RESTORATION OF CONFIDENCE 37 



present time are satisfied with their landlords 

 and are not clamouring to buy as is suggested 

 in some quarters. In the event of their land- 

 lord selling, however, they have no alternative 

 but to purchase their holdings or to find another 

 farm ; and in nearly all cases the former course 

 is preferable. With a legislative measure as 

 foreshadowed above they can continue farming 

 under the old system with perfect equanimity 

 — knowing that if it becomes necessary to ac- 

 quire their freeholds the money can be found 

 without resorting to their working capital. 



No economist in his senses can put forward 

 a compulsory scheme of State-aided purchase 

 for sitting tenants, or imagine that the whole 

 system of tenure as it now stands can be up- 

 rooted and replaced by a new, however 

 efhcient the new may appear. There is no 

 necessity for a measure which would involve 

 the whole national credit in the vastness of the 

 capital to be locked up. But circumstances 

 have rendered it imperative for legislation to 

 be immediately introduced, to place the tenant 

 farmer on a sound and economic footing should 

 his landlord chance to sell, and the fabric of 



tiie present system be consequently displaced. 



(i 



