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CHAPTER XXV 



Effect of Creating Small Holdings — A New 

 AND Powerful Body of Electors 



A New and ^ \ T^ might usefully refer again to the small holdings 

 ^'Bod*^^of question in order to see how, if properly manipu- 



Electors lated, it might be made one of the most potent factors 

 ever placed in the hands of a political party. Assuming 

 that the two great political parties in the country — the 

 Liberals and Liberal-Unionists — are desirous of legisla- 

 ting in the true interests of the commonwealth, both 

 would naturally be equally interested in the formation of 

 a new and powerful body of electors consisting of several 

 millions of small occupying owners who would vote solid 

 for law and order or, in other words, for the conservation 

 of all that which, in the British Constitution, is just, 

 equitable, right, loyal and patriotic. Create your host of 

 small-landed proprietors, occupying owners, or whatever 

 it may please you to call them, and you will have formed 

 the most conservative body of electors in the country; 

 for it is an axiom that no man guards so jealously his 

 rights and privileges, and conserves that which conduces 

 to law and order, as does your agricultural proprietor. 



But there must be no shilly-shallying, half-hearted 

 measures. What is required is a down-right, comprehen- 

 sive system of occupying ownerships, which, in its broad 

 sweep, would embrace every acre of the land from John 

 o' Groat's to the Land's End, and from the Wash to 

 Milford Haven. 



