SOME OTHER REMEDIES 241 



worse off as a tenant of State land, for in times 

 of exceptional stress and difficulty he can 

 usually reckon on generous treatment at the 

 hands of a sympathetic landlord, whereas the 

 State could not afford to make reductions and 

 allow abatements in the rent due to the public 

 exchequer. And apart from the farmers, 

 what would happen to the whole kindly system 

 of individual charity which flourishes in our 

 village communities ? The spirit of Noblesse 

 oblige attaching to the ownership of the soil is 

 the source of a welcome stream of effort and 

 outlay which goes far to render village life 

 delectable. The soup-kitchen, the reading- 

 room, the clothing club would run a grave 

 risk of collapse if the squire no longer walked 

 over his own land. A clergyman in Oxford- 

 shire recommended a landowner politician to 

 the suffrages of his flock on the ground that the 

 candidate was " a jolly good friend to the 

 parish." This friendship would be seriously 

 undermined if the landlord in question, though 

 his bank balance remained intact, became 

 nevertheless a trespasser on the fields he 

 formerly owned. 



Other arguments against schemes of public 

 land-ownership are felt not less keenly than 

 those mentioned above though they are 

 seldom alluded to coram populo. The sever- 



