THE PROBLEM STATED. 9 



land, have come to regard every old custom 

 as a necessary and inescapable principle, and 

 who are willing to devote a high sincerity and a 

 real knowledge to the settlement of the land 

 problem, provided always that the postulate is 

 accepted that we must not walk out of the 

 existing maze. It is advisable, therefore, at the 

 outset to explain how much and how little 

 knowledge I can claim to have as the equipment 

 of a critic of English * land conditions. If the 

 equipment of knowledge be considered by some 

 too slight, I would reinforce it in asking a reading 

 for this criticism — on which reading final judg- 

 ment must, of course, rest — by suggesting that 

 there is some value in coming with a new eye 

 and an open mind to observe the conditions of 

 a country. 



It is almost impossible, I should say, for an 

 average English -born citizen to avoid some 

 prejudice in reaching his conclusions on the 

 land question here. He cannot altogether dis- 

 sociate the economic problems of the land from 



* Throughout I shall confine my criticisms mainly to the land 

 system of England and Wales, using facts drawn from Scotland and 

 Ireland only by way of illustration. The land problem in the United 

 Kingdom could not be considered as a single question. 



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