326 Mr. E. Eider Haggard [May 8, 



Of course it will be objected that the circumstances of these 

 islands are exceptional, inasmuch as Guernsey chiefly depends upon 

 glass, and Jersey upon early potatoes. But Guernsey was prosperous 

 before there was a greenhouse in the island, and I believe that the 

 same may be said of Jersey before it grew a potato. Also, to say 

 nothing of France, early potatoes, which to a great extent, compete 

 with those of Jersey, can be grown in Cornwall, in Cheshire and else- 

 where : the island has no alsolute monopoly in that business. 



As for glass, the whole of the south of England might be covered 

 with it, in competition with Guernsey, over which it has, indeed, 

 enormous advantages in the shape of cheaper coal for the greenhouse 

 boilers, and freedom from sea-carriage. Yet it is in Guernsey that 

 most money is made from these houses ; in Guernsey that folk can 

 begin as labourers and end in the possession of fortunes — no infre- 

 quent occurrence there, as I was assured. 



We do not often hear of such things among the agricultural 

 labourers of England. Moreover, if this good fortune is exceptional, 

 the general average of prosperity is extraordinarily high in the 

 Channel Islands. The people who, according to theory, should be 

 plunged in wretchedness because of their system of land-division, live 

 in great comfort, for the most part in houses of their own which are 

 a pleasure to look at. Of course, they work hard — very hard, as men 

 do who work for themselves and not for a master. But then they 

 reap the reward of their work in ownership, increased comfort and 

 resources. 



Now does not all this suggest that there is perhaps something to 

 be said for the tenure of the land by the people instead of by a very 

 limited class, and that it is better to cultivate one acre thoroughly, 

 making it produce as much as it possibly can, than to treat ten or 

 twenty in the fashion that is common enough in England? 



Within the last few months, among many of the leaders of thought 

 in this country, there has been much searching of spirit on the matter 

 of our food supply in time of war, which is now seen to constitute a 

 national peril of the gravest sort. Indeed, I myself am a member of 

 a. Committee or Association which has persuaded the (lovernment to 

 inquire into the whole subject. Various remedies have been proposed, 

 of which two of the chief are the raising of the Navy at whatever 

 cost to such a degree of strength that it could keep the seas open to 

 our corn ships in any conceivable war ; and, as an alternative scheme, 

 the establishment of national granaries in which vast quantities of 

 grain could be stored, as Joseph stored it in Egypt, and the knightly 

 orders stored it in the pits that may still be seen, and I think are 

 still used, in Malta — a very ancient and primitive expedient. 



Upon the question of these remedies I do not propose to enter 

 further than to say, I believe that no navy we could build would 

 effect this object, for the simple reason that ships of war cannot 

 control the schemes and combinations of foreign, and I may add of 

 home speculators in food-stuffs. The corn might be got into the 

 country, but at what price would our millions be able to purchase it ^ 



