Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/67

Rh above division, bereft of all property. The number of the invaders cannot be ascertained, but, whatever it might be, it would bear a small proportion to the natives; hence a state of unequal property, in as great a degree as at present, was at once established, and is the basis of the present system of property in most of the states of Europe. The change, made afterwards by certain conquerors, respected only some individuals of their followers, providing for some of them out of the lands that were not distributed, or taking them from the former great proprietors and bestowing them on certain persons who contributed to their conquests.

Whether any political measure that was unjust at the time of its institution, can become just by time, is a question that ought to be solved. It seems to me, that time can have no effect in changing the nature of it, with respect to its justice or injustice; except it has an effect in altering the evil that first attended it; that is to say, except time removes the hardships and sufferings which the measure brought on the people at its first institution, it can have no effect in removing the charge of injustice imputable to it. If these remain, the same injustice attends the continuance of it that attended the first institution of it.

In such places where an invasion, as that of