NATURAL HEIRSHIP : OR, ALL THE WORLD AKIN. 387 



expenses of army and navy, for the payment of interest on the na- 

 tional debt and its gradual liquidation, for the elementary education 

 of the children, and for the maintenance of the aged. Though I have 

 not read Mr. George's book, I understand that this is something like 

 his proposal. If the yearly return of the national estate were ever 

 found to far exceed the above requirements, it could be readily and 

 safely disposed of by a yearly dividend, which would reverse the old 

 tormenting order, and make the people the receivers instead of payers 

 of taxes. It is hard to see how this moderate diffusion of property 

 could be injurious to them. If the smaller equal inheritance would 

 degrade them, the present holders of large estates must be in a very 

 bad way. 



That which a man has accumulated by his own exertions he has 

 a sort of right to disperse and to squander if he choose ; but that 

 which the dead have left behind them should, as far as possible, have 

 permanence stamped upon it, and be guarded by the state, so that it 

 may be enjoyed by all the heirs in their turn. The savings of the 

 present generation should enable the whole community in the next 

 age to start from a higher level of power and comfort. The law of 

 labor can never be abrogated, though its incidence might be very 

 wisely extended. The inequality between the possessions of men can 

 never be totally destroyed, but with immense advantage to the nation 

 it might be decidedly lessened. The progress that has thus far taken 

 place in the condition of the people has been the laying of successive 

 strata of comforts and resources between them and the utter poverty 

 in which their forefathers dwelt. The increase of wages, the lessen- 

 ing of the hours of labor, the manifold fruits of modern inventions, 

 the accumulated treasures of knowledge which all may take without 

 diminishing the store — such instances as these show a gradual enrich- 

 ment of the people to the general advantage. Who shall say that the 

 process has gone as far as it ought to go ? What harm could ensue 

 if the present burdens of taxation were done away, and if even every 

 man were the recipient of a yearly income of a few pounds which no 

 act of his could ever alienate ? 



The landless people of the present generation are undoubtedly pro- 

 portionate heirs to all the landowners of the country living not many 

 ages ago, if heirship be founded in nature. That all should have gone 

 into so few hands, and the vast majority of the heirs have deen de- 

 prived, is a great and grievous wrong. Those who wish to continue 

 the present arrangements, and would bitterly oppose their modification 

 in the way here proposed as an injustice to the few who in future 

 would otherwise come into possession, are willing to inflict injustice 

 upon the many of the future who ought to come into possession. 



The great possessions now enjoyed by particular individuals, and 

 that have come down from distant times, are due to accumulated 

 wrongs. One heir in the succession has been advantaged to the ex- 



