a greater accession of comforts and enjoyments, or of avoiding a greater evil at some future period. Where the right of property is vigilantly protected, an industrious man, who produces as much by one day's labour as is sufficient to maintain him two days, does not lie idle the second day, but accumulates the surplus produce above his wants as a capital; the increased consequence and enjoyments which the possession of capital brings along with it, being, in the great majority of cases, more than sufficient to counterbalance the desire of immediate gratification. But, wherever property is insecure, we look in vain for the operation of the principle of accumulation. " It

is plainly better for us," is then the invariable language of the people, " to enjoy while it is in our power, than to accumulate property which we shall not be permitted to use, and which will either expose us to the extortion of a rapacious government, or to the unrestrained depredations of those who exist only by the plunder of their more industrious neighbours."

But the security of property is not violated merely when a man is deprived of the power of peaceably enjoying the fruits of his industry; it is also violated, and perhaps in a still more glaring and unjustifiable manner, when he is prevented from using the powers with which nature has endowed him, in any way, not injurious to others, that he considers most beneficial to himself. Of all the species of property which a man can possess, the faculties of his mind and the powers of his body are most particularly his own. He ought, therefore, to be permitted to enjoy, that is, to use or

exert these powers at his discretion. And hence the right of property is as much, or more infringed upon, when a man is interdicted from engaging in a particular branch of business, as it is when he is forcibly bereft of the property he has produced and accumulated. Every monopoly which gives to a few indivi7 duals the exclusive power of carrying on certain branches of industry, is thus, in fact, established in direct violation of the property of all other individuals. It prevents them from using their natural capacities or powers in the manner which they might have considered best; and, as every man who is not a slave is held, and justly held, to be the best, and, indeed, the only judge of what is advantageous for himself, the principles of natural law and the right of property are both subverted when he is excluded from any employment. In like manner, the right of property is violated whenever any regulation is made to force an individual to employ his labour or capital in a particular way. The property of a landlord is violated when he is compelled to adopt any system of cultivation, even supposing it to be really preferable to that which he was previously following: The property of the capitalist is violated when he is obliged to accept a particular rate of interest for his stock; and the property of the labourer is violated whenever he is obliged to employ himself in any particular occupation.

The finest soil, the finest climate, and the finest intellectual powers, can prevent no people from becoming barbarous, poor, and miserable, if they have the misfortune to be subjected to a government which

does not respect and maintain the right of property. This is the greatest of all calamities. The ravages of civil war, of pestilence, and of famine, may be repaired; but nothing can enable a nation to contend against the deadly influence of an established system of violence and rapine. It is the want of security-the want of any lively and well-founded expectation among the inhabitants of their being permitted freely to dispose of the fruits of their industry, that is the principal cause of the wretched state of the Ottoman dominions, as it was of the decline of industry and arts in Europe during the middle ages. When the Turkish conquerors overran those fertile and beautiful countries in which, to the disgrace of the other European powers, they are still permitted to encamp, they parcelled them among their followers, on condition of their performing certain military services, on a plan corresponding, in many important particulars, to the feudal system of our ancestors. But none of these possessions, except those which have been assigned to the church, is hereditary. They all revert, on the death of the present possessors, to the Sultan, the sole proprietor of all the immoveable property in the empire. The occupiers of land in Turkey, having, in consequence of this vicious system, no security that their possessions will be allowed to descend, on their death, to their children or legatees, are comparatively careless of futurity; and as no one can feel any interest in the fate of an unknown successor, no one ever executes any improvement of which he does not

expect to be able to reap all the advantage during his own life. This is the cause why the Turks are so extremely careless about their houses. They never construct them of solid or durable materials. And it would be a gratification to them to be assured that they would fall to pieces the moment after they had breathed their last. Under this miserable government the palaces have been changed into cottages, and the cities into villages. The long continued want of security has extinguished the very spirit of industry, and destroyed not only the power, but even the desire to emerge from barbarism. *

Had it been possible for arbitrary power to profit by the lessons of experience, it must long since have perceived that its own wealth, as well as the wealth of its subjects, would be most effectually promoted by maintaining the inviolability of property. Were the Turkish government to establish a vigilant system of police to secure to each individual the unrestricted power of disposing of the fruits of his labour-and to substitute a regular plan of taxation in place of the present odious system of extortion and tyranny, industry would revive, capital and popula

*Thornton's Account of the Turkish Empire, II. p. 63. "The Turks," says Denon," batissent le moins qu'ils peuvent ; ils ne reparent jamais rien: un mur menace ruine, ils l'etaient; il s'eboule, ce sont quelques chambres de moins dans la maîson; ils s'arrangent à coté des decombres : l'edifice tombe enfin, ils en abandonnent le sol, où, s'ils sont obligés d'en deblayer l'emplacement, ils n'emportent le plâtras que le moins loin qu'ils peuvent.-Denon, Tom. I. p. 193.

tion would be augmented, and moderate duties, imposed on a few articles in general demand, would bring a much larger sum into the coffers of the treasury than all that is now obtained by force and violence. The stated public burdens to which the Turks are subjected are light when compared with those imposed on the English, the Hollanders, or the French. But the latter know that when they have paid the taxes due to government, they will be permitted peaceably to enjoy or to accumulate the remainder of their earnings; whereas the Turk has no security but that the next moment after he has paid his stated contribution, the Pacha, or one of his satellites, may strip him of every additional farthing he possesses! Security is the foundation-the principal element in every well digested system of finance. When maintained inviolate, it enables a country to support, without much difficulty, a very heavy load of taxes; but where there is no security-where property is a prey to rapine and spoliation-to the attacks of the needy, the powerful, or the profligate the smallest burdens are justly regarded as oppressive, and uniformly exceed the means of the impoverished and spiritless inhabitant.

Mr Brydone states, that it was customary for those intelligent Sicilians, with whom he had any conversation respecting the natural riches of their celebrated island, and its capacity of improvement, to observe,-" Yes, if these were displayed, you would have reason, indeed, to speak of them. Take a look of these mountains, they contain rich veins of every