For, as it
would depend upon his own pleasure how far these should extend, the
state would be in danger of seeing all property in the land taken into
the hands of the government, and all the subjects treated as
bondsmen of the soil (glebae adscripti). As possessors only of what
was the private property of another, they might thus be deprived of
all freedom and regarded as serfs or slaves. Of the supreme proprietor
of the land, it may be said that he possesses nothing as his own,
except himself; for if he possessed things in the state alongside of
others, dispute and litigation would be possible with these others
regarding those things, and there would be no independent judge to
settle the cause. But it may also be said that he possesses
everything; for he has the supreme right of sovereignty over the whole
people, to whom all external things severally (divisim) belong; and as
such he assigns distributively to every one what is to be his.
Hence there cannot be any corporation in the state, nor any class or
order, that as proprietors can transmit the land for a sole
exclusive use to the following generations for all time (ad
infinitum), according to certain fixed statutes. The state may annul
and abrogate all such statutes at any time, only under the condition
of indemnifying survivors for their interests.
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