vin NATURAL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS 369 



of the polity of which he forms a part, to act, to 

 some extent, as his master. I do not think we 

 need discuss, any further, propositions which, as 

 they are stated, are contradictory ; and which, 

 when they are remodelled so as to escape such 

 contradiction, fall into the no less fatal difficulty 

 of contradicting plain facts. The axiom that a 

 man has a right to himself, in the sense in which 

 it is used in " Progress and Poverty," is a baseless 

 assumption of exactly the same order as that 

 other that all men are free and equal. 



However, there is no greater mistake than the 

 hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless 

 because they are badly argued. The principle 

 that " the exertion of labour in production is the 

 only title to exclusive possession " has a great deal 

 to say for itself if we only substitute " may be 

 usefully considered to be a " for " is the only." 

 And, besides this, it will be interesting to trace 

 out its logical consequences, even without such 

 alteration. For we shall find our result to be 

 wonderfully different from that set forth in 

 " Progress and Poverty." It is there declared to 

 be irreconcilable with exclusive (or several) owner- 

 ship of land. I think that it will become apparent 

 that it authorises the several ownership of land to 

 exactly the same extent as it does the several 

 ownership of anything else. 1 



1 See the clear recognition of this fact in L'Abbe Baudeaii's 

 Premiere Introduction a la Philosophic ficonomiquc, 1771, in 



VOL. I B B 



