AGEICULTURAL DEPRESSION, 1873 TO 1887 127 



questions ; yet the exceptional legislation which has been 

 deemed necessary for the Irish tenantry has already borne 

 fruit in England. The cry is raised, and assiduously en- 

 couraged by political leaders, that landlords are a parasi- 

 tical growth, a remnant of feudalism, a class that reaps 

 what others sow. The misconception is industriously fos- 

 tered that England is a solitary exception to the univer- 

 sal rule of European landholding. It is maintained with 

 increasing vehemence that God made the land for the 

 people, that land is an ager publicus, which the State has 

 granted to landlords to administer, but which she may at 

 pleasure resume. Men quote with approval Mirabeau's 

 retort to the objection that he could not sell the landed 

 property of the Church — ' Not sell it ! then I will give it.' 



