xviii H. SPENCER ON THE LAND QUESTION 335 



spread of more correct ideas of justice, that the truth has 

 now come to be recognized, that 



" private ownership of land is subject to the supreme ownership of 

 the community, and that therefore each citizen has a latent claim to 

 participate in the use of the earth." 1 



So far, then, Mr. Spencer and the Liberty and Property 

 Defence League are perfectly in accord with us; but 

 thenceforth we diverge. They believe and maintain that 

 this latent claim of the people to the full and equal use 

 of their native soil shall and will remain latent. We, on 

 the other hand, believe and are determined that it shall 

 now become an active claim, and very soon a realized 

 possession. 



Now let us see what are Mr. Spencer's grounds for 

 believing that land must, at all events in the immediate 

 future, remain private property. It is as follows : 



' ' All which can be claimed for the community is the surface of the 

 country in its original unsubdued state. To all that value given to 

 it by clearing, fencing, draining, making roads, farm-buildings, &c. , 

 constituting nearly all its value the community has no claim. . . . 

 All this value, artificially given, vests in existing owners and cannot 

 without a gigantic robbery be taken from them. If, during the many 

 transactions which have brought about existing landownership, there 

 have been much violence and much fraud, these have been small 

 compared with the violence and frauds which the community 

 would be guilty of did it take possession without paying for it, of 

 that artificial value which the labour of nearly two thousand years 

 has given to the land." 2 



This is all that Mr. Spencer has to say on the question 

 in the body of the work, and before going on to consider 

 his further discussion of it in an appendix, we must just 

 notice the gigantic and almost incredible misstatement, 

 that the improvements such as he specifies, made upon 

 the land by human labour, constitute " nearly all its 

 value ! " Setting aside houses, fences and things of like 

 character, which we have always recognized as being 

 personal property to be purchased at fair value by the 

 new occupiers, how much is the soil of England on the 

 whole better for agricultural purposes than it was one 



1 Justice, p. 152. 2 Justice, p. 92. 



