THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 441 



of burden, and a little plot for a labourer. When large farms 

 are subdivided it is done on economical grounds ; viz., because 

 they fetch higher prices when sold in lots they are hardly ever 

 divided in consequence of the law of succession. The peasant 

 attaches too much value to the proper outline of a field to break 

 it into pieces ; he would rather sell it altogether. 



Hitherto the consequence of the progressive subdivision of 

 land in Flanders has only been to raise at once the rental, the 

 gross produce, and the value of the soil ; at the same time that 

 the number of landowners has increased, the condition of the 

 cultivators has improved. 



In Flanders you do not find the land subdivided in the way it 

 is in Ireland, according to Lord Dufferin, who has shown the 

 evils of the kind of subdivision practised there. 1 From his descrip- 

 tion it appears that in Ireland, at the death of any holder, and 

 often during his lifetime, the children divide the land among 

 themselves, each of them building a cottage on it ; or, if the tenant 

 has no children, he sublets his land to several small farmers, and 

 allows them to settle on it, notwithstanding the stipulations of the 

 lease. Such breaking-up of the land must lead to the most 

 wretched kind of farming, and to pauperism on the part of the 

 tenants. As long as the Irish farmer has no better understanding 

 than that, of his own interest and of the requirements of a sound 

 economical system, no agricultural policy neither fixity of tenure 

 nor even ownership of fee-simple could improve his condition. 

 Although the population of Flanders is twice as dense as that 

 of Ireland, a Flemish peasant would never think of dividing the 

 farm he cultivates among his children ; and the idea of allowing 

 a stranger to settle and build a house on it and farm a portion 

 f it would appear altogether monstrous to him. On the con- 

 trary, he will submit to extraordinary sacrifices to give his farm 

 the size and typical shape it should have. 



How is it that the Fleming and the Irishman hold such dif- 

 ferent points of view ? I think it is partly due to the difference 

 of race, and partly to circumstances. The Celt being more socia- 

 ble, thinks most of the requirements of members of his family, 

 1 See Lord Dufferin on " Irish Tenure," chap. iii. 



