ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that Mill had a coherent view of government intervention. Government intervention is always justified if overall it leads to progress. It also discusses Mill's policy analyses are shown to be derived from his view of social welfare, and that in actual fact he did advocate intervention if he perceived that this would increase the common good. There are three obvious objections against such an interpretation: Mill's harm principle in On Liberty, his arguments in favour of laissez-faire and his rejection of paternalism. Private property is first an instrument to achieve equality of opportunity by guaranteeing to individuals the fruits of their own labour and abstinence. The problems of private property stem partly from that "incidental consequence", which implies the "right of bequest, or gift after death. The chapter looks at five different systems of landholding: the contemporary British system, cottier tenancy, metayers, peasant proprietors and a system where land is owned by the state.
