360 NATriiAL AND POLITICAL RKiHTS viii 



supported by papal infallibility ; which is, at least, 

 equal in weight to the philosophical species of that 

 commodity. Surely the medicine is a strong 

 medicine. Now I humbly submit, that while one 

 might take Epsom salts, on the recommendation 

 of the first old woman who proposed that remedy 

 for a sick headache, a rational man would like to 

 have clearly intelligible reasons, or extremely trust- 

 worthy authority, before he ventured with an 

 equally light heart, upon croton oil or tartar emetic. 

 The latter might certainly put an end to his sick 

 headache but what if at the same time it put an 

 end to him ? So, it is at any rate possible, that the 

 expropriation of landowners, while it might put an 

 end to a state of things inconsistent with the prin- 

 ciples of absolute political ethics, might also destroy 

 the society it strove to heal. Therefore, I think 

 we are bound to see that Mr. George's " absolute " 

 principles are " absolutely " true before we act upon 

 even the most logical of deductions from them. 

 Without presumption, it may be said to be just 

 possible that the principles may be unsound and 

 the deductions fallacious. 



In the chapter to which I have referred, the 

 author sets out by putting the question, What 

 constitutes the rightful basis of property ? And I 

 have conscientiously endeavoured to set forth, 

 accurately, the essentials of his answer in the 

 following abstract of it. 



I. All men have c^nal rights: 



