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THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY.
systems of social reform. It was in the discussions which
took place among this band of friends, all of them imbued
with their master’s ideas of equality, that the author formed
his convictions on the social question, which have varied
little since then, and which contemporary events have served
only to confirm. Huet also published, in 1864, La Science
de VEsprit. He presided over the education of Prince Milan,
now King of Servia, and even followed him to Belgrade.
Having returned to Paris to undergo treatment for a severe
disease, he died from the effects of a surgical operation. His
friends have erected a monument to his memory in the cemetery
of Mount Parnassus.
I shall here mention only those views of Huet which
relate to social organization. For the basis of his system he
takes the principles of 1789, and endeavours to realize in
everything the motto, “ Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” His
ideas, on this point were, without his knowing it, similar to
those of Fichte as contained in the book already mentioned,
“ Materials for justifying the French Revolution.” The
following is a summary of them ;—Men are by right equal.
The individual ought to be able freely to develop himself ;
but property is a necessary condition of liberty. Property
is, therefore, a natural right, and as such should belong to
everybody.
“ Either words have no meaning, or to place property among natural
rights implies that the original investitive title to the good things of the
earth is the quality of humanity ; that the quality of humanity gives rise
in itself to an immediate right to a determinate share in these good things ;
an original property which would become for everybody the source, the
foundation, and the means of obtaining all the rest. This is the direct
consequence of the right to live. Is not this right the same for all, and
do not all equally need the means of living? Has not everybody, born
in the image of (Jod, a right to his original patrimony, to this magnificent
present from God ? 13y reason of his place in the series of the generations
of men, has not every man also a right to the capital handed down by his
forefathers, the joint acquisition of men ? Nobody ought to live at another’s
expense. Every man who has not forfeited it has the right to live free.
It is his right that his subsistence, his labour, should not be dependent
on the good will of others ; and however free he may be in his person, if
he does not possess, of natural right, anything in advance, any capital,
