144 LANDLORDS A NATURAL GROWTH 



lands. Over his demesne tlie landlord's rights are unfet- 

 tered ; he leases it to tenants by contracts which the State 

 does not seek to control. But he may not increase this 

 portion from the Bondergaard or peasant lands. The 

 Bondergaard is occupied by peasants who rent from the 

 landlord the land which they cultivate. When leases ex- 

 pire, the landlord is bound to offer the farm at a fair rent. 

 If no tenant accepts the farm, he may parcel it out among 

 other peasant farmers, or let it in lots to the hired 

 labourers, or absorb it in the demesne on giving an equiva- 

 lent, or sell it to the peasant tenants. To encourage him 

 in this latter course, he is allowed to annex to the demesne 

 one-tenth of the peasant farni thus put up for sale. 



Throughout the Continent landlordism exists side by 

 side with a peasant proprietary ; in no country has the 

 State expropriated the landlords ; in none has the experi- 

 ment been tried of an artificial creation of small owners. 

 At the most the State has superintended and assisted the 

 passage from primitive communism and mediaeval usufruct 

 to individual ownership. All Teutonic nations started 

 from the same agricultural basis ; in all feudalism was a 

 universal feature ; in all the same conflict was waged be- 

 tween the manor and the mark ; in all there has been the 

 same transition from common to allodial property. In no 

 country has the land been nationalised ; in all proprietary 

 rights are acquired by private individuals ; the same sys- 

 tem is at work in each, but the results are not identical. 

 Both in England and on the Continent rights of ownership 

 and of usufruct were once vested in different persons. 

 Lords of the manor were lords of the soil, but their profit- 

 able enjoyment of every portion except their demesne 

 was limited by the usufructuary rights enjoyed by their 

 tenants. When the primitive germs and natural laws of 



