132 THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



holders and labourers in the same forum. The theoretical 

 arguments have not altered, but there are new influences 

 and novel forces which are gathering strength and will 

 in the long run determine the issues. The " antagonism 

 of interest " between landlord and tenant, and the extent 

 to which their relations shall be controlled by legislation, 

 will no longer be left to them to fight out, or argue out, 

 between them. The provision of small holdings and the 

 rights and status of the small holder will not be left to the 

 decision of Royal Commissions and Departmental Com- 

 mittees or even of Government Departments. The agri- 

 cultural interest will in future be regarded not as comprising 

 only those who hire the land and those who own and let 

 it, but as consisting predominantly of those who actually 

 cultivate it. That is the true tendency revealed by the 

 history of land tenure, that is the real outcome of the rural 

 revolution which is proceeding slowly but irresistibly before 

 our eyes, evident enough if we will but discard the 

 blinkers of habit and prejudice. Whither the nation is 

 being unconsciously guided cannot yet be discerned. It 

 may be to State landlordism, it may even be to State farming, 

 or, on the other hand, it may be to peasant proprietorship 

 or communal farms. All these are possibilities which a 

 generation or two hence may have become historical facts. 

 The land system of this country has as Mr. Rogers indicated 

 taken on many aspects during the centuries which have 

 elapsed since our Anglo-Saxon forebears first gave it form. 

 The phase with which we are familiar the triple alliance of 

 landlord, tenant and labourer has no more essential elements 

 of permanency than any previous phase. It is peculiar to this 

 country as a national system, and it has, by general consent, 

 placed British Agriculture high in the world's esteem and 

 justified itself by its results. But its position is already 

 shaken. It has been undermined by many who deem 

 themselves its strongest supporters. The nation has been 

 told with emphatic reiteration that the land system has 

 failed, that British Agriculture is decadent, and that nations 

 with other systems have utilised their agricultural resources 

 with much better results. Wounded in the house of its 



