34 THE ERRORS OF THE PAST 



or more frequently could not, close his account 

 and buy for cash from a co-operative society. 



What the different districts stood in need of was a 

 strong leader. The natural leaders as a class were 

 the landowners. Unfortunately, they did not lead. 

 They might have played a great and noble part 

 in the reorganisation of the entire rural life, but 

 failed to see the duty which their position called 

 upon them to fulfil. 



No one will deny I think that in spite of all we 

 have heard in certain quarters landowners are 

 still a very important section of the community, 

 and few who really know English country life 

 will deny that Enghsh landowners, as a whole, 

 have been a good and upright class of men, doing 

 their duty to the best of their ability and according 

 to their Hghts, But the unfortunate thing is that 

 to-day the landowners' attitude towards the land is 

 really just about the same as it was in the eighteenth 

 century. 



Most landlords do not nowadays derive their 

 income from the land as the direct result of 

 efforts applied by them in the cultivation of the 

 land. They do, of course, cultivate their home 

 farms, but they can rarely be said to make any 

 income out of the operation. On the Continent 

 the majority of estate owTiers derive the bulk of 

 their income from the land they cultivate them- 

 selves : indeed they make a very good thing out 

 of it, for the reason that landowning is there regarded 

 as a profession which demands serious training like 

 any other profession. We shall have to accept this 

 principle here before landowners can play their 

 part as the natural leaders, and agricultural condi- 

 tions can become really satisfactory. 



