240 LAND REFORM 



man on his own land would do the repairs himself for 

 nothing."^ 



The Duke of Bedford, in the extremely instructive 

 book referred to, gives for the year 1895 ^^^ difference 

 between the nominal amount of his farm rents and the 

 actual receipts : — 



Nominal Rents. Actual Receipts. 



The Beds and Bucks ;^ s. d. £ s. d 



estates 29,065 09 16,131 38 



The Thorney estates . 26,196 o o 17*567 17 6 



^55,261 o 9 ;^33,699 I 2 



The following statement is added, which presum- 

 ably refers to the time of writing (1897) : "So far as 

 the Bedfordshire and Bucks estates are concerned, the 

 reduced rental is not now sufficient to meet the neces- 

 sary outgoings. . . . There is no net rent which can 

 reach my pocket." 



The details given show only this — that a man with 

 other sources of income is enabled to carry out his 

 ideas of liberality, benevolence, and charity in the 

 management of his large estates. But only a few land- 

 lords, even if they had the will, can afford to act in a 

 like manner. Such management, moreover, is not in 

 accordance with business principles, and is not applic- 

 able, and ought not to be applicable, to the conduct of 

 what is by far the largest industry in the kingdom. 



The Duke rightly complains of the ever-increasing 

 burdens imposed on the land, and especially of the 



^ Evidence before the Select Committee on Small Holdings, 1889. 



The writer has, on occasions, noted a proprietor on the Continent 

 doing things on his homestead which the tenant-farmer in England has 

 no inducement to do and would never dream of doing. The latter has 

 not that feeling of ownership which leads a man not only to improve, but 

 often to embellish, his home and surroundings. 



