a very feeble
sect, numbering only about fifty, and perfectly harmless. Their
prophet was a poor man called Thomas Spence (1750-1815),[450] who had
started as a schoolmaster, and in 1775 read a paper at Newcastle
before a 'Philosophical Society.'[451] He proposed that the land in
every village should belong to all the inhabitants--a proposal which
Mr. Hyndman regards as a prophecy of more thoroughgoing schemes of
Land Nationalisation. Spence drifted to London, picked up a precarious
living, partly by selling books of a revolutionary kind, and died in
1815, leaving, it seems, a few proselytes. A writer of higher literary
capacity was Charles Hall, a physician at Tavistock, who in 1805
published a book on _The Effects of Civilisation_.[452] The effects of
civilisation, he holds, are simply pernicious. Landed property
originated in violence, and has caused all social evils. A great
landlord consumes unproductively as much as would keep eight thousand
people.[453] He gets everything from the labour of the poor; while
they are forced to starvation wages by the raising of rents. Trade and
manufactures are equally mischievous. India gets nothing but jewellery
from Europe, and Europe nothing but muslin from India, while so much
less food is produced in either country.[454] Manufactures generally
are a cause and sign of the poverty of nations.[455]

Such sporadic protests against the inequalities of wealth may be taken
as parts of that 'ancient tale of wrong' which has in all ages been
steaming up from the suffering world, and provoking a smile from
epicurean deities. As Owenism advanced, the argument took a more
distinct form. Mill[456] mentions William Thompson of Cork as a 'very
estimable man,' who was the 'principal champion' of the Owenites in
their debates with the Benthamites. He published in 1824 a book upon
the distribution of wealth.[457] It is wordy, and is apt to remain in
the region of 'vague generalities' just at the points where specific
statements would be welcome. But besides the merit of obvious
sincerity and good feeling, it has the interest of showing very
clearly the relation between the opposing schools. Thompson had a
common ground with the Utilitarians, though they undoubtedly would
consider his logic to be loose and overridden by sentimentalism. In
the first place, he heartily admired Bentham: 'the most profound and
celebrated writer on legislation in this or any other country.'[458]
He accepts the 'gre