State." This I understand 

 to signify precisely what the common law of England and the 

 universal law of nature are : namely, that all property in land was 

 originally vested in the people in common ; and if there ever hap- 

 pens a time when no person is in occupation of any portion there- 

 of, the tenancy in common of the whole community immediately 

 goes on again just the same as when, after the first occupant or 

 squatter had relinquished his temporary occupancy, the whole 

 community was again in possession, every man having the right 

 to occupy it, but all in common. So I assert that private owner- 

 ship, so called, is not a proprietary quality. It extends to and 

 includes only the use ; the absolute ownership of all land being, 

 in fact, in the community composed of all individuals. 



Suppose that every new-born offspring of that community by 

 virtue of natural right becomes a tenant in common with all indi- 

 viduals then existing, should he share in the possessory right or 

 use of a particular piece of land already in occupation of an indi- 

 vidual ? By being debarred from such possession, it may be that 

 he is deprived of a natural right, but he becomes a member of the 

 society into which he is born, governed by its laws for the time 

 being, surrendering some portion of his natural and absolute 

 rights for the protection guaranteed by the existing social laws, 

 and participates in all the advantages now existing as well as in 

 the advancement and social improvement of all previous time. Is 

 he, then, defrauded ? 



The possession of land remains in the occupant by right and 

 justice till such time as he does some act indicating his intention 

 to abandon it, whereupon it becomes common property, and liable 

 to be again appropriated by the next comer. Sale and delivery 

 of possession to a purchaser are forms for the convenience of 

 social government, and instituted with a view, I apprehend, of 

 preserving the quiet and security of social order. By means 

 thereof the present occupant indicates his intention to abandon 

 the land appropriated. The deed of conveyance is an evidence of 



