170 THE LANDED INTEREST. 



hand " must be removed. All the interests in 

 land, whether of owner, occupier, or labourer 

 should be disenthralled, and left free to make 

 the best of their position. In those new 

 countries land can be bought and transferred in 

 the land-office in a few minutes, and at little 

 cost. Trusts, and the Law Courts hamper it 

 here. A man can neither buy nor sell land 

 without the help of the lawyers, and the possi- 

 bility of a lawsuit. That is the reason why 

 agricultural land in this country sells at a lower 

 price than in France or Holland.* It was 



* "A measure which would not only permit the sale of 

 encumbered estates, but facilitate and simplify the transfer 

 of land, would be more beneficial to all concerned than any 

 question connected with agriculture that has yet engaged the 

 attention of the legislature. We have the experience of neigh- 

 bouring countries to show that their system of registering real 

 property, and the comparatively cheap cost of transferring 

 it, makes it the most eligible security either for purchase or 

 loan. In this country, on the contrary, consols are the most 

 available security. The owner of real property who is in 

 need of temporary assistance finds himself embarrassed at 

 every step by technical difficulties of title and legal doubts, 

 which compel him to pay a high rate of interest or abandon 

 the attempt altogether. These expensive, and sometimes in- 

 extricable, doubts and difficulties are the cause of the market 

 price of land in this country being lower than on the continent. 



