The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas

THE right of property implies that a certain person or certain persons are recognised as having a right to the exclusive disposal of a certain thing. The owner is not necessarily allowed to do with his property whatever he likes; but whether absolute or limited, his right to disposal is not shared by anybody else, save under very exceptional circumstances, as in the case of "compulsion by necessity." Property in a thing thus means not only that the owner of it is allowed, at least within certain limits, to use or deal with it at his discretion, but also that other persons are forbidden to prevent him from using or dealing with it in any manner he is entitled to.

The most common offence against property is illicit appropriation of other persons' belongings. Not the mere fact that individuals are in actual possession of certain objects, but the public disapproval of acts by which they are deprived of such possession, shows that they have proprietary rights over those objects. Hence the universal condemnation of what we call theft or robbery proves that the right of property exists among all races of men known

to us.

VOL. II

1 Supra, i. 285 sqq.

Travellers often accuse savages of thievishness.' But then their judgments are commonly based upon the treatment to which they have been subject themselves, and from this no conclusions must be drawn as regards intratribal morality. Nor can races who have had much to do with foreigners be taken as fair representatives of savage honesty, as such contact has proved the origin of thievish propensities. In the majority of cases uncivilised peoples seem to respect proprietary rights within their own communities, and not infrequently even in their dealings with strangers. Many of them are expressly said to con

1 Beni, Notizie sopra gli indigeni di Mexico,' in Archivio per l'antropologia e la etnologia, xii. 15 (Apaches). Burton, City of the Saints, p. 125 (Dacotahs and Prairie Indians). Powers, Tribes of California, p. 127 (Yuki). Macfie, Vancouver Island and British Columbia, p. 468. Heriot, Travels through the Canadas, p. 22 (Newfoundland Eskimo). Coxe, Russian Discoveries between Asia and America, p. 300 (Kinaighi). Georgi, Russia, iv. 22 (Kalmucks), 133 (Buriats). Scott Robertson, Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, p. 193 sq. Modigliani, Viaggio a Nias, p. 468. Powell, Wanderings in a Wild Country, p. 23 (South Sea Islanders). Romilly, From my Verandah in New Guinea, p. 50; Comrie, 'Anthropological Notes on New Guinea,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. vi. 109 sq. de Labillardière, Voyage in Search of La Pérouse, i. 275; Moseley, Notes by a Naturalist on the "Challenger," p. 391 (Admiralty Islanders). Brenchley, Jottings during the Cruise of H.M.S. Curaçoa, p. 58 (natives of Tutuila). Lisiansky, Voyage round the World, p. 88 sq. (Nukahivans). Williams, Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands, p. 126 (natives of Rarotonga). Cooke, Journal of a Voyage round the World, p. 40; Montgomery, Journal of Voyages and Travels by Tyerman and Bennet, ii. 11 (Society Islanders). Barrington, History of New South Wales, p. 22; Breton, Excursions in New South Wales, p. 221; Collins, Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, i. 599 sq.; Hodgson, Reminiscences of Australia,

p. 79; Mitchell, Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, i. 264, 304; Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, p. 71 sq. (Australian tribes). Reade, Savage Africa, p. 579 (West African Negroes). Bosman, Description of the Coast of Guinea, p. 324 sq. (Negroes of Fida and the Gold Coast). Caillié, Travels through Central Africa, i. 353 (Mandingoes). Beltrame, I Fiume Bianco, p. 83 (Shilluk). Wilson and Felkin, Uganda and the Egyptian Soudan, ii. 310 (Gowane people of Kordofan). Krapf, Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours in Eastern Africa, p. 355 (Wakamba). Burton, Zanzibar, ii. 92 (Wanika). Bonfanti, 'L'incivilimento dei negri nell' Africa intertropicale,' in Archivio per l'antropologia e la etnologia, xv. 133 (Bantu races). Arbousset and Daumas, Exploratory Tour to the North-East of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, p. 323 (Bechuanas). Andersson, Lake Ngami, pp. 468 sq. (Bechuanas), 499 (Bayeye). Leslie, Among the Zulus and Amatongas, p. 256. Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika's, pp. 53 (Kafirs), 372, 419 (Hottentots and Bushmans).

2 Domenech, Great Deserts of North America, ii. 321. Mackenzie, Voyages to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. xcvi. note (Crees). Burton, Highlands of the Brazil, i. 403 sq. Moorcroft and Trebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces, i. 321 (Ladakhis). Anderson, Mandalay to Momien,p.151 (Kakhyens). Earl, Papuans, p. 8o. Tyler, Forty Years among the Zulus, p. 192.

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