92 UNIVERSALITY OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



Here, too, we find that all modification is 

 attended by degeneration. As a demonstration 

 of this, we will examine in succession firstly, 

 the Communal budgets of Belgium ; secondly, the 

 State budgets of the States which compose the 

 German Empire ; thirdly, the budgets of Germany, 

 England, and France, regarded as belonging to one 

 group the Western Republic of Auguste Comte. 



I. The Communal Budgets of Belgium. 



Collective property in its archaic form still exists, 

 in spite of considerable modifications in certain 

 parts of the Ardennes, of the Fagne, and of 

 Lower Luxembourg. 1 



At Wanlin, for instance, the collective property 

 constitutes nearly one-half of the land 220 hec- 

 tares, of which 130 is arable land, and 90 is wood- 

 land. The arable land is divided into allotments, 

 apportioned among the heads of the various families 

 every eighteen years, for which they pay an annual 

 rent of 1 francs. There are no taxes or communal 

 duties, the revenue derived from this public property 

 being sufficient without them. 



This economic and fiscal system, suitable to a 

 scattered and agricultural people, existed formerly 

 throughout the whole country, but the increase in 

 population and cultivation of the land have almost 



1 Paul Errera, Les Masuirs. Historical and judicial researches 

 in the vestiges of the old territorial system of Belgium. Brussels, 

 Weissenbruch, 1891, 



