It may not be out of place here to allude to the use of the word
property with reference to land; property--from proprium, my own--
is something pertaining to man. I have a property in myself. I have
the right to be free. All that proceeds from myself, my thoughts,
my writings, my works, are property; but no man made land, and
therefore it is not property. This incorrect application of the
word is the more striking in England, where the largest title a man
can have is "tenancy in fee," and a tenant holds but does not own.

Sir William Blackstone places the possession of land upon a
different principle. He says that, as society became formed, its
instinct was to preserve the peace; and as a man who had taken
possession of land could not be disturbed without using force, each
man continued to enjoy the use of that which he had taken out of
the common stock; but, he adds, that right only lasted as long as
the man lived. Death put him out of possession, and he could not
give to another that which he ceased to possess himself.

Vattel (book i., chap, vii.) tells us that "the whole earth is
destined to feed its inhabitants; but this it would be incapable of
doing if it were uncultivated. Every nation is then obliged by the
law of nature to cultivate the land that has fallen to its share,
and it has no right to enlarge its boundaries or have recourse to
the assistance of other nations, but in proportion as the land in
its possession is incapable of furnishing it with necessaries." He
adds (chap. xx.), "When a nation in a body takes possession of a
country, everything that is not divided among its members remains
common to the whole nation, and is called public property."

An ancient Irish tract, which forms part of the Senchus Mor, and is