326 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



seen in the controversy which has grown rather keen on 

 a point which can scarcely be held to possess all the import- 

 ance which has been attributed to it, namely, the question 

 of ownership or tenancy. We have become so much 

 accustomed to the practice of tenancy that it has come to 

 appear to us as natural that a cultivating farmer must be 

 a tenant. But it is just this universal appUcation of tenancy, 

 for a great part under inconvenient covenants, which differ- 

 entiates our system of Agriculture so strikingly from that 

 of continental countries which have at present better results 

 to show. The point will call for fuller consideration. At 

 present we are concerned only with the existence of a marked 

 difference of opinion. The Land Nationalisers, whose 

 influence goes beyond the bounds of their party proper, 

 naturally see their chance in the Small Holdings movement, 

 and hope by insisting upon tenancy only to bring the 

 day nearer when State ownership can be effectively estab- 

 lished. In this view they may be right or wrong. According 

 to Nero's theory, who wished that humanity had only one 

 neck to operate upon with his executioner's axe, the present 

 paucity of landowners, with a distinctly anti-democratic 

 character signalising their existence, and not too much public 

 opinion in favour of their monopoly, would appear prima facie 

 the ideal condition for Land Nationalisers to deal with. It 

 is scarcely likely that the County Councils, becoming large 

 landowners, will incline to the side of Nationalisation. 

 However, amid the existing conflict and confusion of 

 opinion not a little consideration has had to be taken, and 

 tender toes which might prove recalcitrant, have had to 

 be spared. Also an idea has curiously spread among Liberals 

 that tenancy is the Liberal solution of the problem and 

 ownership the Conservative. This is about as wrong as 

 anything could be. It is tenancy which keeps men in 

 subjection and hinders their free action. Ownership is 

 the rural Reform Act. The French small proprietaire is 

 conservative in this sense that he dislikes revolution. But 

 he is neither royalist nor imperialist, but genuinely republi- 

 can. The Swiss small owner, one of the class who, on 

 political grounds, filled Freeman with liher homo admiration, 



