OTHER SCHEMES OF LAND REFORM 273 



farms slightly decreased in number, the smaller ones, 

 two to twenty hectares (five to fifty acres), greatly 

 increased. 



But in England the case is totally different. We 

 have a proletariat such as does not exist in any other 

 country in Europe, and consequently are without the 

 only natural barrier to those socialistic doctrines which 

 are rapidly spreading among the people. 



Some of the territorial party who are bemused by 

 the "splendid isolation" of the English land system 

 among the systems of Europe may pooh-pooh this 

 consideration. But they may find out, as time goes 

 on, that should the wage-receivers of this country, 

 who are the great mass of the people, become more 

 organized and their political power be more directly 

 exercised ; should domestic discontent increase and 

 should foreign troubles intervene, the offers for a 

 settlement of the land question will be of a sibylline 

 character. 



There is another scheme of land reform which is 

 received with a great deal of favour in certain quarters 

 and which, there is reason to believe, is looked upon 

 as practical by certain persons in authority. It is that 

 the State should advance money to landlords for the 

 purpose of dividing large farms into smaller ones and 

 of cutting up other farms into small lots, and making 

 these lots suitable for small holdings, and for pro- 

 viding homesteads and other buildings suitable for 

 each class of holdings. 



Before speaking of the objections to such a scheme 

 as this, it is well to recall the policy adopted by land- 

 lords in the past, which had for its object the creation 

 of the large farms which now exist in England. The 

 practice of consolidation has already been referred to. 



