BRITISH & FOREIGN WHEAT PRODUCTION 151 

 cess all round — to land-owner, tenant-farmer and tax- 

 payer — no use in attempting to create that host of 

 peasant-proprietors which, once established, would form 

 the backbone of our national life and vigour as it does in 

 every other civiUsed state in the world except our own. 



They knew there was no use doing any of these things What the 



. . ... Govern- 



because of the Opposition. The foe was lying in wait ment 

 to attack them at every point, and they knew that °®^ 

 however good and necessary the Bill might be in the in- 

 terests of the people, it would meet with the same fierce 

 hostility as though it were a measure intended to defeat 

 the ends of justice and bring ruin upon the country. 

 They knew that some reform in the Land Laws, such 

 as has been sketched in these pages, was absolutely 

 necessary to save the countr}' and give back to the 

 people that meed of prosperity which they have lost ; and 

 that the longer this was deferred the more would the 

 people suffer. Yet, in spite of this, they dared not bring 

 in their Bill because of the Opposition. The party out 

 of power was prepared for the fight ; the Government 

 knew them to be a vengeful, relentless foe, armed at 

 all points witli the ready weapons of Parliamentary war 

 fare, and that their own defeat would mean ruin, loss 

 of place, power and emoluments; loss pecuniar^'; loss 

 individually and collectively; loss to self, loss to party, 

 and so, they dared not face it. 



This, in a nutshell, is exactly the state of affairs in the 

 British Parliament. No one party is better than another. 



If Liberals are in. Conservatives are in opposition. If 

 Liberal Unionists are in, Liberals and Radicals are their 

 sworn foes. The Irish Nationalists are deadly enemies to 



