EVILS OF LIMITED OWNERSHIP. 171 



shown by the Prime Minister in one of his great 

 speeches in Scotland that the value and tax- Cause of 



value of 



able income from land had risen with greater land rising 



more 



rapidity in France than in England, and he rapidly in 



France 



attributed this chiefly to its much greater sub- than in 



England. 



division in the hands of a small proprietary, and 

 to the more garden-like cultivation of the land 

 under this system. Now this embraces the two 

 qualities in which the position of the landowner 

 and tenant-farmer in this country is most de- 

 fective. The landowner, tied up by settlement, 

 cannot improve his property except through a 

 costly and cumbrous process, and the capital of 

 the farmer cannot yet be expended in cultiva- 

 tion with the same security as that of the 

 peasant proprietor. Put an end to limited The cure 



for this. 



ownership, give the occupying tenant the con- 

 trol of ground game, and make that portion of 

 his capital which cannot be removed from the 

 soil secure. Encumbered and unwieldy estates 



We see no reason to doubt that, if the transfer of land were 

 simplified, its value might be increased by at least five years' 

 purchase, a rise in value which would free many an em- 

 barrassed landlord from his difficulties." Caird's "English 

 Agriculture" 1851. 



