xix SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 359 



mode possible. Let us therefore consider it a little in 

 detail. 



At the present time, wherever there are allotments to 

 let, there we find it to be the rule that agricultural 

 labourers willingly hire them at a rental per acre, 

 sometimes double, sometimes four or five times as much 

 as is paid by farmers for the same quality of land ; and 

 there can be no doubt that if arable land were now offered 

 for allotments and small holdings almost anywhere in 

 England, and the quantity thus offered was not in excess 

 of the demand at the time, it would, if let by auction, 

 realize somewhat similar rentals. Many agricultural 

 labourers, as well as village tradesmen, and mechanics, 

 find it advantageous to them to have land even at these 

 high rents, and there is sufficient land thus held all 

 over the country to afford a guide to the prices at which 

 such land would let by auction, even in quantities of from 

 one to five acres. Now the reason such high rents have 

 been, and are paid, is, simply, that the labourers' wages 

 have been always so low and his condition so miserable, 

 that anything by which he could add two or three 

 shillings a week to his earnings by means of overtime work 

 and the assistance of his wife and family, was eagerly 

 accepted. It was his low standard of living that rendered 

 him willing to pay a rent which left him a mere trifle of 

 profit on his labour ; and if he were now offered a small 

 holding on which to live he would be willing (if he could 

 not get it cheaper) to pay a rent which would enable 

 him to live in about the same way as he had hitherto 

 done, but with the chance of occasional better luck and 

 with the satisfaction of being his own master. We see this 

 result very prevalent on the Continent, especially in 

 Belgium and in parts of France, where the price of land, 

 and consequently its rental, is very much higher than 

 with us, and as a consequence the small holders often 

 work harder and live as near the starvation line as our 

 poorly paid agricultural labourers or our rack-rented Irish 

 cottars. It will be said, no doubt, that this arises from 

 the demand for land being greater than the supply, and 

 that if land were offered in larger quantities, competition. 



