OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY. 123 



mental teeth sound and our mental digestions active, and I 

 suspect that every one here will be tempted to ask what will be 

 the future of land tenure in this country. Now the study of 

 history is of very little practical use in life, but it can do one 

 thing, especially if long periods are taken. It can trace the 

 course of development of any given institution or theory of 

 government, and it can show what influences have moulded it or 

 turned it in this or that direction. What will be the future of 

 land tenure in this country ? Now, it is a fair assumption that 

 if the influences remain unchanged for a long period the develop- 

 ment will be on similar lines in the future. There are a large 

 number of people who believe in nationalising the means of 

 production, and the land is the most popular of all the articles 

 the private possession of which they propose to abolish in favour 

 of State ownership. To those people I would point out that 

 English history shows the whole tendency of development to be 

 in the other direction, at any rate in the past, and I would ask 

 them to show me what new influence has arisen in the present to 

 counteract this movement. The stream flows onward under the 

 pressure of natural laws. We may guide and direct the stream 

 in one way or the other, but we cannot overrule these laws. 

 The utmost we can do is to utilise them for our own end. Nor 

 is there any question as to the uses to which the water is to be 

 put when it has been brought down from the mountain-side to 

 where we are all waiting for it. It must be admitted at once 

 that the fundamental basis of every industry is the maintenance 

 under proper conditions of those engaged in it in the first place, 

 and its utility to the community as a whole in the second. The 

 point simply is : Are the laws which govern the actions of man- 

 kind identical in character with those which govern the rest of 

 nature, and, if so, can we get what we want by ignoring or 

 deliberately flouting them ? 



In the subsequent discussion Mr. Henry Hobhouse was 

 inclined to think that the present-day tendency was to put 

 private ownership under State control, but not to go the 

 length of Nationalisation. There would no doubt before 

 long be a Commission on the Nationalisation of the Land, 

 but the time had not yet come. There were good and bad 

 landlords and all ought to be levelled up and made to do 

 their duty in respect of housing, cultivation, etc. Mr. 

 Patterson, a visitor, said that Cumberland and Westmorland 

 had originally been a No Man's Land and the King had 

 allowed people to settle at a very low rent to protect the 



