In this volume I have simply endeavoured to draw a historical sketch of primitive forms of property, without deducing any new theory as to the right. I do not believe that history can disclose the right to us. Because an institution has existed, even through all time, it does not follow that it is just, or that it should be preserved or reconstructed. We may, how over, conclude from the fact of its long duration, that it has answered to men's sentiments and men's requirements during the centuries for which it has been maintained. But, if all the arguments adduced by jurists and economists in favour of quiritary property, rather condemn it and justify primitive property; as conceived and practised by ancient societies, under the sway of a universal sentiment of natural justice, there is occasion, one would think, for reflection on this striking agreement; and all the more so as property thus regarded as a natural right belonging to all, is alone conformable to the sentiments of equality and charity which Christianity begets in the soul, and to the reforms in civil laws which the development of the industrial organization seems to command.
1
Our older societies can only arrive at an order more in harmony with justice and Christianity, after a series of social struggles, in which liberty may succumb: but the younger societies, still in process of formation in another hemisphere, may escape those fearful trials, if they seek inspiration in the lessons of history and adopt institutions which in certain countries have allowed democracy to survive without compromising order and liberty.
In every commune a portion of territory should be reserved and divided in temporary enjoyment among all the families, as is done in the forest cantons of Switzerland.
I trust the citizens of America and Australia will not adopt the strict and severe right of property which we have borrowed from Rome, and which is leading us to social strife. They should rather return to the traditions of their ancestors. If Western societies had preserved equality by consecrating the natural right of property, their normal development would have been similar to that of Switzerland. They would have escaped the feudal aristocracy, the absolute monarchy, and the demagogic democracy with which we are threatened.
The communes, inhabited by free men, property-holders and equals, would have been allied by a federal bond to form the State, and the States in their turn would have been able to form a federal union such as the United States. We should not forget this important lesson taught us by the history of political and social institutions: Democracies, which fail to preserve equality of conditions, and in which two hostile classes, the rich and the poor, find themselves face to face, are doomed to anarchy and subsequent despotism. The recent strikes in the United States shew that the danger there is already near the surface. Such is the lesson which Greece teaches us by the mouth of Aristotle, and of which history and our actual situation alike give us proof. To preserve liberty in a democratic state, its institutions must maintain equality.
States, in which democracy and inequality are developed side by side, are therefore especially threatened; and it has to be seen whether they contain the wisdom, the energy, and the skill, necessary to change their institutions. Younger societies, however, which are springing up on a virgin soil, may escape the danger, by adopting laws and customs, which, from time immemorial, have secured liberty and property to the small Swiss cantons, under the most radically democratic government that we can conceive.
Need I add, that the object of this book is not to advocate a return to the primitive agrarian community; but to establish historically the natural right of property as proclaimed by philosophers, as well as to show that ownership has assumed very various forms, and is consequently susceptible of progressive reform. Mr Mill regarded this point as of the greatest importance, and counselled the author, in a letter reproduced at the end of the volume, to develope it at full length. The present work was compiled in accordance with this advice.
December, 1877
NOTES:
1. Ancient Law , p. 271.
2. Ancient Law , p. 270.
3. Ancient Law , p. 268.
4. History of the Norman Conquest , v. 463.
5. The reference is to Mr C.H. Pearson, the historian, who is now resident in Australia, and has written powerfully on the subject.
6. Early History of Institutions , 2nd Ed., p. 124.
7. Staatsh. der Athen . I. p. 201. No writer has understood better than Aristotle the problem which the constitution of a democratic state involves. His splendid work The Politics exhibits the question with a startling clearness. "Inequality," he says, "is the source of all revolutions, for no compensation can make amends for inequality."( Lib . v. c. 1.) "Men, when equal in one respect, have wished to be equal in all. Equal in liberty, they have desired absolute equality.
