i8o BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



individual members composing the nation. To a very 

 large extent the phrase does not convey the literal 

 truth. To make it true to the fullest extent would 

 result in every man in the country being able to 

 possess a freehold house and freehold land to cultivate. 

 Let us look forward to the time and it does not seem 

 to us that it is now very far distant when every 

 British man's house shall be his castle, and the land 

 surrounding or near it his private estate, however small 

 it may be his own inalienable, indefeasible possession. 

 Thus would be built up in the counties of the United 

 Kingdom a solid rock against which the mad waves 

 of the most mischievous forms of what is called 

 " Socialism " would beat in vain ? Such, at least, is the 

 earnest hope of the writer of this volume. 



