THE INCUBUS OF TAXATION 113 



ment for the relief of a strained, intolerable position, 

 rendered completely abortive by the stupidity of buco- 

 lic councils, but we have something more to say on this 

 matter later on. 



The present Government should go back ; pick up the 

 threads of the 1892 Bill, take them into their own 

 hands, work the Act for all it is worth, and then extend 

 it in a thoroughly workmanlike manner to the whole of 

 the many millions of acres now lying practically unpro- 

 ductive in Great Britain. 



It is very necessary at this juncture that we should Small 

 thoroughly understand what these SMALL HOLDINGS mean 

 to the people. 



It is patent enough to the poorest intelligence that 

 there is something fundamentally wrong with the 

 system upon which our social and economic arrange- 

 ments work. 



We have seen that, in spite of all effort on the part of 

 Government, of all social and industrial effort, of the 

 enormous contributions from the public purse, and of 

 the still greater aid from private sources, poverty of 

 an alarming type still falls upon the people as a curse ; 

 that work is difficult to get and hard to retain, and that 

 the entire social and economic condition of the people is 

 deplorable. 



We have seen that in Germany and other European 

 States there is very little poverty, that work is abun- 

 dant, wages good and the general condition of the people 

 in these respects at least far better than with us. 



We have seen that this difference is due to the fact, 

 and to one fact only, that in all these countries the 



