234 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



Northumberland, which he took as an example, and 

 showed that since he had inherited the estates he 

 had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds upon 

 improvements of various kinds, such as the building 

 of churches, parsonage houses, schools, cottages, 

 and farm-steads, drainage, the making of roads and 

 bridges, besides establishing and supporting innu- 

 merable philanthropic institutions and charities. 

 Adopting Mr. Bright' s favourite formula, Mr. Morris 

 says that he should " like to know " how a number 

 of poor tenants could have accomplishsd a work of 

 this kind. It was one thing t-9 create small holdings, 

 which he considered an' immense advantage to many 

 of the poorer classes ; it was another to advocate the 

 principle of peasant proprietorship. He was able to 

 do something more than talk about the advantages 

 of small holdings ; as far as in him lay he carried 

 his views into effect. The glebe land at Nunburn- 

 holme was conveniently situated as regards the 

 village, and, instead of letting his land, consisting 

 of about 120 acres, to two or three tenants, he sub- 

 divided it into allotments and small holdings, thus 

 enabling a number of the villagers to keep cows 

 who had not before kept them, and to grow enough 

 potatoes and other produce for their families to last 

 them throughout the year. 



On this, as on so many other social and economical 

 questions affecting the labouring classes, especially 

 in country places, he thought and wrote much. In 

 order to strengthen his arguments in favour of 

 small holdings, he would frequently cite cases that 



