236 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



proposed a new clause, giving the State power of resuming 

 possession of any land on payment of its net value at the 

 time, because, as I pointed out, the greatest evil was the 

 monopoly of land, not the money lost by the community. 

 This he himself supported, but suggested giving not the 

 current value only, but something additional as compensa- 

 tion ; and I think this was done. Later I proposed another 

 addition to the programme, which he also agreed to, as shown 

 by the following extract from a letter I received from him in 

 July, referring to a general meeting of the Association at the 

 Freemason's Tavern : — 



" I hope that you will be able to attend, and that you will 

 propose, as an addition to the programme, the important 

 point which you suggested in your letter to me, viz., the 

 right of the State to take possession (with a view to their 

 preservation) of all natural objects or artificial constructions 

 which are of historical or artistic interest. If you will pro- 

 pose this I will support it, and I think there will be no 

 difficulty in getting it put into the programme, where 

 undoubtedly I think it ought to be." 



He then asked me to dine with him at Blackheath Park on 

 the following Sunday at five o'clock, which I of course 

 accepted. The only other persons present were his step- 

 daughter Miss Helen Taylor, Mr. George Grote the historian, 

 and the Hon. Auberon Herbert. We had a very pleasant 

 dinner and some very interesting and instructive conversation 

 afterwards, only one portion of which I recollect, as it referred 

 to a subject on which I differed from Mill, and thought his 

 views, for such an undoubtedly great and clear thinker, some- 

 what hasty and ill-considered. The conversation turned 

 somehow upon the existence and nature of God. Mr. Grote 

 seemed inclined to accept the ordinary idea of an eternal 

 omniscient and benevolent existence, because anything else 

 was almost unthinkable. To which Mill replied, that who- 

 ever considered the folly, misery, and badness of the bulk of 

 mankind, such a belief was unthinkable, because it would 

 imply that God could have made man good and happy, have 

 abolished evil, and has not done so. I ventured to suggest 



