Page:The Complete Works of Henry George Volume 3.djvu/75

 HOW TO WIN. 67

case we are considering, this can be done. And, the more the matter is considered, the clearer and clearer will it appear that there is every practical reason, as there is every theoretical reason, why the Irish reformers should take this vantage-ground of principle. To propose to put the public burdens upon the landholders is not a novel and unheard-of thing against which English prejudice would run as something " newfangled," some new inven- tion of modern socialism. On the contrary, it is the ancient English practice. It would be but a return, in a form adapted to modern times, to the system under which English land was originally parceled out to the predeces- sors of the present holders the just system, recognized for centuries, that those who enjoy the common property should bear the common burdens. The putting of prop- erty in land in the same category as property in things produced by labor is comparatively modern. In England, as in Ireland and Scotland, as in fact among every peo- ple of whom we know anything, the land was originally treated as common property, and this recognition ran all through the feudal system. The essence of the feudal system was in treating the landholder not as an owner, but as a lessee. William the Conqueror did not give away the land of England as the Church lands were given away by Henry VIII., when he divided among his syco- phants the property of the people, which, after the manner of the times, had been set apart for the support of reli- gious, educational, and charitable institutions. To every grant of land made by the Conqueror was annexed a condition which amounted to a heavy perpetual tax or rent. One of his first acts was to divide the soil of Eng- land into sixty thousand knights' fees ; and thus, besides many other dues and obligations, was thrown upon the landholders the cost of providing and maintaining the army. All the long, costly wars that England fought

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