Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/73

Rh particle of it, the others join against him, and hang him for the theft.

"There must be some very important advantages, to account for an institution which, in the view of it above given, is so paradoxical and unnatural.

"Inequality of property, in the degree it exists in most countries of Europe, abstractedly considered, is an evil; but it is an evil which flows from the rules concerning the acquisition and disposal of property, by which men are excited to industry, and by which the object of their industry is rendered secure and valuable."—''Vid. Arch. Philos. of Morals.''

Dr. Paley here acknowledges the inequality of property to be an evil, but justifies it—

First. By supposing it to flow from the rules for the acquisition of, &c.

Secondly. By supposing it to encourage industry.

As to the first supposition, that inequality of property did flow from any rules or laws of society, or from the necessary or spontaneous operations of society, we have seen to be contrary to historical facts; it being effected, as appears from them, by arbitrarily and violently dispossessing the original possessors of the land, and distributing it amongst a small, comparatively, number