LAND TENURES 257 



under precisely similar conditions to those which they have, by 

 their supreme selfishness, forced upon agriculture. Sixty years 

 ago they had the power to free agriculture from its bonds, but 

 it pleased them to draw them tighter, and they liave at length 

 eaten into the very vitals of the industry and produced such 

 abnormal conditions that would be extremely laughable were it 

 not for the under-current of tragedy which flows beneath the 

 seeming farce. 



British Farmer reduced to Shifts and Stratagems 



The rental system, the indifference of Governments, and the 

 selfishness of the Manchester School, have forced the British 

 farmer to resort to many shifts and stratagems to make both 

 ends meet. He has to travesty true agriculture by converting 

 rich arable into pasturage, and to have wasteful pastoral farming 

 where his best tillages should be, instead of feeding his shee]j 

 on hillsides and moor and heath. The absurd " tenant-at-will " 

 system forces him to defend himself by taking farms on short 

 leases, cropping heavily, manuring lightly, working the very 

 heart out of the land for a few years, and then throwing up his 

 lease. It is not an uncommon practice now for a man to take 

 farm after farm, work them in this manner for a few years, and 

 then move on elsewhere. Is it likely that agriculture can 

 thrive under such impossible conditions ? 



Let us now place the cotton lords, for example, in a similar 

 position, and suppose that the whole of the mills are owned by 

 a number of men whose ancestors acquii-ed the sole right 

 of ownership over this great industry. We will suppose that 

 centuries ago these mills were run under the old feudal system ; 

 to-day the system is leasehold, and although it is known to be 

 as unsuited to the times as the old knightly armour of the 

 Crusaders would be in modern warfare, yet it is the only one 

 that these overlords will permit. 



Tenant System Conducive to Worst Possible Results 



Long experience has, we will suppose, proved that running 

 mills and factories on the tenant system is productive of the worst 

 possible results. In the first place, no man is likely to do his 

 best for a business which depends upon either the goodwill or 

 upon the caprice of the landlord for its continuance, and, 

 moreover, with the certainty of a considerable increase in rents 

 if the last year or so, prior to the expiry of the lease, happen to 

 have proved prosperous. Is it likely that the tenant will put 

 those essentials to success into his business — vigour, intellect, 



