252 BRITAIN FOIl THE P.RITOX 



it. There are millious of people ou the verge of destitution, 

 and there is plenty of land, yet none is available. There is 

 liiiul everywhere, and yet not an acre for a starving population. 

 There are land-less men and man-less land waiting to he brought 

 together, and nobody to do it. 



Agricultural Paradoxes 



The entire agricultural question is a veritable jumble of 

 inconsistencies, anomalies, and paradoxes ; it is, moreover, a 

 disgrace to every parliamentary administration of the last 

 sixty- two years, a rank injustice to the people, and a standing 

 menace to the prosperity and peace of the country. 



This odd mixture of incongruities is the result, partly of a 

 system of tenures which is as unsuited to the requirements of 

 this or of any country as the gauzy draperies of an Indian 

 dancer would be to an Esquimaux belle ; and partly of a selfish 

 system of economics, which was forced upon the country by a 

 powerful band of manufacturer-reformers sixty years ago, and 

 maintained by clever political prestidigitation, operating detri- 

 mentally to national interests. 



Some of the evil results of this pernicious system have been 

 revealed in these pages ; others there are that ramify among 

 the people and are lost to pul)lic view, while others that will 

 assume even more malign aspects will surely arise to perplex 

 honest citizens and cause further confusion, unrest, and dis- 

 content among the people ; but whatever else may happen, this 

 is certain, that until the land tenures of the country be lunda- 

 mentally altered, and the present fiscal system be forced to 

 give place to a better and more equitalile one, no measure of 

 relief — worthy the name — may be looked for by the British 

 people. 



