*' Let no one approach agricultural reform witli a light heart, 

 or crude theories. The labour will be Herculean. Land Reform, 

 whether it takes the form of small ownership or small tenancy, 

 only begins with them ; they are only the root, the branches are 

 infinite and far-spreading. This problem of ours is the most 

 difficult, as it is the most vital, that we have tackled in one 

 hundred years. It must not be approached with the idea of 

 swift results, or of a golden age. It will not bring back 

 hundreds of thousands to the land at once, and it is undesirable 

 that it should do so. It will be a gradual process, and this is all 

 the better. The task of organising, as well as creating a new 

 rural population on a large scale might easily spell disaster ; it 

 would certainly breed vast difficulties. And the small man, 

 labourer, artisan, or urban worker desiring to return to the soil, 

 must not look for Arcadia. There are no eclogues to be written 

 about the agriculture of to-day. The peasant owner must face 

 hard work, a heavy struggle, much drudgery, some disappoint- 

 ment. His lot will not be easy ; but it will be no harder than 

 it is at present ; and in this at least it will be better — that 

 behind it will be hope, before it a future ; that the man will be 

 working for his own on his own ; that he will be stimulated 

 by the responsibilities of complete possession." — Sir Gilbert 

 Parker, M.P., in The English Review, June 1911. 



" We find the inhabitants of this earth divided into two great 

 masses; the peasant paymasters — spade in hand, original 

 imperial producers of turnips ; and waiting on them all round, 

 a crowd of polite persons modestly expectant of turnips, for some 

 — too often theoretical — service." — John Ruskin. 



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