Page:The Rights of Man to Property!.djvu/24

 ed, by extraordinary and almost invincible difficulties. If the States, in which they lived, were small, and surrounded by powerful and dangerous enemies, as was the case with Rome, in the early stages of her history; then wars, sometimes unavoidable, but often brought about by treacherous and aristocratic rulers at home for the very purpose, interfered to prevent the people from maturing great public measures for their benefit.

Such was particularly the case, with regard to what was called the Agrarian Law. This law forbid any man to own more than five hundred acres of land; any excess over that quantity, was taken away and reserved to the public, or given to the poor. This law also gave to the soldiers, and to the common people, who had none, lands conquered from their enemies. Anterior to the introduction of this law, the Patricians, or in other words, the Aristocracy, turned all these lands to their own benefit. They were, therefore, extremely unwilling to give them up; and such was the structure of their political fabric, at the time, that they alone had the power of originating all laws, the Agrarian, as well as every other. They were therefore disposed, as often as they dared, to render it nugatory, or of little effect. For four hundred years, it was the source of much civil commotion and bloodshed in Rome, and often came near being the cause of subjecting them to conquest by their enemies. At last, the Aris