vin NATURAL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS .'i.V.I 



And this would be obvious to every one, were it not 

 that the ambiguous sense of the word " rights " gives 

 a moral colour to human relations which are neither 

 moral nor immoral, but, as Quesnay rightly says, 

 antecedent to morality. 



My readers may imagine that I have forgotten 

 " Progress and Poverty. " By no means ; the pre- 

 ceding pages must, in fact, be regarded as a sort of 

 " Prolegomena " to that work and especially to the 

 first chapter of the seventh book, which contains 

 the theoretical foundation of the practical measure 

 which its author advocates. 



According to Mr. George, society is very ill ; and 

 he proposes a method of treatment professedly 

 based upon strict deduction from the principles of 

 absolute political physiology. Whether the remedy 

 is calculated to achieve the results predicted, 

 or not, is a question I shall not now discuss ; but 

 it will be admitted that it is drastic, consisting as 

 it does in neither more nor less than the eviction 

 of all several landowners and the confiscation of 

 that which is, and, for many centuries has been, 

 regarded as their undoubted property. The 

 measure is of exactly the same order as would be 

 the confiscation of the interest of all money be- 

 longing to working-men in savings banks, on the 

 ground that interest, as usury, is contrary to the 

 principles of absolute ethics an opinion which it 

 must be remembered has been (perhaps still is) 



