374 NATURAL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS vm 



muddy water of the Nile had been carried by the 

 labour of the irrigator. Surely, in this case, the 

 cultivable land " embodied labour " and had no 

 more existence independently of human exertion 

 than the pen or the watch spring. 



In the state of nature, I doubt if ten square 

 miles of the surface of the chalk downs of Sussex 

 would yield pickings enough to keep one savage 

 for a year. But, thanks to the human labour 

 bestowed upon it, the same area actually yields, 

 one way or another, to the agriculturist the 

 means of supporting many men. If labour is the 

 foundation of the claim to several ownership, on 

 what pretext can the land, in this case also, be put 

 upon -a different footing from the steel pen ? The 

 same argument holds good for even the richest 

 soil in the west of North America or in the south 

 of Russia. In the natural state of such land, the 

 savage hunter needs access to a vast area in order 

 to make even a precarious livelihood. The labour 

 spent upon it is an important factor in bringing 

 about its rich harvests. 



If we keep these simple and obvious truths in 

 mind, the value of the following argument will be 

 readily appraised : 



The right to exclusive ownership of anything of human pro- 

 duction is clear. No matter how many the hands through which 

 it has passed, there was at the beginning of the line, human 

 labour some one who, having procured or produced it by his 

 exertions, had to it a clear title as against all the rest of 



