320 OX THE NATURAL INEQUALITY or MKN vn 



Thus it is obvious that, though the early land- 

 holders were, to a great extent, collective owners, 

 the imaginary rights of mankind to universal land- 

 ownership, or even of that of the nation at large 

 to the whole territory occupied, were utterly 

 ignored ; that, so far from several ownership being 

 the result of force or fraud, it was the system 

 established with universal assent ; and that, from 

 the first, in all probability, individual rights of 

 property, under certain conditions, were fully 

 recognised and respected. Rousseau was, there- 

 fore, correct in suspecting that his " state of 

 nature " had never existed it never did, nor any- 

 thing like it. But it may be said, supposing that 

 all this is true, and supposing that the doctrine 

 that Englishmen have no right to their appro- 

 priation of English soil is nonsense ; it must, 

 nevertheless, be admitted that, at one time, the 

 great body of the nation, consisting of these 

 numerous landowning corporations, composed of 

 comparatively poor men, did own the land. And 

 it must also be admitted that now they do not ; 

 but that the land is in the hands of a relatively 

 small number of actually or comparatively rich 

 proprietors, who constitute perhaps not one per 

 cent, of the population. What is this but the 

 result of robbery and cheating? The descendants 

 of the robbers and cut-throat soldiers who r-ame 

 over with William of Normandy, have been true to 

 their military instincts, and have "conveyed" the 



