The Liquor Question. 151 



to show later on. Starting, then, with the fact that intoxicating 

 liquors are recognized by the law as property, we are first confronted 

 with the question, does a law which effectually prevents or prohibits 

 the sale or use of property fall within the inhibition of the Constitution, 

 in that it deprives a person of property, without due process of law, 

 without just compensation ? 



In the case above referred to, Judge Comstock observes: "Prop- 

 erty, if protected by the Constitution from such legislation as that 

 we are now considering, is protected because it is property inno- 

 cently acquired under existing laws, and not upon any theory which 

 even so much as opens the question of its utility. If intoxicating 

 liquors are property, the Constitution does not permit a legislative esti- 

 mate to be made of its usefulness, with a view to its destruction. In 

 a word, that which belongs to the citizen in the sense of property, and 

 as such has to him a commercial value, cannot be pronounced worth- 

 less or pernicious, and so destroyed or deprived of its essential attri- 

 butes. Sir William Blackstone, who wrote of the laws of England 

 nearly a century ago, said : ' So great is the regard of the law for 

 private property, that it will not authorize the least violation of it, no, 

 not even for the general good of the whole community.' " 



We can form no notion of property which does not include the essen- 

 tial characteristics and attributes with which it is clothed by the laws 

 of society. In a state of nature property did not exist at all. "Everyman 

 might then take to his use what he pleased, and retain it if he had 

 sufficient power; but when men entered society, and industry, arts 

 and sciences were introduced, property was gained by various means, 

 for the securing whereof proper laws were ordained." (Tomlin's Law 

 Diet., Property ; 2 Bl. Com. 34.) Material objects, therefore, are prop- 

 er ty in the true sense, because they are impressed by the laws and 

 usages of society with certain qualities, among which are, funda- 

 mentally, the right of the occupant or owner to use and enjoy them 

 exclusively, and his absolute power to sell and dispose of them ; and as 

 property consists in the artificial impression of these qualities upon 

 material things, so, whatever removes the impression destroys the 

 notion of property, although the things themselves may remain physi- 

 cally untouched. 



Nor can I find any definition of property which does not include 

 the power of disposition and sale, as well as the right of private use 

 and enjoyment. Thus Blackstone says (1 Com. 138): "The third 

 absolute right of every Englishman is that of property, which con- 

 sists in the free use, enjoyment and disposal of all his acquisitions, 



