Human Physiology. 409 



not. Nothing is a man's own in that sense. All is for all. 

 The earth is the Lord's, and is for His creatures. All the right 

 any man can have to property is its use. He has no right to 

 misuse, abuse, or destroy. A man who should cast gold into 

 the deep sea, or set his houses on fire, would be treated as a 

 criminal or a lunatic. It is every man's duty to his fellow-men, 

 to society, to the state, to make the best use he can of the pro- 

 perty under his control. But it is self-evident that no man has 

 a right to let land lie idle, or to keep property of any kind from 

 its proper use. If a few great proprietors were to convert their 

 estates into hunting-grounds, it would raise the price of bread 

 for every poor man in England. No ownership can give the 

 right to desolate a country, and banish its inhabitants. The 

 State can and ought to resume its rights over all property which 

 is not managed so as to promote the public welfare. And this 

 principle carries us a long way. If a government, acting for 

 the people, can take land for railways, for public companies of 

 transport, it can take it for agricultural, manufacturing, or 

 mining associations for any object which will promote the 

 general welfare, rendering, of course, equitable compensation 

 for vested interests in the expropriated domains; for the higher 

 and highest law in every community is the general welfare and 

 happiness of its members. 



There is no absolute right of individual property in land, 

 any more than in air or water. The tax-gatherer reminds every 

 man that he cannot do what he will with his own. A share of 

 his income is claimed by the state that is, the general public, 

 for the common needs. Men hold lands, and collect rents, 

 and administer property by convention or permission, rather 

 than of right, and are themselves tenants or stewards of the 

 state, to which all property belongs. And one of the most 

 important functions of every government is to secure to the 

 whole population of a country its equal right to the use and 

 enjoyment of all the wealth it contains. This is simple, natural 



