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CHAPTER XII. 



PEASANT PROPRIETORS. 



The cliief social and theoretical remedy which is pro- 

 posed for the existing agricultural distress is the forced 

 growth of a peasant proprietary. The peasant proprietor 

 is the spoilt child of theorists ; his artificial creation by 

 the stroke of a pen is the favourite panacea of a large 

 section of land reformers. Towards this end, in one shape 

 or another, all theoretical reforms appear to tend. No 

 one will deny that the spontaneous increase of small 

 owners is socially and politically valuable, or that the 

 aggregation of large properties in a few hands is a source 

 of political and social danger. ' Latifundia perdidere 

 Italiam ; ' and it is qviite possible that land monopoly may 

 prove the ruin of England. The happiness of a people 

 depends on the distribution, not on the accumulation, of 

 wealth ; the larger the proportion of those who enjoy a 

 proprietary interest in the soil, the stronger is the 

 guarantee afforded to the stability of the State. From an 

 economic point of view it may be doubted whether peasant 

 proprietors are profitable ; but the enquiry whether a large 

 or small farm produces most per acre yields in importance 

 to the question — Which contributes most to the sum total 

 of national prosperity ? 



It is useless to appeal in favour of peasant proprietors 

 to the instances quoted by Mill. His authorities belong to 



