Social and Political Views 



This will be the true statesmanship of the future, and it will 

 be justified alike by equity, by ethics, and by religion." 



These, then, are the facts and reasons upon which Dr. 

 Wallace based his strenuous advocacy of Land Nationalisa- 

 tion.' It was only by slow degrees that he arrived at some 

 of the conclusions propounded in his later years, but once 

 having grasped their full importance to the social and moral 

 well-being of the community, he held them to the last. 



The first book which tended to fasten his attention upon 

 these matters was " Social Statics," by Herbert Spencer, but 

 in 1870 the publication of his " Malay Archipelago " brought 

 him into personal contact with John Stuart Mill, through 

 whose invitation he became a member of the General Com- 

 mittee of the Land Tenure Reform Association. On the 

 formation of the Land Nationalisation Society in 1880 he 

 retired from the Association, and devoted himself to the 

 larger issues which the new Society embraced. 



Soon after the latter Society was started, Henry George, 

 the American author of " Progress and Poverty," came to 

 England, and Wallace had many opportunities of hearing 

 him speak in public and of discussing matters of common 

 interest in private. In spite of the ridicule poured upon 

 Henry George's book by many eminent social reformers, 

 Wallace consistently upheld its general principles. 



His second work on these various subjects was a small 

 book entitled " Bad Times," issued in 1885, in which 

 he went deeply into the root causes of the depression in 

 trade which had lasted since 1874. The facts there given 

 were enlarged upon and continually brought up to date in 

 his later writings. Articles which had appeared in various 

 magazines were gathered together and included, with those 

 on other subjects, in " Studies, Scientific and Social." His 

 last three books, which include his ideas on social diseases 

 ^ See his book, "Land Nationalisation, its Necessity and its Aims" (1882). 



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