2IO LAND REFORM 



which the present writer has received, is a letter 

 (7 June, 1904) from a solicitor living in a market 

 town, who has a large country practice. After ex- 

 pressing the pressing necessity for something to be 

 done for the rural districts, he says : — 



" I am greatly interested in the Land Purchase Bill 

 now before Parliament, and I trust it will be passed. 

 I have no doubt that the first part of the Bill will be 

 largely adopted. . . . With regard to the second part 

 (peasant proprietary), I am sorry to say that 1 have no 

 confidence in the County Council being the advisory 

 committee under Clause 19. Every election of that 

 body must necessarily see it constituted more of men 

 of means — chiefly landowners (in rural districts) — and 

 they will, I fear, hinder every endeavour to make that 

 part of the Act an active force in the country. The 

 County Councils have each year more work to do, 

 and few but men of independent means can afford 

 to serve. They will soon cease to be representative. 

 . . . Excuse my going into all these details, but I feel 

 very strongly on the matter, and I only wish it were 

 enacted that no man should be capable of holding 

 in England more than 2000 acres of land other than 

 moorland or woodland." 



It must also be admitted that there are difficul- 

 ties in the way of the administration of a peasant 

 proprietary Act by County Councils — difficulties 

 which would not affect a central authority. Numer- 

 ous applications are received from one, two, or 

 more persons in a locality for land, sometimes for 

 specified plots suitable to them as regards quality and 

 situation. But it is difficult for County Councils to 

 meet the requirements contained in these separate 

 applications. On the other hand, to purchase an 

 estate and divide it into small holdings, in the hope 



