155 



CHAPTER XIV. 



DISTRIBUTION OF LAND. 



If the State acquisition of the land and its arbitrary re- 

 distribution among the class of peasant proprietors be 

 rejected as an extravagant and impossible plan, the broad 

 features of the existing system of land ownership, occu- 

 pation, and cultivation must remain unchanged. What 

 are the conditions of that system ? 



The total acreage ^ of England and Wales under all 

 kinds of crops, bare fallow, and grass was, in 1887, 

 27,753,207 acres. 



The New Domesday Book^ shows that there are 

 972,836 proprietors of land in England and Wales, hold- 

 ing between them 33,013,510 acres. These figures may 

 be thus analysed : — 



But the returns in the New Domesday are incorrect 



' Appendix XI. gives the statistical returns of the crops of England 

 and "Wales for 1867, 1877, and 1887, and, for purposes of comparison, 

 four other estimates of thedates respectively of 1688, 1771,1808,and 1827. 



- Moved for by Lord Derby in the House of Lords, February 1872. 

 Compiled, 1874-5. 



