DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0216
2oo INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL HISTORY.
that rent, as I have described it, is waste. But it is a factor to
which, given perfect freedom of supply, and just rights to the
occupier, no person can have any higher title than the legal owner.
He has bought it, and has a natural claim to whatever" innocent
use he can make of his property. The cultivator has no right to
it. The State has no right to it, whatever it may have had in
time past, for if one begins to challenge the justice of past engage-
ments knowingly entered into and sanctioned, all society would
be in confusion, credit would fail, property would be soon made
insecure, and every motive to labour, and to save, beyond the
vague, and, I am sure, weak stimulus of social duty, would be
extinguished. I may entertain a very sincere respect for the
intentions of those who wish to employ the force of government
in order to entirely reconstruct society, and to annul all the
motives which, at any rate, have hitherto made notable progress,
in bettering the general condition of social man. But I may be
pardoned for resisting, to the best of my judgment, a practical
trial of so astounding an experiment. Respect for a speculative
theory is very different from respect for a practical proposition.
I am so ignorant of physics, that I hear with equanimity the
news that you and I are descended from a brainless and long-
tailed aquatic animal. But I have no inclination to plunge into
the mid depths of ocean, in the search after my long-lost kinsfolk.
The pedigree may be ancient. It is not flattering ; though what
is this to truth, especially to physical truth, which is to be our
future guide, in opinion ; never, I sincerely hope, in practice.
Some waste is excusable. Of this kind, the waste of experi-
ment is most excusable, the most beneficent, the most instructive.
There is no department of human knowledge in which it does
not occur. There is no department of human action in which it
is not inevitable. You must risk waste, in order to secure any-
thing ; from Christianity down to joint-stock enterprise and
limited liability. Your chance is very wide, from crucifixion,
through plank beds, down to a composition with creditors, to say
nothing of despairing and therefore merciful creditors. Humanum
est errare, and all our race, except women, who never err, are
merciful to the erroneous. All progress is due to experiment,
and will be. The waste, the unproductive consumption, is a
that rent, as I have described it, is waste. But it is a factor to
which, given perfect freedom of supply, and just rights to the
occupier, no person can have any higher title than the legal owner.
He has bought it, and has a natural claim to whatever" innocent
use he can make of his property. The cultivator has no right to
it. The State has no right to it, whatever it may have had in
time past, for if one begins to challenge the justice of past engage-
ments knowingly entered into and sanctioned, all society would
be in confusion, credit would fail, property would be soon made
insecure, and every motive to labour, and to save, beyond the
vague, and, I am sure, weak stimulus of social duty, would be
extinguished. I may entertain a very sincere respect for the
intentions of those who wish to employ the force of government
in order to entirely reconstruct society, and to annul all the
motives which, at any rate, have hitherto made notable progress,
in bettering the general condition of social man. But I may be
pardoned for resisting, to the best of my judgment, a practical
trial of so astounding an experiment. Respect for a speculative
theory is very different from respect for a practical proposition.
I am so ignorant of physics, that I hear with equanimity the
news that you and I are descended from a brainless and long-
tailed aquatic animal. But I have no inclination to plunge into
the mid depths of ocean, in the search after my long-lost kinsfolk.
The pedigree may be ancient. It is not flattering ; though what
is this to truth, especially to physical truth, which is to be our
future guide, in opinion ; never, I sincerely hope, in practice.
Some waste is excusable. Of this kind, the waste of experi-
ment is most excusable, the most beneficent, the most instructive.
There is no department of human knowledge in which it does
not occur. There is no department of human action in which it
is not inevitable. You must risk waste, in order to secure any-
thing ; from Christianity down to joint-stock enterprise and
limited liability. Your chance is very wide, from crucifixion,
through plank beds, down to a composition with creditors, to say
nothing of despairing and therefore merciful creditors. Humanum
est errare, and all our race, except women, who never err, are
merciful to the erroneous. All progress is due to experiment,
and will be. The waste, the unproductive consumption, is a