CONCLUSION. 487 



considerable length of time for its realisation. And it is a 

 work in which the State can assist only indirectly, since the 

 disposal of a man's property-', lawfvdly acquired, nuist obvi- 

 ously, so far as there are not compelling reasons to suspend 

 the right, be left to himself. One would not wish to see 

 Henry George's and the most modern Land Reformers' 

 recipe accepted, and landowners taxed into insuperable dis- 

 gust with the possession of their property and so virtually 

 compelled to dispose of it. But landowners ought to be 

 made to realise, what the war has made abundantly clear, 

 namely, that their property is not altogether so absolutely 

 their own as they have hitherto imagined ; that there is 

 in the person of the Nation, an overlord, a feoffor, to whom 

 they are accountable for their stewardship as occupiers of 

 land held under the Nation — a feoffor against whom, in Mr. 

 Prothero's words, " there is no prescription." Quite apart 

 from that, the cumbrous and costly machinery now applied 

 to dealings in landed property, having lived its time — in 

 which it has proved useful, but after the lapse of which it has 

 now become worn out — will be the better for being re- 

 modelled. The introduction of compulsory Registration of 

 Title would be a useful first step towards such a consumma- 

 tion. The registering of all burdens resting upon land which 

 on the outside may look an extremely valuable possession, 

 but is possibly honeycombed with charges, would probably 

 in many cases open the eyes of an unsuspecting owner 

 moving on in his old groove, as the calling in of an accountant 

 to draw up a correct balance sheet has often enough opened 

 the eyes of an easy-going encumbered capitalist. The facili- 

 ties given for selling or dividing might certainly be counted 

 upon, in conjunction with other influences now already in 

 operation, and becoming more and more compelling as time 

 goes on, to dispose landowners, who have thus far clung to 

 their old inherited homes and estates, to exchange troubled 

 splendour for a quiet, secured existence, more particularly 

 when, from having been for centuries back a generally speak- 

 ing steadily improving and appreciating value, land has, 

 with the modern demands made upon it, become a possession 

 as liable to depreciation as any industrial sharer. In any 



