VII ON THE NATURAL INEQUALITY OF MEN 331 



agricultural toil. The Bishop of Oxford, in his 

 well-known " Constitutional History of England " 

 (vol. i., p. 51), puts the case, as his wont is, con- 

 cisely and precisely : " As the population increased, 

 and agriculture itself improved, the mark system 

 must have been superseded everywhere." No 

 doubt, when the nobles had once established them- 

 selves, they often added force and fraud to their 

 other means of enlarging their borders. But, to 

 begin with, the inequality was the result, not of 

 militarism, but of industrialism. Clearing a piece 

 of land for the purpose of cultivating it and reap- 

 ing the crops for one's own advantage is surely an 

 industrial operation, if ever there was one. 



Secondly, M. de Laveleye points out that 

 the Church was a great devourer of commune 

 lands : 



" We know that a member of the commune 

 could only dispose of his share with the consent 

 of his associates, who had a right of resumption : 

 but this right could not be exercised against 

 the Church. Accordingly, in these days of relig- 

 ious fervour, the faithful frequently left to the 

 Church all that they possessed, not only their 

 house and its inclosure, but the undivided 

 share in the mark attached to it " (p. 225). Thus 

 an abbot, or a bishop, became co-proprietor with 

 the peasants of a commune ; and, with such a 

 cuckoo in the nest, one can conceive that the 

 hedge-sparrows might have a bad time. " Already 



