332 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP, xvn 



the further inclosure of common lands for the benefit of 

 landlords, a proceeding which the Liberal portion of the 

 community has long condemned as legalised robbery of the 

 people. Many of the more extensive commons and heaths 

 far removed from dense centres of populations offer the 

 means for a further trial of this system of land-tenure, thus 

 creating a considerable body of virtual peasant-proprietors 

 of the best type. For this purpose all manorial rights of 

 individuals should be declared to be (as they certainly 

 are) injurious to the public, and should be at once 

 acquired by the State. Their present owners might 

 either be repaid the purchase-money if they had them- 

 selves bought them, or be compensated by means of 

 terminable annuities of amounts equal to the actual 

 average net incomes derived from the several manors. 

 Thus would be offered ample means for a great social 

 experiment, the result of which, if fairly tried, cannot be 

 doubtful. 



