COLLECTIVISM  AND  LAND  NATIONALIZATION.  245
Wliat  constitutes  Collectivism  will  be  better  understood  if
we  analyze  the  system  as  presented  by  the  writers  who  have
niost  clearly  explained  it  M.  Louis  Blanc,  in  his  book  “  The
Organization  of  Labour,”  advocates  a  kind  of  collectivist
system,  according  to  which  the  State  should  take  possession  of
all  the  means  of  production—the  land,  mines,  factories,  etc.—in
order  to  entrust  the  working  of  them  to  associations  of  labourers,
ßut  Louis  Blanc's  ideal  was  Communism,  with  the  formula,
‘  To  each  according  to  his  wants  ;  from  each  according  to  his
strength,”  while  the  Collectivists  admit  that  recompense  should
^0  proportioned  to  work  done,  which  is  the  principle  of  indi-''idual
  responsibility.  Moreover,  Louis  Blanc  did  not  attempt
to  determine  what  form  the  society  of  the  future  should  take.
in  the  writings  of  Colins,  a  Belgian  Socialist,  and  still  more
m  the  developments  of  his  theories  by  his  disciples,  Agathon
Potter,  Hugentobler,  and  Borda,  Collectivism  takes  a  form
oasier  to  grasp,  especially  in  all  that  concerns  agrarian  organization, ­
  The  following  is  a  summary  of  their  theories,  preceded
a  short  sketch  of  their  master’s  life.
Jean-Guillaume-César-Alexandre-Hippolyte  Baron  de  Colins
Was  born  at  Brussels  on  the  24th  of  December,  1783,  and  was
the  son  of  the  Chevalier  Colins,  of  Ham.  He  was,  it  is  said,
descended  from  Charles  the  Bold,  as  St  Simon  was  from
Charlemagne.  He  was  brought  up  exclusively  by  his  mother
until  he  was  seven  and  a  half  years  old,  when  his  father  sent
him  for  education  to  an  old  friend  of  his,  a  former  Jesuit,  and
'’tear  at  Dison.  He  was  enrolled  as  a  volunteer  in  the  French
army  at  the  time  when  the  descent  on  England  was  about  to
take  place,  and  he  won  all  his  steps  on  the  field  of  battle.  In
tSig  he  settled  at  Havana  as  a  doctor.  He  returned  to
h  ranee  immediately  after  the  revolution  of  1830.  The  sight  of
the  tricolour  flag  recalled  to  him  his  youth,  and  he  became
associated  with  the  Bonapartist  conspiracy.  He  continued
'’ery  intimate  with  Joseph  Bonaparte,  whom,  it  appears,  he  won
uver  to  his  ideas  of  reform.  In  1833  he  took  up  again  his
scientific  studies,  attending  courses  in  Paris  in  all  the  faculties,
^ud  published  in  1835  his  first  work,  entitled  Le  Pacte  Social.
u  it  he  already  formulated  Collectivism,  and  one  of  the  articles