EDUCATION. -THE LAND.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3967, 15 September 1881, Page 3

EDUCATION. -THE LAND.

(To the Editor of the.Etching otab.) , Sib, —The ,diapi»Bpn . of " Heavenly harmony" is poetically said to close fully in man ; but truth compels the confession : that his spirit is not divine ; that be mars - the earlhvfijth ruin, and stops only with the 'niightyrocean, because it defies his pq.^er,,,»nd-rolls on ever uncontrolled,, iinwarpedi moulded, or fashioned by his wilK ..Viewed; in his battles, conquests, murders, and inhumanities to his fellow, man is a devil I Regarded in his works of mercy, science, charity, and humanity, he might almost claim beatitude with the angels. It is to this conclusion that education will advance, the mind and instruction incline the heart of man. The human intellect undergoes three distinct changes, states, or conditions, which, however, are unalterable mi their order. . There must be first; thb'sensational; then the time of the formation of abstract notions, and finally the. periodof scientific thought. In this last' stagesound principles of l true political should be so instilled intotjthe mind that there would be no difficulty in reproducing and applying them in the choice of representatives, the functions of government, or the general business- of life. <? The principle that the people have a paramount and absolute right to land should be taught; then the second proposition, that no .man lias a right to any portion 'of land but in sub jection to the national will, would be admitted as a matjer of course. The trjiitjiis Of tfie^thlrd jpropositiop must also be acknowledged, namely, that no person has a right to do what he will with" the land, and the fourth proposition will also be logically sanctioned, which declares that a man's landed possessions are not his own. The educated mind would immediately perceive that some of these propositions are capable of separate and fuller proof;, and that the necessity for a; system of* equitable change of labor must follow as a matter of course. The grand truths should be recognised that all men are created, and endowed with certain unalienable rights ; amongst which are the right to live, the right to be free, and the right to be happy, to all of which, private proferty in land is diametrically opposed, t would be discovered that the excessive value of land or high rentig the great agent in producing that terrible demoralization apparent in society, resulting in enormous incomes at one end of the scale and utter destitution and abject misery at the other end, with great discomfort to the (so called) middle ranks; who are injured and corrupted at once by the bad example of one class .and the destitution and dishonesty of the other class. If the present state of circumstances with respect to land continues here, the rent receivers will absorb the greater portion of the combined wealth of the country, and but a small portion will go to the decent aud corn^ fortable living of the people. Those who have the land will be called the comfortable 'class, and those who own no land the uncomfortable classes, and as there is no apparent limit to the increase of value of land, the comfortable .class, or lent receivers, will soar into higher and more capricious luxuries,, and the uncomfortable class, the producers, the workers, the rent payers, will, sink from one stage of degradation into a lower, so tha.t after a feverish and vain effort to gain the necsaaries of life (comforts and decencies having disappeared aY a previous stage) they will become thieves and beggars, their wives and daughters sharing tbeir degradation. The symptoms of this state are upon us. If' a few men now monopolise hundreds of thousands of acres of *~ the people's land, and that such a state.,': of things is fotiiid to -bo too grievous to be borne now, what will it be in ten, twenty^ thirty, or forty years P Can the increase of our numbers by immigration and other means take place without the demand for freedom in land becoming more intense and fierce every day ? Men should covet no richer bliss than to prevent these evils—to draw forth tne virtues of humanity and to' witnels their glorious development. Wretched and guilty beyond measure are the men who usurp the people's estate, and who, having the means of ennobling and enriching their race^ yet suffer them to languish or perish in want.— I am, &c, Bon Ami.