1 1 8 Large and Small Holdings 



the attention of the Liberal party to the social importance of small 

 holdings. The old attempt to provide the labourer with land to 

 cultivate or to keep stock on was revived, after nearly a century of 

 impotence, under the motto of "three acres and a cow 1 ." Legislative, 

 as well as private effort, gave it expression. Before discussing the 

 legislative efforts in this direction, however, there are certain important 

 facts to be taken into consideration. 



(b) The problem of landowners/tip in relation to the unit of holding. 



The multiplication of small holdings may take place in two ways ; 

 namely either by a revival of small properties, i.e. by the purchase of 

 land by small cultivators, or by the division of large farms into small 

 ones, and the consequent replacing of the existing large farmers by a 

 greater number of small farmers. In either case the question of land- 

 ownership offers difficulties. 



If the object in view is the multiplication of small properties, it 

 has first of all to be taken into consideration that relatively speaking 

 very little land comes upon the market in England. The greater 

 part of the land is entailed, and the owner is obliged to hand it on 

 intact at his death to his eldest son or other legal heir. He cannot 

 sell any of it, unless under the very unattractive conditions prescribed 

 by the Settled Land Act of 1882. In any case, many such owners 

 have no idea of selling, but only desire to buy land ; so that the 

 ownership of the soil continually comes into fewer and fewer hands. 

 It may be said that 50 per cent, of the land of England is owned by 

 between two and three thousand persons. A further result of the 

 system is that the actual process of sale becomes expensive, since the 

 possibility of the existence of an entail makes it necessary for the seller 

 to prove in each instance his right to alienate the land in question, 

 which adds to the lawyer's charges. And if the quantity of land upon 

 the market is limited in this way, the would-be small owner finds the 

 price of it enhanced in another way. In no country is the possession 

 of land so much desired for social and political reasons as in England. 

 Landownership gives the rich man social standing, and very often 

 the possibility of a political career ; and every great iron-master, ship- 

 builder or manufacturer must needs have his country house just as 

 the old county families have. Then there is the question of sport. 

 In the case of most sales the advertisements in the newspapers will 



1 F. Impey, Three Acres and a Cow, 1885. 



