July Few subjects of recent tims in England have been discus-sed so much, both on paper and platform, fas the land question, For in spite of the dazzling fortunes built up on steel, coal, or engineering, it is nevertheless the fact that agriou!- ture remains—at least in so far as the numbers engaged in it are concerned—the most important industry in Great Britain, And in face of this, has to be realized the steady drain of human life from country to town, which year by year hus been growing more and more serious, High railway rates with the consequent difficulty of transporting produce to profitable markets; lack of _organizati against scientific foreign competition; obsolete methods,—the fond bub foolish principle on which too many English farmers unhappily: act, that "what was good ening! for my fathers is enough for me"—all these evils seem to have accumulated suddenly in late y to make farming unremunerative. Ab the same time the spread of education among the labourers brings with it inevitable discontent with actual surroundings, and the spread of newspapers conjures pictures of the townsman's hig! wages and many pleasures, with which the dull realities of family life on fif cen shillings a week, and the workhouse for old age, cannot compare in attractiveness. It used to be the fashion to say that there was no work for farm bands, mi because seasons were bad: now i is almost coming to be trae—is true indeed, in some districte—that seasons are bad, because there are not hands for the work. There is reason enough for the cry of " Back to the land" echoed by' men of all shades of political feeling. Thus it was that Mr. L. V. Harcourt was able recently to bring in his Smal! Holdings and Allotments Bill with the assurance that the subject at Toast was one to which all parties were inclined sympathetically. The idea is not ow even in England. Th has been attempted in Worcestershire, a few great land-owners, notably Lord Carrington, have pub it into practice among their tenants there is also the brilliant example of Mr. Henry Vincent, a Brighton waiter, who by well thought-out labour before and afer bourg at the hotel, is reported; to have made £50 profit in oae year from an acre of the unpromising down land above Kemp own, And Mr. Harcourt's Bill was anticip.ted, though in a much more modest form, by the Allotments Acts and particularly by the Small Holdings Act of 1892. "In France and Denmark the Small Holdings principle may be seen in perfection, The peasant owns his land which des-conds from father to son. He farms for himself and lives almost entirely on his -own produce: this gives a stimulus to his energies such us no mere tenant knows, short, in the words of one of verbs, "My glees is li drink in my glass." Why should not a similarly happy state of thi be produced, by suitable legit in rural England, to keep the labourer from drifting into the towns, by the golden lure of installing him as master of himself and his toil attain this end Mr, Harcourt, proposes that the Board of Agric ture, to which all powers in this matter are to be transferred from the Local Government Board by special provisions of the Bill, should appoint two Small Holdings Commissioners who will ascertain where, and to whap extent, there is a demand for small holdings. Local councils, of counties, boroughs and es, will report to the Comners, who will decide, upon all their information, whether the demand for small boldings is reasonable, and what steps should be taken to gratify it, Then it will be the duty of the Councils to acquire the land compulsorily by lease from the owner, and to re-let it id small holdings. If for any reason the Council refuses to carry out the injunctions of the Commissioners, the Bill empowers the Board of Agriculture to assume the Council's func-ire the requisite defray its own expenses the small holdings account, that is to say, out of the rent which will be paid to the Councils for the Thands taken over in their name, bub without their consent. The other principal provision of the Bill is that every Council shall establish Small Holdings and Allotments Committee "to provide the formation of, and assist, ce-operative societies and credit banks "—for the
small farmers. Two chief pointe benefit of course of the prospective among these provisions ab once afford material for much debate. In the first place there plete divergence from the principle of absolute ownership, io favour of perpetual tenure. 'This marks a considerable difference not only feom the Irish Land Act of 1903, by which the landlords were entitled to a lump sum down from Government, after which the wants would redeem their land a certain number of years' purchase, thereafter becoming absolute owners; but also from the present Scotish Bill which contemplates the dual tem, purchase or tenure. Possibly there are landlords who would prefer a lump sum down for their property, Certainly there are theorists who object that no aystem but that of absolute ownership can succeed with small boldero, Bub on the whole the provision seems a wise one. The mull farmer will be absolutely secure from dispossession; bub he cannot cripple himself by mortgage ing his ground to supplement the deficiencies of his own incapacity, nor can he re-sell, for the possible reformation of big estates and absentee landlordism, ped Southern Italy since the splitting up of the monastic lands in 1870.
The second point for criticism is the interposition of the Councils between owners and small holders, The objection which some of the landlords have raised to this is, perhaps, partly a matter of sentiment. But at the same time ib is a perfectly reasonable question whether in endea ut the tenants under the control of hi which are directly responsible to themselves for their conduct, and mays condemned in the polling booths, the Bill does nob rather substitute for the possible evil of personal squiredom, the worse one of bureaucratic tyranny,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.