284 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL 



with the option of continuation at the very moderate 

 State ground-rent, it is possible that the demand for the 

 poorer classes of land for occupation and improvement, 

 and for more favourable sites as residences, might still 

 keep it up to nearly the full value it had when freehold. 

 Even if there were a considerable depreciation, this would 

 be to a large extent, compensated by the diminution of local 

 and general taxation that would by this time have been 

 effected by means of the ground rents which had already 

 fallen in to the Government ; and it is not at all improbable 

 that, with a nominally lower value of their land, the 

 landowners who remained in Ireland might, owing to 

 the peace and general prosperity of the country, and the 

 diminished taxation, be really better off than they are at 

 the present day. 



Evils of Free Trade in Land. 



Let us now pass on to another question. It is a favourite 

 dogma of some reformers that all the evils of the present 

 system would be got rid of by what they term " free- trade 

 in land." They seem to think that, if all obstacles to the 

 sale and purchase of land were abolished, if entails of all 

 kinds were forbidden, and the conveyance of land made as 

 cheap and expeditious as it might easily be, the chief 

 obstacle that now exists to the growth of a body of peasant 

 proprietors would be got rid of. This notion appears to 

 me to be one of the greatest of all delusions. The real 

 obstacle to peasant proprietorship or small yeoman farmers 

 in this country is the land-hunger of the rich, who are 

 constantly seeking to extend their possessions, partly 

 because land is considered the securest of all investments, 

 and which, though paying a small average interest, affords 

 many chances of great profits, but mainly on account of 

 the political power, the exercise of authority, and wide- 

 spread social influence it carries with it. The number of 

 individuals of great wealth in this country is enormous, 

 and, owing to the diminution of the more reckless forms 

 of extravagance, many of them live far below their in- 

 comes and employ the surplus in extending their estates. 



