xvi HOW TO NATIONALIZE THE LAND 271 



The interest of a landowner in his property is of two 

 kinds, commercial and sentimental, and these together 

 constitute its value to him. He claims, and possesses, the 

 right to deal with it as he pleases during his life, and to 

 bequeath it to any successor at his death. For the State 

 to interfere with either of these rights would be an injury 

 for which he should be compensated. The British land- 

 owner has, however, been allowed to extend his senti- 

 mental interests to an indefinite extent, by leaving his 

 property in trust for certain purposes, which trust the law 

 has enforced for generations, or even for centuries, after 

 his decease. It is now very generally admitted that this 

 is impolitic and unjust in the case of any property, and 

 especially so as regards land. It is felt that each genera- 

 tion should have absolute possession of the land and 

 goods that have descended to it, and should not be 

 hampered in the use of them by the dictates of the dead 

 who cannot possibly be able to judge what is best for a new 

 and, in many respects, differently circumstanced population. 

 This question is far too extensive to be discussed here, and 

 I refer my readers to Sir Arthur Hobhouse's volume, 

 The Dead Hand, in which they will find abundance of facts 

 and arguments demonstrating the absurdity and the evil 

 consequences of allowing the dead still to hold property ; 

 while the enormous mischief produced by entails and 

 other life-interests in landed estates, has been fully exposed 

 in Mr. J. Boyd Kinnear's useful work, The Principles of 

 Property in Land. I accept it, then, as an established 

 principle, that the present owner of land should be allowed 

 to bequeath it to any successor he may choose, but that 

 he should have no power to restrict that successor in his 

 use of it. He may recommend, or make known his wishes 

 as to the use of it ; but the State is unjust to the 

 living if it allows the dead to command, and then enforces 

 their commands on posterity. 1 



Having thus established the only right of transmission 

 from one generation to another which ought to be recog- 

 nized by the State, we see that the " expectation " or 



1 The subject of ''Trusts" has been discussed in chapter X. of 

 he present volume. 



