282 LAND REFORM 



but were strong enough to carry, legislation which 

 imposed duties on imports of foreign corn.^ It must 

 be remembered, however, that these duties were not 

 put on, as they were with us in 1815, in the interests 

 of a small territorial class which was able to control 

 legislation. They were put on by the voting power 

 of the great mass of the people, urban and rural, a 

 majority of whom regarded agricultural prosperity as 

 synonymous with the prosperity of the nation. 



For the foregoing reasons it would seem wise for 

 landlords to support the proposed reform. Agriculture 

 is in such a state of depression that capital is no longer 

 attracted to the land, but is leaving it for foreign and 

 other investments. The direct political power of land- 

 lords is mostly gone. The disposal of the tenant's 

 vote is no longer a condition of letting a farm. 

 Feudalism has passed away, though no doubt its 

 influence lingers to a large extent among the rural 

 population, with whom that influence is hereditary, 

 and will take a generation or two to die out. The 

 advent of the commercial classes into the ranks of 

 large landowners still further destroys the special 

 characteristics of the old system. These men, though 

 they may acquire lands, can never in the eyes of the 

 rural people acquire the same status as that of the 

 old school. The peculiar relationship, so attractive in 

 many ways, which existed between the owners of 

 estates and the dwellers thereon, was the outcome of 

 ages of habit and use, and cannot continue in the 

 same spirit under a new class of owners and under 

 modern conditions. 



It would be well perhaps to conclude this chapter 



* These remarks specially apply to the action of the agrarian party in 

 Germany, with regard to the recent tariff legislation of that country. 



