THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 475 



sense of the word do not obtain influence, is to be accounted 

 for as follows : 



The Flemish tenant, although ground down by the constant 

 rise of rents, lives among his equals, peasants like himself who 

 have tenants whom they use just as the large landowner does his. 

 His father, his brother, perhaps the man himself, possesses some- 

 thing like an acre of land, which he lets at as high a rent as he 

 can get. In the public-house peasant proprietors will boast of the 

 high rents they get for their lands, just as they might boast of 

 having sold their pigs or potatoes very dear. Letting at as high a 

 rent as possible comes thus to seem to him to be quite a matter of 

 course, and he never dreams of finding fault with either the land- 

 owners as a class or with property in land. His mind is not likely 

 to dwell on the notion of a caste of domineering landlords, of 

 "bloodthirsty tyrants," fattening on the sweat of impoverished 

 tenants, and doing no work themselves ; for those who drive the 

 hardest bargains are not the great landowners, but his own fellows. 

 Thus the distribution of a number of small properties among the 

 peasantry forms a kind of rampart and safeguard for the holders 

 of large estates ; and peasant property may, without exaggeration, 

 be called the lightning conductor that averts from society dangers 

 which might otherwise lead to violent catastrophes. 



The concentration of land in large estates among a small num- 

 ber of families is a sort of provocation of levelling legislative 

 measures. The position of England, so enviable in many respects, 

 seems to me to be in this respect full of danger for the future.^ 



The idea that all men are equal, placed at the head of all 

 modern constitutions, and announced as an axiom throughout the 

 world, is a new idea, the wholesome or baneful effects of which it 

 is as yet impossible to foretell. The gospel proclaimed the equality 

 and fraternity of all men : but it was to Christians a heavenly 

 ideal, which they did not feel called upon to realise in this world. 

 The Reformation, the United States Constitution, and the French 



he replied, " A general desire for improvement." " Then we are all of us 

 socialists," remarked the chairman of the committee. 



1 See Mr. CliflFe Leslie's remarkable article on the " Land System of England," 

 in Fraser's Magazine, February, 1867. 



