LITERARY NOTICES. 



849 



to the followers of Henry George. After 

 calling attention to the great difference be- 

 tween the value of the land in its primitive 

 state and its present value, and to many 

 practical difficulties in the way of the re- 

 sumption of state-ownership, Mr. Spencer 

 says : 



..." The landless have not an equitable 

 claim to the land in its present state cleared, 

 drained, fenced, fertilized, and furnished 

 with farm buildings, etc. but only to the 

 land in its primitive state ; . . . this only it 

 is which belongs to the community." 



Referring to his argument for communal 

 ownership in Social Statics, he declares, " A 

 fuller consideration of the matter has led me 

 to the conclusion that individual ownership, 

 subject to state-suzerainty, should be main- 

 tained. 



" Even were it possible ... to make a 

 rearrangement equitable in the abstract, the 

 resulting state of things would be a less de- 

 sirable one than the present. ... It suffices 

 to remember the inferiority of public ad- 

 ministration to private administration, to 

 see that ownership by the state would work 

 ill. Under the existing system of ownership 

 those who manage the land experience a di- 

 rect connection between effort and benefit, 

 while, were it under state-ownership, those 

 who managed it would experience no such 

 direct connection. The vices of officialism 

 would inevitably entail immense evils." 



In affirming the right of the individual 

 to property in general as against the com- 

 munistic idea, Mr. Spencer is particularly 

 clear and cogent, showing that the funda- 

 mental law of justice can only thus be ful- 

 filled. 



The right of incorporeal property, as in 

 copyrights and inventions, is clearly and 

 logically asserted. The right to sue and ob- 

 tain damages for unjust assaults on person- 

 al reputation is also defended. Mr. Spencer 

 maintains, however, in opposition to prev- 

 alent legal custom, that there is no ethi- 

 cal warrant for the punishment of a person 

 who injures the reputation of another by 

 stating unpalatable truths in regard to him. 

 The exposure of a false reputation, he says, 

 may often prove a public benefit. The rights 

 of gift and bequest follow as legitimate de- 

 ductions from the foregoing principles apply- 

 ing to property and land. 

 vol. xxxix. 62 



The advocates of a " protective " tariff 

 will hardly derive much comfort from Mr. 

 Spencer's discussion of The Rights of Free 

 Exchange and Free Contract. The only 

 legitimate qualification of these rights which 

 Mr. Spencer admits is " where there is good 

 evidence that freedom of exchange would 

 endanger national defense." " Those who 

 have been allowed to call themselves 'pro- 

 tectionists ' should be called aggressionists ; 

 since forbidding A to buy of B, and forcing 

 him to buy of C (usually on worse terms), 

 is clearly a trespass on that right of free 

 exchange which we have seen to be a corol- 

 lary from the law of equal freedom." 



Mr. Spencer asserts the rights to free 

 belief and free worship in a clear though 

 brief statement, deeming any lengthy argu- 

 ment in their support unnecessary. The 

 rights of free speech and publication are 

 likewise lucidly and forcefully maintained; 

 free speech being " still the agency by 

 which error is to be dissipated." On the 

 delicate question of the discussion of the 

 matters of sexual morality, Mr. Spencer 

 argues from historical data that it is not 

 reasonable to take for granted that our own 

 customs are abeve criticism, and holds that 

 the evils incident upon a free discussion of 

 such topics " must be tolerated in considera- 

 tion of the possible benefits." Public opin- 

 ion, he thinks, may be trusted to hold these 

 evils in check. 



In a retrospective chapter, Mr. Spencer 

 adduces several lines of deductive and induct- 

 ive verification of these principles, holding 

 that the convergence of all these lines of in- 

 quiry justifies us in regarding the law of 

 equal freedom as of supreme ethical value, 

 leading us to conclusions involving " as great 

 a certainty as can be imagined." 



The important chapter on the Rights of 

 Women gives evidence of the careful con- 

 sideration of a difficult problem by a just, 

 conservative, and well-balanced mind. Mr. 

 Spencer holds that women, as the weaker 

 sex, should not be artificially disadvantaged 

 in the struggle for life. lie asserts that 

 " no restraints can equitably be placed upon 

 women in respect to the occupations, profes- 

 sions, or other careers which they may wish 

 to adopt." In the final adjustment of prop- 

 erty rights he thinks that " the discharge of 

 domestic and maternal duties by the wife 



