would, of course, be more certainly and 

 speedily brought about if payment were made 

 to the dispossessed landowner by annuities, 

 which would automatically cease after, say, 

 the lapse of a century. The opposition to this 

 latter proposal would be diminished from the 

 fact that it is difficult to feel much personal 

 interest in the future of invisible and prob- 

 lematic great-grandchildren ; but this argu- 

 ment cuts both ways, for the taxpayer of 

 to-day may equally argue that it is unfair 

 that he should burden himself with the pay- 

 ment of annuities which will bestow the 

 freehold of the English land on unborn 

 generations in the far-off future. Even the 

 mediaeval benefactors and founders of our 

 ancient colleges and almshouses were pro- 

 viding for their contemporaries, nor was 

 their generosity chilled by the prospect of a 

 century's postponement of any realized 

 benefit. 



It may, however, be urged against those who 

 advocate purchase by terminable annuities 

 that even if the confiscation is postponed in 

 this case it nevertheless takes place. How- 

 land increased eighteen-fold ; between 1842 and 1881 it 

 doubled itself. This estimate covers rural as well as urban 

 values; if we take the latter alone the extent of the 

 increment is still more striking. 



