the interest of the "public weal," for the "good of
society." The Napoleonites "saved Society" on the 18th Brumaire and 2d
of December, and "Society" congratulated them. If hereafter Society
shall save itself by resuming possession of the property that itself has
produced, it will enact the most notable historic event--_it is not
seeking to oppress some in the interest of others, but to afford to all
the prerequisite for equality of existence, to make possible to each an
existence worthy of human beings_. It will be morally the cleanest and
most stupendous measure that human society has ever executed.

In what manner this gigantic process of social expropriation will be
achieved, and under what modality, eludes all surmise. Who can tell how
general conditions will then be, and what the demands of public interest
will be?

In his fourth social letter to v. Kirchmann, entitled "Capital,"
Rodbertus says: "The dissolution of all capitalist property in land is
no chimera; on the contrary, it is easily conceivable in national
economy. It would, moreover, be the most radical aid to society, that,
as might be put in a few words, is suffering of rent-rising--rent of
land and capital. Hence the measure would be the only manner of
abolishing property in land and capital, _a measure that would not even
for a moment interrupt the commerce and progress of the nation_." What
say our agrarians to this opinion of their former political
co-religionist?

In the contemplation of how matters will probably shape themselves along
the principal lines of human activity, upon such a measure of general
expropriation, there can be no question of establishing hard and fast
lines, or rigid institutions. No one is able to forecast the detailed
molds in which future generations may cast their social organizations,
and how they will satisfy their wants. In Society as in Nature,
everything is in constant flux and reflux; one thing rises, another
wanes; what is old and sered is replaced with new and living forms.
Inventions, discoveries and improvements, numerous and various, the
bearing and significance of which often none can tell, are made from day
to day, come into operation, and, each in its own way, they
revolutionize and transform human life and all society.

We can, accordingly, be concerned only with general principles, that
flow inevitably from the preceding _expose_, and whose enforcement may
be supervised, up to a certain point. If even