52 2 History of the English Landed Interest. 



ments had to be done, if done at all, by the borrowed capital 

 of the landlord ; and, therefore, the agriculture failed in com- 

 parison with that carried out in the north by the capital of 

 the farmer. The State, however, has, as we have shown in 

 another chapter, avoided interference with this undoubted 

 right of private ownership by contriving every device imagin- 

 able in order to remove the evils rather than the custom of 

 the Family Settlement. Let us quote an authority on the 

 subject, in evidence of its success : ^ — 



" The Settled Land Acts have finally released land from the 

 fetters in which it was formerly bound. A tenant -for-life, so 

 far as the points which affect the public interest are concerned, 

 now stands in exactly the same position as an absolute owner. 

 Practically, he can sell everything which the public will buy, 

 for the restrictions which still affect the family mansion and 

 lands usually occupied therewith, have little bearing upon the 

 public interest in the free alienation of land ; though 1 see no 

 reason why the facility for their sale should not be further 

 increased. 



"But, as the general result of the Acts, we may say that 

 there is no land^ in the kingdom which any one wishes to buy 

 which cannot be bought and sold without the least difficulty, 

 and the allegations which are always found to proceed from 

 persons having no practical acquaintance with the subject, that 

 sales and purchases of land are restrained bj' reason of the 

 difficulties attendant on the transfer of land, are without foun- 

 dation." 



What more then can our modern land reformer want ? If the 

 principle of the unearned increment is to be adopted, if, under 

 the S3''stem of Betterment, the State is to claim a profit, surely 

 it is logical that the principle should applj^ when the situation 

 is reversed ? If, when a private owner is so lucky as to stumble 

 upon hidden sources of wealth in his property, the State can 

 claim its share in the discovery, surely it cannot object to 



^ Address at Norwich, by Mr. Richard Pennington, to the Incorp. Law 

 Society, 1892. 



^ Estates settled bj' Act of Parliament, such as Strathfieldsaye, Blen- 

 heim, etc., only excepted. 



