90 



man. Similarly, at a stage still more ad- 

 vanced, it may be that private ownership of 

 land will disappear."* 



Besides, this process of the socialisation of 

 property, although partial and accessory, is 

 so evident and continuous that it would be 

 denying what is an actual fact to maintain 

 that the economic and consequently the 

 juridical tendency of the organisation of 

 property is not in the direction of an ever 

 greater augmentation of the interests and 

 rights of the aggregate of individuals over 

 those of the single individual : this prepon- 

 deratering tendency of to-day will replace 

 completely, by an inevitable process of evolu- 

 tion, the ownership of land and the means of 

 production. 



The fundamental thesis of socialism is then, 

 to repeat it once more, in perfect accord with 



* Spencer, Principles of Sociology, vol. 2, part 5, chap. 15. 

 This idea which Spencer had expressed in 1850 in his 

 Social Statics is found again in his recent work, Justice, 

 chapter xi., appendix B. It is true that he has made a 

 step backwards. He thinks that the amount of the 

 indemnity to be given to the present owners of the land 

 would be so great that it would render almost impossible 

 the nationalisation of the land, which, in 1881, Henry 

 George considered as the only remedy, and which Glad- 

 stone had the courage to propose as a solution of the Irish 

 question. Spencer adds, " I adhere to the inference 

 originally drawn, that the aggregate of men forming the 

 community are the supreme owners of the land an infer- 

 ence harmonising with legal doctrine, and daily acted upon 

 in legislation a fuller consideration of the matter has led 

 me to the conclusion that individual ownership, subject 

 to State-suzerainty, should be maintained." The "fuller 

 study" which Spencer has made in Justice (and in 

 parenthesis this work constitutes with his Positive and 

 Negative Benevolence [Parts V. and VI. of The Principles 

 of Ethics, vol. ii. ED.], a mournful document of senile 

 involved reasoning from which even Mr. H. Spencer has 

 not been able to escape ; in addition, his subjective dryness 



