SMALL HOLDINGS. 317 



Official Report prepared by M. Benard. " There are over 

 5,672,000 comparatively small farms, about 5,000,000 of 

 them cultivated by freeholders, 4,800,000 in holdings 

 ot less than twenty-five acres." And there is no destroying 

 such division by the action of the big purse. The number 

 of distinct properties is too large. Our wealthy squires 

 could buy up yeomen's properties. But you cannot buy 

 out a numerous population any more than you can " indict 

 a nation." Naboth stands out. Besides, under small 

 cultivation land has grown too precious. Engrossing 

 requires a marvellously well-filled purse. It is almost 

 indispensable in this connection to quote German prece- 

 dents, because German authorities have dealt most syste- 

 matically with the matter, keeping a strict account of all 

 that has happened. And they have, in an inquiry instituted 

 some thirty years ago, found that land subdivided into 

 small holdings yields approximately as six to the five of 

 medium holdings and four of large. In owning to this 

 they are speaking against their own predilections. For 

 German authorities fancy and protect and favour the medium 

 proprietor, the baiter, with a holding from 20 to 100 acres 

 — in the eastern half of Prussia, where subdivision is less 

 prevalent, the average figure is sixty acres. They do that, 

 not to evidence their agreement with Aristotle's considered 

 judgment oti 77 fieat] (sc. KTrjatf) y) (SeXrlcrrri eariv, but because 

 they find the medium bauer the easiest to deal with, 

 the most amenable to official leading, the most given to 

 supporting authority. Some twenty years ago I inquired 

 carefully of the authorities whether in that apparently 

 excessively subdivided district of Germany, the South-west, 

 absolutely no buying up of small properties by the big purse 

 had taken place. And the answer given was that there 

 was only one such instance known. The late ]\Iaier von 

 Rothschild had, with his millionaire purse, bought up about 

 400 acres of land ! 



It may appear strange that in the policy of the parti- 

 tioning of land our country and the Continent should have 

 proceeded on such diametrically opposed lines. We had 

 a host of small freehold owners once— in the times of " Merrie 



