258 TENANCY AND A CONNECTING LINK 



what extent political considerations may or may not 

 have entered into the attempt to revive the old English 

 yeomanry that had succumbed mainly to economic 

 changes I need not stay to discuss ; but certain it is 

 that the one great aim of the Act was to facilitate the 

 purchase, rather than the letting, of small holdings. A 

 County Council was authorized by the Act to acquire 

 land, divide it into small holdings of from i to 50 acres, 

 erect buildings thereon, provide roads, fences, water- 

 supply, and drainage; but the main idea was to sell 

 such holdings, on an instalment system, to the persons 

 wanting them. A Council was authorized to let the 

 land only when ' of opinion that any persons desirous 

 of themselves cultivating small holdings were unable 

 to buy on the terms fixed by this Act, or where the land 

 has been hired by the Council on lease or otherwise ' ; 

 and even then the size of the holding so let must not 

 exceed 15 acres, or be of a greater annual value than 

 15. Peasant proprietors were thus to be deliberately 

 created by Act of Parliament, and that, too, at the risk, 

 more or less, of the general body of the ratepayers. 

 Some of the latter might very well have said to any 

 County Council adopting such policy : * If you are 

 going to set up John Smith in business, so that he can 

 grow cabbages in the country, why can't you set me up 

 as a greengrocer, so that I can sell his cabbages for 

 him in the town ?' 



Coming down to details as regards the Small Hold- 

 ings Act, I find that a County Council is authorized to 

 advance a would-be tenant four-fifths of the purchase- 

 money on the security of the holding. But that 

 arrangement still leaves the purchaser to provide one- 

 fifth of the sum ; and my contention is that a very 

 small capitalist could employ even that one-fifth much 

 more usefully in actual agricultural operations, if he 



