VIII NATURAL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS 379 



the earth, has entailed it upon all the generations of the children 

 of men by a decree written upon the constitution of things a 

 decree which no human action can bar and no prescription 

 determine, (p. 240.) 



One would think that the utterer of these 

 "prave 'ords" had been the conveyancer who 

 effected the entail of which he speaks thus con- 

 fidently. Big-sounding but empty phrases may 

 be the making of a stump-orator ; but what is to 

 be said of them in the mouth of a professed 

 thinker ? And what is the practical outcome of 

 this tall talk ? 



Though his titles have been acquiesced in by generation after 

 generation, to the landed estates of the Duke of Westminster, the 

 poorest child that is born in London to-day has as much right as 

 his eldest son. Though the sovereign people of the State of New 

 York consent to the landed possessions of the Astors, the 

 puniest infant that comes wailing into the world in the squalid- 

 est room of the most miserable tenement house, becomes at that 

 moment seized of an equal right with the millionaires. And it is 

 robbed if the right is denied, (p. 240. ) 



Landowners can make no just claim to compensation if society 

 choose to resume its right. ("Progress and Poverty," Preface, 

 p. vii.) 



Who would not be proud to be able to orate in 

 this fashion ? Whose heart would not beat high 

 at the tempest of cheers which would follow stir- 

 ring words like these addressed to needy :nul 

 ignorant men ? How should the impassion- ! 

 speaker's ear be able to catch a tone as of the 

 howl of hungry wolves among the cheers? Why 



