OBJECTORS AND CHAMPIONS 245 



slice of land, and may be desirous of getting still 

 more. 



While the estate agent has thus become the natural 

 enemy of allotments and small holdings, the country 

 solicitor has developed into one of their sturdiest 

 champions always provided they are to be owned, and 

 not rented, by the occupier. For country solicitors, 

 in those districts where small holdings are in vogue, 

 peasant proprietary has become somewhat of a gold 

 mine. They, at least, do not share the prejudices of 

 the estate agents in favour of large farms. On the 

 contrary, they believe in cutting up the large farms 

 into the greatest possible number of freeholds. ' Back 

 to the land,' is their cry. ' Plant as many people as 

 you can on the soil (and especially in our highly 

 desirable locality), but let them all be freeholders.' 



The reason for this attitude on their part is obvious 

 enough. For every fresh holding that is bought, or 

 transferred, there are various fees to be paid, a goodly 

 proportion of which will remain in the pockets of the 

 solicitors. Then each new freeholder becomes a new 

 client for the gentleman who arranges the sale. It is 

 extremely improbable that the aspirant for peasant 

 proprietorship will be able to pay at once for the land 

 he agrees to purchase, and the lawyer then gets another 

 set of fees for arranging a mortgage for him ; he finds 

 a profitable investment, besides, either for his own 

 money or that of some other client, and he retains 

 a hold on the new freeholder for probably the rest of 

 his days. 



So far has this sort of thing been carried that in 

 a small country town which forms the centre of a 

 district where a large number of peasant proprietors 

 are already established (and where, judging from adver- 

 tisements in the local papers, the creation of still more 



