74 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



but his cottage had been bought by another 

 landlord, and was needed for the accommoda- 

 tion of a stranger who had secured employ- 

 ment on one of the landlord's farms. The 

 small holder had spent long hours of overtime 

 and a large portion of his slender capital on 

 his five acres, and now he was deprived of his 

 old home and quite unable to find any other 

 in the parish. The chief landowner refused 

 to build any more cottages, and my friend 

 endeavoured to secure an old railway carriage 

 as a dwelling-house on a corner of his holding, 

 failing which, he would be compelled to 

 surrender his bit of land and seek a living 

 elsewhere. 



The moral results of rural overcrowding 

 have been alluded to elsewhere. Men and 

 women leave the country because, in the 

 absence of decent houses or any houses at all, 

 they have, in the Duke of Marlborough's 

 words, " nothing to stay for : " on the other 

 hand those who elect to remain are compelled 

 too often to live under conditions which are 

 dangerous to their moral and physical health. 

 " By a horrible paradox," says Mr. Chesterton, 

 " there is overcrowding even where there are 

 not enough people." 



Legislative proposals have been put for- 

 ward in the past, and will doubtless be put 



