332 ON THE NATURAL INEQUALITY OF MEN vn 



by the end of the ninth century one-third of the 

 whole soil of Gaul belonged to the clergy" (p. 

 225). But, if the men who left their property to 

 the Church believed that they got their ^nid 

 pro quo in the shape of masses for their souls, as 

 they certainly did ; and if the Churchmen believed 

 as sincerely (and they certainly did) that they 

 gave valuable consideration for the property left 

 them, where does fraud come in ? Is it not again 

 a truly industrial operation ? Indeed, a keen- 

 witted and eminent Scotch judge once called 

 a huge bequest to a Church " fire insurance," so 

 emphatically commercial did the transaction 

 appear to him. 



Thirdly, personal several property was carved 

 out of the corporate communal property in another 

 fashion, to which no objection can be taken by 

 industrialism. Plots of arable land were granted 

 to members of the commune who were skilled 

 artificers, as a salary for their services. Tho 

 craft transmitting itself from father to son the 

 land went Avith it and grew into an hereditary 

 benefice. 



Fourthly, Sir Henry Maine l has proved in a 

 very striking manner, from the collection of 

 the Brehon Laws of ancient Ireland, how the 

 original communal landownership of the sept, with 

 the allotment of an extra allowance of pasture to 

 the chief, as the honorarium for his services <>f all 



1 See Early History of Institutions, especially Lecture vi. 



