vi Preface. 



plains where tlie peaceful inhabitants are left -without any- 

 natural means of defence against a stronger bod3^ Barren dis-, 

 tricts, on the contrary, breed a race of men industrious, steady, 

 courageous, and warlike ; whilst islanders, confined as they are 

 to a comparatively small area, are not so liable to oppression 

 either from without or within as the greater empires, from 

 which the sea cuts them off. 



It is for these reasons that a History of the English Landed 

 Interest cannot but be useful to the statesman as well as the 

 husbandman. All the great modern writers on Constitutional 

 Government have recognised the importance of the subject by 

 treating largely of early English land tenure and agriculture. 

 Though it would appear unlikely that the statecraft of to-day 

 should repeat the mistakes of some former administration, 

 none the less as we progress we shall discover many instances 

 where this has occurred. Even while the ink of this last sen- 

 tence is still wet, the statesmen of to-day are engaged in re- 

 enacting one of those Small Holdings Acts which the lawgivers 

 of the Tudor period repeatedly failed in perpetuating. The 

 political catch-phrase " Three acres and a cow," which had so 

 strong an influence on the rural labourer at the polling booths 

 a few years back, is merely an altered form of that enactment 

 which sought to establish " Four acres and a cottage " in Eliza- 

 beth's reign. The ensuing pages, if they teach no other lesson, 

 should prove to those, who would hurry forward or alter 

 Nature's laws regarding the land, that their task is impractic- 

 able. It is true that there are cases where the action of the 

 foreigner in some such direction has forced us in self-defence to 

 make exceptions ; but the artificial enhancement of any nation's 

 agricultural profits cannot be permanently beneficial, and car- 

 ries with it the germs of ultimate failure. 



Now although I neither pretend to expect that the perusal 

 of this History of English Land Tenure and Agriculture will 

 result in any discovery of b3'gone customs that might with ad- 

 vantage be resuscitated for the improvement of present sys- 

 tems, nor wish to see the reinstitution, for example, of pannage 

 and other popular rights amidst the game preserves of our 

 modern landlords, yet I am confident that our present land 



