The Land and the Empire 



loss of population has been put by statisticians 

 at 20,000,000 ; i.e., if the bulk of emigrants that 

 left the shores of England, Scotland and Wales 

 during the past fifty years had settled in the 

 colonies instead of in other countries, they, 

 together with their progeny, would have in- 

 creased the population of our Empire by 

 20,000,000. 



I mention this to shew the disastrous loss 

 which the empire has suffered owing to want 

 of forethought and guidance on the part of our 

 politicians at home ; and it is also the strongest 

 evidence of the existing need for a great or- 

 ganisation officially recognised which shall con- 

 cern itself with imperial problems. 



I cannot bring this book to an end without 

 a final reference to land and fiscal policy. I 

 have endeavoured to show how much more the 

 land of England could be made to produce than 

 now. A great responsibility will rest with the 

 politicians who bring in a tariff on foodstuffs — 

 the responsibility of seeing that right measures 

 are taken to secure the increased yield of home 

 grown foodstuffs, and to provide a closer and 

 more economic relation between the producer 

 and consumer. 



There is a great duty which the universities 

 of England could perform — a duty hitherto 

 unrecognised ; for they could do much to make 

 their thousands of graduates think, and think 



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