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 organiza 
tion, 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