252 LAND REFORM 



tioii (such as Allotment and Small Holdings Acts) 

 unless it contains compulsion in some form or another. 

 This arises from the antagonistic feeling towards 

 "landlordism" already referred to — a feeling which 

 creates a desire to compel the landlord to do some- 

 thing. But there is no necessity for compulsion in 

 transactions which are in the interests of all parties 

 concerned in them. Those who read the advertise- 

 ments in newspapers and follow the proceedings in 

 Tokenhouse Yard will see that there is plenty of land 

 in the market. The numerous offers of estates for sale 

 — large and small — contain notices such as the follow- 

 ing : "All the farms are let," " Homesteads in good 

 condition," " To be sold at moderate price," " To pay a 

 good interest," " Rents low," etc. etc., and now and 

 then there is a significant suggestion that the "rentals 

 might be improved."^ In these advertisements "sport" 



in the former year, went for ^410 ; another for £lZo^ which thirty-two 

 years before had made ^^570 ; another for /500 which in 1872 made 

 ;^88o ; while only ^^80 was bid for another which in the first-named year 

 made ^600. . . . Two other lots were sold for ^195 and ;^200 respectively, 

 which in 1861 and 1863 made ^450 and ^545. ... A farm at Binbrook 

 which in 1881 cost ^6000 was sold twenty years later for ^^3000 ; a small 

 holding at Moortown which in i860 cost ^1650 was sold last year for 

 ^500; another at Barlings, which cost ^5500, made ^2100," etc. — 

 "Standard" newspaper, 2 November, 1905. 



^ Pages of these advertisements appear every week. To quote one 

 or two examples : " Leicestershire. Three hundred acres first-rate 

 grazing land with farmhouses and premises in excellent order and let to 

 good tenants, to be sold to pay a fair rate of interest" ("The Field," 

 27 February, 1904). "Wiltshire. An attractive estate of about six 

 hundred acres to be sold. It produces an income of nearly ^1700 and 

 would be sold to pay nearly five per cent. The land is at the present 

 time considerably underlet and the purchaser could easily obtain a larger 

 percentage on the purchase-money if wished" ("The County Gentle- 

 man," 27 February, 1904). "Three thousand acres in Norfolk. A grand 

 sporting domain . . . considered to be one of the best shooting properties 

 in the eastern counties. The estate is well let, and can be purchased to 

 pay a good rate of interest" (" County Gentleman," 24 June, 1905). 



