264 TENANCY AND A CONNECTING LINK 



of supplies is so keen, it is especially undesirable that 

 such profit should be reduced still lower by unnecessary 

 out-goings. Heavy legal expenses represent a charge 

 upon the soil which modest cultivators who indulge in 

 the sentimental luxury of ownership must cover by 

 still more arduous labour ; and there is many a small 

 owner in certain parts of England who toils with his 

 wife and children from dawn to sunset leading a life 

 akin to slavery, freeholder though he is not so much 

 to achieve the forlorn hope of future independence, as 

 to satisfy the present demands of those who have 

 enabled him to attain to the rank of ' peasant proprie- 

 tor,' but have proved to be as bad as, if not worse 

 than, the most exacting of landlords. 



Following up the line of argument here advanced, 

 I propose to give in succeeding chapters examples of 

 three different types of connecting links, all deserving, 

 I think, of consideration, and dealing consecutively with 



(1) the acquirement of allotments, as stepping-stones, 

 by town workers, through a co-operative association ; 



(2) the establishment of small holdings through a 

 friendly syndicate ; and (3) the formation of a company 

 on commercial lines for the purpose of establishing 

 home colonies of workers by actual settlement on the 

 land. 



