RISKS TO THE STATE 251 



is liable by changes of ownership such as are taking 

 place almost every day throughout England ; and to 

 illustrate the manner in which — under the provisions 

 of the Land Purchase Bill — land would gradually pass 

 into the hands of cultivating owners. 



What is most striking about these sales is the low 

 price of the land. There is nothing like it in any 

 other country in Europe. It is in itself a complete 

 condemnation of our present land system. The land 

 itself is good ; on the farms sold there are suitable 

 dwelling-houses, large and commodious byres, out- 

 houses, and other farm buildings, on some of them 

 orchards of apples and other fruit, and yet the price of 

 the whole — above 3200 acres — works out at about 

 ;i^i7 an acre. These reductions in prices are gener- 

 ally regarded by the public as losses affecting land- 

 lords only. A shop or a house standing idle is a loss 

 to the private owner, but a derelict field or a half- 

 cultivated farm is surely a reduction of the assets 

 of the nation, affecting every man, woman, and child 

 in the kingdom. To work out the problem accurately 

 the idea must be kept in mind that land is different 

 from all other property, and that in it the whole people 

 have inalienable rights.^ 



Some objections have been made to the Land Pur- 

 chase Bill, on the grounds that it contains no com- 

 pulsory provisions. These objections, however, come 

 from politicians who look with small favour on legisla- 



1 " Last week an estate comprising 512 acres of arable and 87 acres 

 of pasture land, and residence and farm buildings, situate near Louth, 

 Lincolnshire, was offered by public auction, and the highest bid obtained 

 for it publicly was ^{^6750. In 1874 the late owner refused ^^36,000 for 

 the same estate. . . . About a year ago an estate in the well-known 

 Lincolnshire grazing district of Saltfleet came into the market. One lot 

 which made ^650 in 1872 went for £;}S$ ; another, which made ^^looo 



