i6s BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



from him his own ideas as to the course which it would be 

 best for the Government to pursue towards this object." 



Three interviews subsequently took place with Lord 

 Randolph Churchill, at the first of which at the Treasury 

 his lordship invited Mr. C. T. Ritchie, M.P., then Pre- 

 sident of the Local Government Board, to meet the 

 writer who, at that interview, was desired to put before 

 Lord Randolph a written statement of his views. This 

 was done in a letter dated gth September 1886. Deal- 

 ing in it with the allotment question, strong opposition 

 was offered to the proposal made in a Bill then before 

 Parliament to take land by compulsion for allotment 

 purposes the writer arguing that if this Bill became 

 law it would be 



" disastrous to the friendly feeling towards the allotment 

 question which prevails throughout the country. It would 

 cause irritation and annoyance everywhere, and would set 

 up antagonisms between landowners and farmers on the 

 one side and labourers on the other, that would utterly 

 sever the bonds which now unite these classes. The only 

 merit of the Bill," it was added, - - was its provision for free 

 holdings as well as for allotments a provision which is 

 most essential in any Bill." 



The writer continued : 



" In making the following suggestions, I must premise the 

 necessity for a collateral measure for the simplification of 

 the title to land, and for the institution of an easy, simple, 

 and inexpensive system of registration of title. It will not 

 be enough, I am convinced, to leave the settlement of the 

 allotment question to the mere continuance of the voluntary 

 agencies, excellent as these are. Impulse and stimulus to 

 the movement must be given by the State, either by direct 

 Government loans under Government supervision, or by 

 empowering local authorities to borrow (from Government) 

 money to be lent at the lowest possible interest for allot- 

 ment ground. Assuming that Parliament would give this 

 power to local authorities, I am of opinion that no hard and 

 fast line of policy should be adopted by those authorities 

 in administering the law. The wants and wishes of par- 

 ticular agricultural communities should be consulted, as 

 also the capabilities of individual labourers. In many cases 

 these would be satisfied by the acquisition of rented allot- 

 ments of from one-eighth of an acre to one acre. In other 

 cases men of exceptionally good character and of exceptional 



