A FULL REWARD FOR THE TILLER. 3«3 



death duties, their threatened land tax, the invasion of 

 their charmed ranks by nouveaux riches, and the Hke, are 

 in a temper to yield ground. 



Let us suppose our rural society reorganised — a large 

 number of squire-like owners living upon their properties 

 and dependent upon the profits which those properties 

 yield, accordingly giving themselves up, from their youth 

 up, to Agriculture as a calUng ; with smaller owners clus- 

 tered around them, likewise possessors of their own holdings, 

 and a still smaller peasantry distributed over smah holdings 

 — but all this not to the exclusion of a reduced number 

 of large estates and many tenant holdings — is it not 

 Hkely that agricultural production would sensibly increase, 

 and with it rural happiness and prosperity ? We see the 

 result elsewhere. France with its contented and thrifty 

 population, of the well-being of whom Henri Baudrillart 

 has given captivating sketches, has often enough been 

 quoted. And now Mr. jMiddleton has drawn us a picture 

 of Germany. Rural population would certainly be increased, 

 and with its increase its wealth and intelligence, both of 

 them potent sources of production, would come to be far 

 more equally distributed over the soil. Agricultural edu- 

 cation, the root of agricultm'al improvement, would assuredly 

 benefit, because it would have a larger constituency to 

 address itself to, naturally endowed with a spirit of emula- 

 tion among its component parts, wit sharpening wit, as 

 steel sharpens steel ; and because that constituency, making 

 Agriculture a real calling, must needs be dependent upon 

 its success. Let it be granted that the intelligent tenant, 

 endowed with adequate working capital, finding a good 

 holding and a good, sympathetic landlord, will do full justice 

 to his opportunities, we cannot get over the fact that by 

 the very nature of his position he can take only short views. 

 He will want to turn his skill and his capital to the best 

 possible account in his own interest — put into the land all 

 that he knows that he will be able to take out again, but 

 not a particle more. At the determination of his lease 

 he will deHver his holding, as the unprofitable servant did 

 his pound, without increase. During his tenancy he will 



