XVII LAND NATIONALIZATION— WHY ? AND HOW ? 325 



and other permanent and tangible improvements which 

 are there always made by the tenants. Now these 

 improvements, which for purposes of sale or transfer may 

 here also be conveniently termed tenant-right, should 

 always be the absolute property of the occupier of any 

 plot of land, the State or municipality being the owner of 

 the bare land only ; and by this simple and logical division 

 it will be seen that all necessity for State management, 

 with the long train of evils which Professor Fawcett so 

 properly emphasizes, is absolutely done away Avith, and 

 the cultivator may be left perfectly free to treat his estate 

 as he pleases. For everything on the land which can be 

 deteriorated by bad farming or wilful neglect is his 

 private property, and its preservation may safely be left to 

 the influence of self-interest ; while the land, which is the 

 property of the State, is practically incapable of dete- 

 rioration ; for its value depends on such natural causes as 

 geological formation, arterial drainage, aspect, rainfall, and 

 latitude, and on such social conditions as density of 

 population, nearness to towns, to seaports, to railroads, or 

 canals, the vicinity of manufactures, &c., none of which 

 can be changed by the action of the tenant. The State, 

 therefore, will have nothing whatever to manage, but need 

 only collect its ground-rent as it now collects the land-tax 

 or houee-tax, leaving every land-holder perfectly free to do 

 as he pleases, and only interfering with him by means of 

 general enactments applicable to all holders alike. All 

 arrangements that may be necessary for facilitating the 

 acquisition of land by those who need it, should be in 

 the hands of Local Land Courts, acting on principles 

 determined by general enactment. 



Having thus given the main outlines of a just and 

 beneficial system of land tenure, let us consider briefly 

 how to bring it into practical operation. And, first, we 

 will explain how existing landlords may be equitably 

 dealt with, as this is considered by many to be the real 

 difficulty in the way of Land Nationalization. 



In Mr. Gladstone's proposed scheme for buying out the 

 Irish landlords the principle was laid down, and never 

 controverted, that the landlords were entitled to com- 



