PEASANT PROPRIETARY 17 



remained unbroken, England was perfectly free from 

 every symptom of pauperism." An attempt to restore 

 that connection should enlist, not only the sympathy, 

 but the active aid of all classes of the community. 



The scheme proposed is at least a practical one. At 

 the worst, any money risks which might be involved 

 by its possible failure, or partial failure, are quite un- 

 worthy of consideration alongside of even a chance 

 of success and the consequent benefits, social and 

 economic, which would accrue to the nation.^ 



* Peasant proprietary no doubt, as M. de Laveleye states, has practi- 

 cally died out in England. In different parts of the country, however, 

 there are still to be found many examples of the old yeoman farmers, 

 a class of men that used to exist in such large numbers, and which it is 

 the object of the Land Purchase Bill to restore. An account of the 

 position of one of these cultivators might enable the general reader to 

 realize the importance of the class better than he could by any general 

 description. To that end the following letter might be useful, a letter 

 received this year from a yeoman farmer in the west of England, whom 

 the present writer has known for the past thirty years, and for the 

 correctness of whose statements he can vouch : — 



" The Purchase of Land Bill is much wanted, and I am sure the Bill 

 will rapidly gain ground among farmers when its objects are known and 

 understood. I have a practical experience of the merits of your proposal 

 (cultivating ownership), for, as you know, I own the farm I occupy, and 

 can therefore realize to the full what the magic of ownership, as Arthur 

 Young calls it, will do. I own and cultivate 120 acres of land. I keep 

 70 sheep, 50 to 70 bullocks, 4 horses, a fair stock of pigs, and a large 

 number of poultry, and I grow a considerable quantity of fruit. I am 



