WHOSE LAND IS IT? 37
It therefore follows, from the very fact of their exis- tence, that the right of each one of the people of Ireland to an equal share in the land of Ireland is equal and inalienable : that is to say, that the use and benefit of the land of Ireland belong rightfully to the whole people of Ireland, to each one as much as to every other ; to no one more than to any other not to some individuals, to the exclusion of other individuals; not to one class, to the exclusion of other classes ; not to landlords, not to tenants, not to cultivators, but to the whole people.
This right is irrefutable and indefeasible. It pertains to and springs from the fact of existence, the right to live. No law, no covenant, no agreement, can bar it. One generation cannot stipulate away the rights of another generation. If the whole people of Ireland were to unite in bargaining away their rights in the land, how could they justly bargain away the right of the child who the next moment is born ? No one can bargain away what is not his ; no one can stipulate away the rights of another. And if the new-born infant has an equal right to life, then has it an equal right to land. Its warrant, which comes direct from Nature, and which sets aside all human laws or title-deeds, is the fact that it is born.
Here we have a firm, self -apparent principle from which we may safely proceed. The land of Ireland does not belong to one individual more than to another individual ; to one class more than to another class ; to one generation more than to the generations that come after. It belongs to the whole people who at the time exist upon it.
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