ioo THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



ing problem on which mediaeval schoolmen are said to have 

 broken their argumentative teeth the number of angels 

 that can stand on the point of a needle. Even those who 

 maintain the natural right of every man to ownership of 

 land would probably shrink from the logical application 

 of the principle. They would hesitate to admit, for example, 

 that every Chinaman was entitled to a bit of English land, 

 even with the corollary that every Englishman was entitled 

 to a bit of China. When the right of Englishmen to the 

 land is spoken of it is understood that their right is limited 

 to England. 



Of course in this crude form the equal right of every man 

 to own land is not seriously put forward. It may be used 

 for rhetorical purposes to embellish a peroration, but it 

 " cuts no ice," as the Americans say, for practical purposes. 



The Nationalisation of the Land means that the right of 

 private ownership of land should be abolished and that 

 the State should be the sole landlord. The mode by which 

 the transference from private to public ownership should 

 be effected has been considered very seriously by earnest 

 reformers, and there has been some division of opinion 

 among them on the point. Some have urged that as in 

 legal theory there is no absolute ownership of land, which 

 is all held ultimately from the Crown, it is quite simple for 

 the State to resume its property and merely give the present 

 nominal owners notice to quit. They argue that as the 

 titles of the present landlords were in most cases obtained 

 by their ancestors or predecessors by force or favour, and 

 in some cases by even more discreditable methods, they 

 have no moral right to their property, and although the 

 original title may go back to the long past the present 

 possessors must suffer for the sins of those who preceded 

 them. 



This stern unbending type of land reformer has, however, 

 nowadays lost influence, and the modern type recognises 

 that the eviction of all present owners of land without 

 compensation is a proceeding which might cause some 

 hardship to innocent persons so far as a landowner can 

 be an innocent person and in any case might not commend 



