xxxiv] LAND NATIONALIZATION 249 



has been fettered in all her limbs, and harassed in all her actions, and 

 then because she often stumbles or faints by the way, they cry, " See, 

 she cannot do without help ! " But first unloose your bonds, and cease 

 to hamper her with your legal meshes, and then see if she will not 

 achieve a glorious success. Let Government do its duty, and no more. 

 Let it secure peace from external foes, and safety from internal violence ; 

 let it give free and speedy justice between man and man ; let it secure 

 to all alike free access to the land and all natural powers ; let it abolish 

 every monopoly of individuals and classes — either the local or central 

 authority having the management of all institutions or industries which 

 are essential to the public welfare, but which in private hands tend to 

 become monopolies ; and let it enact that all debts contracted by 

 individuals shall be payable by those individuals only, and those con- 

 tracted by the municipality or State be payable by the generation which 

 contracts them, so that they may never remain a burden on the succeed- 

 ing generation. When it has done all this, then alone will labour be 

 really free, and, being free, it will work out the well-being of the whole 

 community without any Government interference whatever. This is the 

 true laissez-faire j and this, I believe, will enable us to realize the best 

 social state which, in its present phase of development, humanity is 

 capable of. The distant future will take care of itself; let us try to 

 improve the future that is immediately before us. I have here very 

 briefly and imperfectly sketched out a series of measures which I believe 

 are best calculated to promote this object, and they have the great and 

 inestimable advantage that they all tend to the diminution of govern- 

 mental interference with labour and industry, instead of that indefinite 

 increase of it which the German Socialists advocate, and which, as the 

 greatest political thinkers maintain, and as all experience shows, must 

 inevitably fail, while in the present condition of civilization it will probably 

 lead to evils not less grave than those it attempts to cure. 



At this time I was in correspondence with Mr. Robert 

 Miller, a wealthy gentleman of Edinburgh, who had read my 

 book and had given a donation to our society, but who 

 wished to give or bequeath a large part of his fortune for the 

 benefit of the community at large. He was, however, much 

 disturbed by the conflicting views of writers on the subject, 

 and though he was much inclined to land nationalization, he 

 found it to be so strongly opposed by all the recognized 

 authorities in political economy, as well as by most public 

 writers and politicians, that he could not make up his mind 

 what to do. In this uncertain frame of mind he was persuaded 

 by some of his friends that the best thing he could do would 



