LAND TENUUES 279 



the ownership of siicli possessions as pictures, for example, or 

 other dbjets d'art, or even of stocks and shares. 



This attitude of the Landlord, which may have been induced 

 by a lack of ap}»reciation of the position, hy indifference, or by 

 other causes, has had disastrous elfects on tlie nation from many 

 points of view, but it will perhaps sullice to say that it has 

 been especially inimical from an economic standpoint. 



BiiiTLSii Landowner Failed in his Duty 



Arraigned before the bar of Public Opinion the British 

 landowner does not bear his examination well. Parliament, 

 during- Cobdcu's time, did what it could to ruin agriculture, 

 and tiie landowners fatuously clung to the policy of squeezing 

 what rents they could out of their sorely-burdened tenants. 

 To-day, the landlord's position is as bad as the farmer's ; and, 

 while asking what has he done with his goodly heritage — 

 that vast patrimony his ancestors be([ueathed to him, whicii 

 he should have regarded as a sacred trust to be solemnly held 

 for, and worked in, the best interests of, the commonweal — other 

 questions might be put at the same time ; namely, has his land 

 ])aid him, has it yielded that return which good property should 

 yield, or has it not ? The landlord himself can best answer 

 these questions ! 



The public have been led to believe that land is the worst 

 possible ]:)roperty to hold, and that in many instances it is not 

 worth the holding; while it is, moreover, alfirmed that many a 

 big landowner, after paying tlie necessary upkeep e.Npenses on 

 his farms, hardly gets anything out of his estates. 



If this be the case, then one obstacle, at least, in the way of 

 establishing a different system of land tenures for this rent- 

 ridden country, disappears automatically, as no man can reason- 

 ablij he expected to hold on to a condition of things which is 

 distinctly inimical to his own interests. 



A Plain Duty for Landowners 



Now, out of this laissez /aire attitude of the landlords, 

 coupled with the fatuous attitude adopted by Parliament sixty- 

 three years ago, has sprung an evil that has caused irreparable 

 harm to the people ; and although they have hitherto managed 

 to " rub along somehow or other," the signs of the times, which 

 are printed plainly enough at every street corner and in every 

 news sheet, proclaim that somnolence must yield to wakeful- 

 ness and inactivity to indefatigable exertion. The Government 

 must now ])lay their ])art in this great national drama in a 

 whole-hearted, statesmanlike nuiuner, and the landlords must 

 play theirs on the same broad principles of thoroughness; 



