ACCESS TO THE LAND AS OWNERS 415 



population which is still minutely graduated in the scale of social 

 position ; they have no excuse for imagining that laws of poHce, 

 sanitation, health, and school attendance are designed and ad- 

 ministered for the vexatious control of their social and domestic 

 habits. Agricultural labourers believe that there is life in the towns ; 

 they know that in the villages there is none, in which they share as 

 a right, or which for them has any meaning. They may be indispens- 

 able, but it is only as wheels in another man's mone^'^-making 

 machine. 



If the attractions of towns are to be counteracted, and agricul- 

 tural labourers lifted from apathy and hopelessness mto contentment 

 and activity of interest, a reahty, a purpose, a meaning must be 

 given to village hfe. Probably this can only be done effectivel}'' 

 by giving labourers readier access to the land, and access as owners. 

 Tenancies may to a certain extent produce similar results. They 

 may stimulate pride in work, provide variety of interest, offer scope 

 for ambition. But the incentive of ownership is incomparably 

 stronger. It is true that the Board of Agriculture notices that few 

 appHcants for land express a desire to become owners. They 

 certainly do not, so long as they must, under the existing law, pay 

 a deposit of 20 per cent, of the purchase price, which either absorbs 

 their working capital or compels them to begin on borrowed money. 

 But experience in the other direction is not entirely wanting. The 

 Duke of Bedford's advertisement of seventeen small ownerships at 

 Maulden, where no deposit was required, produced upwards of 500 

 appHcants. The Small Holdings Act has provided a certain quantity 

 of land. But its methods are so faulty, the rents which it requires 

 are so high, the interest and instalments charged on such necessary 

 improvements as roads are so excessive, that its operations are 

 necessarily limited. Moreover, if once the demand under the Act 

 was approximately satisfied, the pressure on County Council candi- 

 dates for reductions of rent would be so severe as, in all probabihty, 

 to result m considerable loss to the ratepayers. Finally, it may be 

 observed that appUcants under the Act have been, to a very large 

 extent, men who are superior in financial position to those for whose 

 benefit the measure was originally designed. Agricultural labourers, 

 pure and simple, are generally afraid of the venture, unless they can 

 form a co-operative society, from which the stronger men, financially 

 and morally, hold themselves aloof. 



It is only by ownership that the atmosphere can be re-created in 



