CHAPTER XV 



LAND HUNGER AND PEASANT 

 PROPRIETARY 



It is frequently stated — chiefly by those who do not 

 believe in peasant proprietary, or are prejudiced against 

 it — that there is no demand for small holdings. The 

 favourite phrase is "there is no land hunger" among 

 the people of this country. 



After ages of successful efforts to squeeze the 

 peasantry off the land and to destroy every link that 

 connected them personally with the soil, there is a fine 

 irony in the statement that there is " no land hunger 

 in England." It is a statement which, if true, is a sad 

 proof of the completeness with which the work has 

 been done. But it is happily not true. In all other 

 countries in Europe the affection for the land is 

 great, even among the poorest, "Our backs are 

 the lords'," said the Russian serfs, " but the land is 

 our own." 



With the common people of England, no doubt" 

 through the causes referred to, the idea of having 

 a personal share in the soil has very nearly died out. 

 But if a way back were offered on practical and easy 

 conditions, the "land hunger " now latent would be seen 

 to exist, not only among those who still remain on the 

 soil, but among thousands of the former rural popula- 

 tion now dwelling in the towns. 



In former times the yeoman farmer, the peasant 

 proprietor, and the commoner, lived side by side as 



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