162 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



England we possess sound precedents in 

 Ireland and Scotland, nor is there any valid 

 reason against such a policy. At any rate, it 

 is clear that if anybody is to suffer pecuniarily 

 in the reconstruction of rural life, it shall not 

 generally speaking be, in the first instance, 

 the farmer, nor in any case the underpaid 

 labourer. The completion of the Land 

 Valuation will be a great help in the work of 

 establishing Rent Courts ; and on the basis 

 of a living wage for the labourers the amount 

 of rent to be demanded from the tenant will 

 be settled, not on haphazard caprice, but on 

 just and definite lines. 



If the landlord complains, as he is sure to 

 do in many cases, that he cannot afford to 

 live under a system of reduced rents, the 

 remedy is obvious. Experience has taught 

 us that such outcries, even when sincerely 

 believed in, are usually unreal. How many 

 country houses have been closed since the 

 passing of the Budget, how many horses have 

 been sold (except to replace them by costly 

 motor-cars), how many footmen dismissed, 

 how many coverts denuded of their hand- 

 raised pheasants ? But if the landlord cannot 

 afford to retain his estates, let them be pur- 

 chased on the basis of the State Valuation by 

 the issue of National Bonds. 



