94 LAND REFORM 



By the course adopted the extuictioii of the peasant 

 class was inevitable, because when once the common 

 land was inclosed and had become private property, 

 not only the rights of the then existing peasants were 

 affected, but also those of their descendants ; " all 

 hope of emerging from their position and rising into 

 a higher grade, however industrious, was taken 

 away."^ This view was repeatedly urged by one of 

 the ablest of the Royal Commissioners. " I think," he 

 says, " that there is a prior and an equitable right in 

 all cases of inclosures vested in the person who, if the 

 inclosures had not been made, might have obtained 

 interests in that land."" 



The superior economic results of an opposite policy 

 of dealing with the land in Germany, and in France 

 under the French Civil Code, will be dealt with in 

 later chapters. In the meantime, however, it might 

 be stated that in Germany, where the problem was 

 similar to that in England, but far more difficult and 

 complicated, wise statesmanship, a century ago, found 

 a way to retain on the land all classes of cultivators, 

 where they have remained until now, the sinews of 

 the empire. But no one will contend that in Germany 

 agriculture is behindhand, or that the most scientific 

 methods are not adopted in the cultivation of the 

 soil. 



^ Royal Commission, *' Employment of Women and Children in 

 Agriculture," First Report, 1868. 



■^ The late Mr. Tremenhere, with whom the present writer had some 

 correspondence on the subject, which showed the strong views he held 

 on this point— views stronger even than those expressed in his official 

 reports. 



