358 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



two countries have arisen from a denial of this very 

 moderate instalment of bare justice; and if we give this 

 easy access to the land to our English workers, they too 

 will ask for nothing else, and will be far more likely to 

 succeed without any attempt to do for them what they 

 will do much better and more economically themselves. 



But we do undoubtedly require some process of selection 

 of the best men for this great experiment in the regenera- 

 tion of our country ; and the natural, self-acting, and 

 therefore best mode of selection, will arise from the fact 

 that no man can take a holding unless he has saved 

 money to stock and crop it, or has such a character for 

 industry, sobriety, and capacity as to induce some friend 

 to advance him the money ; while the certainty that he is 

 risking the loss of his own savings if he fail, will be the 

 best guarantee that he will have some amount of 

 intelligence and some agricultural experience. No arti- 

 ficial mode of selection will compare with this. A man 

 may get testimonials to character, but no testimonials 

 can show that he will spend borrowed money prudently, 

 or be able to make a profit on land burdened with un- 

 necessary and costly improvements, which, for his purpose, 

 will often be no improvements at all. 



How to fix the Bent. 



We have now to consider the second great essential of 

 success, which is, the rental to be paid for the land and 

 the conditions of tenure. Many of our fellow-workers 

 maintain that the competition-rent offered for land is 

 the best, and in fact the only certain way, of determining 

 its value, and therefore what should be paid for it. From 

 a landlord's or speculator's point of view — considering the 

 money income to be got from the land to be everything, 

 the well-being of the tenants nothing — this is un- 

 doubtedly the case ; but, from our point of view — looking 

 at the cultivation of the land as leading primarily to the 

 well-being and progressive advancement of the cultivator, 

 and through him the similar advancement of all other 

 manual labourers — it seems to me to be the very worst 



