288 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL 



Effect of Free Access to Land on the Well-being of the 



People. 



It is very difficult to foresee, and perhaps impossible to 

 exaggerate, the influence of such a state of things on 

 the real well-being of the community. Judging from 

 what is known to be the effect of extended land-ownership 

 in other countries, in stimulating industry, in diminishing 

 crime, and in abolishing pauperism, and knowing the love 

 of country people for their home and its associations, we 

 may surely anticipate that the land would soon exhibit the 

 effects of such favourable conditions of life in well-culti- 

 vated fields and gardens, comfortable houses, and a well- 

 clothed, well-fed, and contented population. 1 



But, it will be said, what is now proposed is a revolution, 

 and a revolution more portentous than any the world 

 has yet seen, since it would inevitably lead to the complete 

 extinction of the territorial aristocracy, a class which has 

 hitherto formed an important perhaps the most impor- 

 tant part of every community raised above the savage or 

 nomad condition. 



This is very true. The change proposed is indeed a 

 great and a fundamental one. But the question before us 

 is, not its greatness or its radical character, but simply 

 whether it would be beneficial to the community as a 

 whole, and, if beneficial, whether it could be effected with- 



1 Mr J. Boyd Kinnear in the work already referred to says : " Who 

 does not see how much happier England will be when, instead of one 

 great mansion surrounded by miles beyond miles of one huge property, 

 farmed by the tenants at will of one landlord, tilled by the mere 

 labourers, whose youth and manhood know no relaxation from rough 

 mechanical toil, whose old age sees no home but the chance of charity 

 or the certainty of the workhouse, there shall be a thousand estates 

 of varying size, where each owner shall work for himself and his 

 children, where the sense of independence shall lighten the burden of 

 daily toil, where education shall give resources, and the labour of 

 youth shall suffice for the support of age. Changes like these cannot, 

 indeed, be created ; they must grow. But our business ought at least 

 to be to permit their growth." Mr. Kinnear thinks that free trade 

 in land will permit their growth. I have already shown how extremely 

 improbable this is, while it might even exaggerate many of the existing 

 evils : whereas the plan here proposed necessarily brings about the state 

 of things which is allowed to be so highly beneficial. 



