626 CITATIONS FROM WRITINGS OF JURISTS AND ECONOMISTS. 



disturbed by fierce and ungovernable competitions for the possession 

 and enjoyment of tilings, insufficient to satisfy all and by no rules of 

 adjustment distributed to each. 



The conveniences of life depend much on an exclusive property. 

 The full effects of industry cannot be obtained without distinct profes- 

 sions and the division of labour. But labour cannot be divided, nor 

 can distinct professions be pursued, unless the productions of one pro- 

 fession and of one kind of labor can be exchanged for those of another. 

 This exchange implies a separate property in those who make it. 



The observations concerning the conveniences of life may be applied 

 with equal justness to its elegancies and its refinements. 



On property some of the virtues depend for their more free and 

 enlarged exercise. Would the same room be left for the benign indul- 

 gence of generosity and beneficence, — would the same room be left for 

 the becoming returns of esteem and gratitude, — would the same room 

 be left for the endearing interchange of good offices in the various insti- 

 tutions and relations of social life, if the goods of fortune lay in a mass, 

 confused and unappropriated ? 



For these reasons, the establishment of exclusive property may justly 

 be considered as essential to the interests of civilized society. With 

 regard to land in particular, a separate and exclusive property in it is 

 a principal source of attachment to the country in which one resides. 

 A person becomes very unwilling to relinquish those well known fields 

 of his own, which it has been the great object of his industry, and, per- 

 haps of his pride, to cultivate and adorn. This attachment to private 

 landed property has, in some parts of the globe, covered barren heaths 

 and inhospitable mountains with fair cities and villages; while, in other 

 parts, the most inviting climates and soils remain destitute of inhabit- 

 ants, because the rights of private property in land are not established 

 or regarded. 



Rev. Pere Taparelli d'Azeglio, of the Society of Jesus. Essai 

 Theorique de Droit N~aturel, bast' sur les Faits. Translated from the 

 Italian, with the approval of the author, 2d ed. vol. 1, sec. 411, p. 166. 



I remarked just now that the hypothesis of an original distribution 

 is false, at least in the sense which is usually given to this expression, 

 which seems to indicate that the ownership of immovable property owes 

 its origin to a social contract. Now, we have just shown that this own- 

 ership is a necessary consequence of the multiplication of the human 

 race and of a law peculiar to human nature; under the sway of this 

 law the right of property is formed of itself, and that, too, quite natu- 

 rally; and, to go back to its origin, we in no wise need have recourse to 

 voluntary and free agreements. The successive development of the 

 ownership of immovable property may be studied in Roman usage. 

 (De opificio sex dierum, Book 5, chap. 7, section 17); suffice it for us to 

 remark (and this experience renders evident,) that labor and cultiva- 

 tion are necessary to cause the earth to bring forth fruit for the use of 

 man. Build a hut, dig a well, plant a hedge around a piece of land: 

 the soil will have received a durable amelioration, which is your act, 

 and which gives you the right to prevent all others from appropriating 

 it. Thus the right of ownership, the right to exclude all others from 

 your property, is the outgrowth of itself without any agreement; it is 

 the only rational way of explaining the original distribution of property, 



