156 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



a struggling industry. I have been allowed to 

 inspect at different times the estate books of 

 various large English landowners. In no case 

 did the return from agricultural land equal 

 3 per cent, on its capital value. One typical 

 estate (of a Liberal landowner) would have 

 returned £21,000 a year if it were sold at its 

 capital value and the proceeds invested in 

 Consols. It actually yielded as an agricultural 

 estate a profit of less than £2,000 a year on the 

 average of the last ten years. The rents charged 

 to the tenants were low, and a proportion of 

 them was returned in various aids and subsidies. 

 The tillage on the estate was fairly good. The 

 landlord's contentment with so poor a return 

 was, of course, all to the advantage of his 

 tenants. The motives of his contentment, so 

 far as I could ascertain them, were that he had 

 other sources of income, and preferred to do 

 without a fair profit on his estate than to take 

 the unpopular step of attempting to raise rents. 

 Altogether my inquiries on the subject of 

 " landlordism " lead me to a full endorsement 

 of the verdict of the Departmental Committee 

 recently appointed by the House of Commons, 



