PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

PrDperty in Land. 98
neighbourhood, and that they had a just power of
conferring a right to it upon whom they pleased, is
to suppos~ the question resolved, and a partition of
land to have already takenpla£e.
Another says, that each mad's limbs and labour
are his own ex~lusi,'dy; that, by occupying a piece
of ground, a man inseparably mixes his labour with
it, bv which means the piece of ground becomes
,hen~eforwanl ills own,. as you cannot take it from
him, without depriving him at the same time of
something which is indisputably his.
This is Mr .. LOCKE'S solution; and seems ~deed
a fair reason, where the. value of the labour bears a
considerable proportion to the value of the thing;
or where the thing derives its chief use and value
from the labour. Thus, game and fish, though they
be common; whilst at large in the woods or water,
instantly become the property of the person who
catches them; because an animal, when caught, is
much more valuable than when at liberty; and this
increase of value, which is inseparable from and
makes a great part of the whole value, is strictly
the pr"perty of the fowler, or fisherman, being the
produce of his personal labour. For the same leason,
wood or iron, manufactured -into utensils, become
the property of the manufacturer; because
the value of the workmanship far exceeds that of
the materials. And upon a similar principle,. a pal- .
eel of unappropriated ground, which a man should
pare, bum, plough, harrow, and sow, for the production
of com~ wou~J justly enough be thereby
made his own. But this will hardly hOld, in the
manner it has been applied, of taking a ceremonious
possession of a tract of land, as navigators do of new
discovered islands, by erecting a standard, engraving
an inscription, or publishing a proclamation to the
birds and beasts; or of turning your cattIe into a
piece of ground, setting up a land mark, digging a
ditch:- or planting a hedge round it. Nor will even