364 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



else should consider whether a good deal of it 

 is not fit for reafforestation. Surely in some 

 of the lowland counties sheep have seriously 

 encroached upon good arable land to the detri- 

 ment of the nation ; and with the labourer 

 goes the blacksmith, the cobbler, and the tailor. 

 The shepherd alone remains. Plinius, it 

 should be remembered, found in the establish- 

 ment of large landed properties the cause of 

 Italy's ruin. 



In England a great deal has yet to be done 

 in settling people on the land. At the end of 

 1910 we learnt that there were still 127,256 

 acres applied for and not yet found for 

 applicants, 30 per cent of whom are agri- 

 cultural labourers. We learn too that only 

 1*8 desire to purchase land, which proves 

 that with security of tenure freedom can be 

 purchased more economically as tenant than as 

 owner. There is too the wisdom of the ages 

 to guide us, for was it not the first husband- 

 man who framed in imperishable language the 

 words : " The land shall not be sold for ever, 

 for the land is mine " ? 



In certain journals I notice a subtle 

 tendency to give very rosy accounts as to 

 the possible profits to be made out of small 



