148 EVIDENCES AS TO DATE OF VII 



might lead to different results, but certainly the limited 

 evidence which I have collected is somewhat startling, as 

 you will see by consulting Table XVIII, the last. 1 



You will there note that in Lancashire and Kent there 

 has been since 1781 a decided and general decrease in all 

 classes of landowners ; but that in the three counties grouped 

 together Oxon., Wilts., and Hereford of owners of over 

 6 acres the decrease has been not very serious, and that 

 there is a positive increase in the number of owners and 

 of occupiers under that acreage, while in Norfolk there has 

 in the 13 parishes been an increase of both classes by about 

 1 in every parish. 



Finally, these returns warn us not to exaggerate the 

 monopoly of land in England to-day. If you will make the 

 additions for yourselves you will find that in 151 parishes 

 in Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Kent, Lancashire, and Hereford 

 there were, in 1892, 2,436 owners that is, an average of 

 16 owners per parish and that in 119 parishes in the 

 same counties, with the exception of Kent, there were 53 

 owners farming their own land that is, an average o 

 4^ per parish. 2 If we were to apply these numbers to the 

 15,000 parishes in England, that would come to some 

 240,000 owners in England who do not farm their own 

 land, and some 67,500 who do. 



These results correspond very closely to the 

 Domesday Book of 1876, and to the return of the Board 

 of Agriculture of 1896. The New Domesday Book 

 estimates the number of owners in England who hold froic 

 1 acre and upwards at 260,000, and the return of 1895 

 puts the number of those owners who occupy their OWE 

 land from 1 acre upwards at 66,700. It is true that mj 

 returns, both for owners and occupiers, in Norfolk and foi 

 occupying owners in Kent exceed those given in these twc 

 P. 154. Cf. Tables VI, VII, X, XI, XVII. 



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