CONCLUSION 241 



the amount of unemployed labour. If, on the other hand, 

 it results in the multiplication of peasant holdings and 

 in more direct relations between labour and land, a per- 

 centage of the displaced labour will become absorbed in 

 small tenancies to the great advantage of rural society 

 in general. Small farms supply those ladders of thrift, 

 wider horizons, incentives to energy, and prospects of in- 

 dependence which are the great wants of their present 

 condition. The best labourers may find employment upon 

 the larger holdings. But for the rest, who are too un- 

 skilful or too numerous to secure permanent wages, the 

 New World offers advantages for which the Old affords 

 no parallel. The crisis is indisputably grave ; revolu- 

 tionary legislation is powerfully advocated, and the position 

 of landlords completely isolated. Agricultural labourers 

 possess the franchise at a stage in their civilisation which 

 renders them an easy prey to unscrupulous agitators. 

 The fatal germs of the Irish Land Act of 1881 have al- 

 ready borne fruit in the demands of the Farmers' Alliance, 

 and in the land bills which have been successively put 

 forward by English, Scotch, and Welsh farmers. At the 

 first gleam of agricultural prosperity the cry for tenant- 

 right will be renewed. Landlords have now the oppor- 

 tunity of removing legitimate grounds of discontent ; of 

 increasing the number of those who, as small occupiers, 

 will be interested in the maintenance of landed interests • 

 of reviving those cordial relations with their tenants which 

 in times past made English agriculture the model and 

 example for foreign nations ; of striking from the hands of 

 socialistic theorists weapons which are dangerous to the 

 safety of society. The distinction between giving and 

 giving up is vital. But here there is not even a question 



K 



