Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/77

Rh original great proprietor of land do the people, by which he could deserve a large proportion of the land of the nation, and a great part of the labour of the people, appending to it? On the other hand, what crimes could the whole of the people commit, that they should have forfeited their right to it? or if they could, how could their prosperity be affected by it?

Whatever things a man makes with his own hands, out of such materials as his proportionate share of land yields, must be allowed to be his own; and these may be accumulated, if they are not consumed by the maker of them; or they may be exchanged for other things, made by and belonging to other people, of an equal value; to be strictly estimated by the quantity of the labour employed in making the things exchanged. These things, so made or obtained by fair exchange, and accumulated, may be given to children or others.

The goods, chattels, or personal effects, as they are called, acquired in this manner, cannot easily be heaped up to any great degree. The person that succeeds to the chattels, made and saved by the first person, can only add to them what his own hand makes, and, not being consumed by himself, accumulates. And, as this industrious turn never happens to be the disposition of several