LAND TENURES 259 



with that wliole-hearted thoroughness which iias characterised 

 the methods of British luanufacturers and enabled them to 

 assume the foremost position in the commercial -industrialism 

 of the age. 



TiiEATED AS Agriculture has been, Textile Industries 



WOULD have 1'AILED 



Is it likely that our great cotton industry would have 

 become the power it is to-day, had it been hampered by 

 a galling restrictive system similar to that existing to-day 

 between the owners of the soil and tliose who work the 

 agricultural industry ? Is it probable that had cotton, wool, 

 iron, coal, and a score of other British industries been made 

 the sport of political parties, sacrificed to the selfish ambitions 

 of interested reformers, treated with supreme indifference by 

 successive Governments, and been subject to the crass ignorance 

 of an unreflecting and an undiscerniug public, they would have 

 reached the position they are in to-day ? 



If these industries had belonged to a number of overlords, 

 and had been leased out in parcels to tenant occupiers as they 

 lease out their lands, is it possible that they could have grown 

 into such great labour-employing and wealth-producing in- 

 dustries ? Is it not a fact that every industry in this world 

 must be free of hindrances before it can yield the best results i 

 and does it not follow that if British manufacturers had been 

 subject to the same difficulties and impediments that have 

 frustrated the operations of British farmers during the last 

 sixty years, they could not possibly have given to British 

 manufacturing industries the pre-eminent position many of 

 them enjoy in the world's market to-day ? 



Crass Ignorance regarding Agricultural Failure 



To all such questions an unqualified and an emphatic NO ! 

 can be given in answer. 



No trade, profession, or industry can possibly be at its best, 

 can develop or flourish, that is hindered by foolish restrictions, 

 or limited by absurd, impractical, and therefore impossible 

 conditions. How can it ? If you want a man to do bis 

 best in this world in football, cricket, or in any trade or 

 industry, you must start him on his way free of every im- 

 pediment and incumbrance that might clog his steps and 

 embarrass his forward movements; and you nmst be sure that 

 the tasks you set him are in every sense reasonable and within 

 the scope of everyday practicability. These conditions 



