146 Large and Small Holdings 



they oppose a development which is desirable from the purely 

 economic point of view. 



The Liberal Party has thus succeeded on the one hand in keeping 

 itself clear from the fantastic proposals for a general nationalisation 

 of the land 1 , and on the other hand, unfettered by the antiquated 

 dogmas of an older Liberalism, in opening up the way of progress. 

 The second point is specially worthy of notice. What would the pre- 

 decessors of the modern Liberals Cobden, Hume, Bright or Roebuck 

 have said to State attacks upon landed property as contained in 

 the Act of 1907? They would probably have felt inclined to leave 

 for other countries, where sufficient virtue still remained to stigmatise 

 such proposals as preposterous Socialism, totally unworthy of men 

 who claimed the name of Liberal. But modern English Liberals are 

 not terrified by the idea of property as conceived by their forbears. 

 They aim at forming a programme which shall correspond to the 

 needs of their time, independently of the history of the dogmas of 

 political economy. " Liberty," writes Mr Asquith, " is a term which 

 grows by what it feeds on, and acquires in each generation a new 

 and larger content 2 ." Hence they have created a programme of 

 agrarian reform based not simply on the abolition of entails or 

 on the avoidance of protective tariffs, but aiming at a positive, 

 constructive end, namely at the creation of a new class of small 

 cultivators. Thanks to the English Parliamentary system, under 

 which no Party can afford to be without a programme on any 

 question of living economic importance, the Conservative Party, as 

 has been seen above, has also adopted proposals for the State creation 

 of small holdings. The two Parties are divided only on the question 

 of the means to be used for the purpose. Moreover it is interesting 

 to notice that the original pioneers of the movement, Mr Joseph 

 Chamberlain and Mr Jesse Collings, who were in the eighties 

 regarded as mere dreamers* when they contemplated the possibility 

 of compulsory purchase, are now able to advocate the same measure 

 with a peaceful conscience from the bosom of the Conservative 

 Party. For compulsory purchase is now a Conservative method, as 

 contrasted with the compulsory hiring advocated by modern Radical 

 reformers. So adaptable are political opinions in a country where 

 political parties on the whole compete, not to represent the special 

 interests of some particular class, but to serve the general interests 



1 As represented by the Land Restoration League and Land Nationalisation Society. 



9 Samuel, op. cit. p. ix. 



8 Cp. Sir E. Colebrooke, Small Holdings, 2nd ed., Edinburgh, 1886, p. 17. 



