xxxiv] LAND NATIONALIZATION 253 



to the proposed scheme, the claims and merits of which were summed up 

 as follows : — 



(1) That it goes to the very root of the matter, since, by rendering a 

 large number of labourers less dependent on daily wages as their only 

 means of obtaining food, it would immediately and necessarily raise 

 the standard of wages ; and this is absolutely the only means by which 

 the labouring classes may at once be enabled more fully to share in the 

 products of industry. 



(2) It does this in the simplest conceivable way, by throwing down 

 the barriers which now prevent labour from spreading over the land. 



(3) It would enable every labourer, by industry and thrift, to realize 

 his highest aspiration — " a homestead of his own." 



(4) It would largely increase the food-supply of the country, especi- 

 ally in dairy produce, poultry, fruit, and vegetables, now to the amount of 

 thirty-eight millions annually imported from abroad. 



(5) It would, by a self-acting, gradual process, withdrawing the con- 

 gested population of the towns back to the rural districts from which 

 they have so largely come in recent times, and would at the same time 

 benefit all who remained by both raising their wages and lowering their 

 rents. 



(6) It would completely settle both the Irish and the Highland land 

 questions by satisfying the just claims of the labourers and cottiers in 

 one country, and the crofters in the other, and would open up to human 

 industry extensive areas of both countries, once cultivated, but now 

 devoted exclusively to cattle, sheep, or game. 



(7) It would also bring about a great moral reform, since all experi- 

 ence proves that the possession of land on a secure tenure is the best 

 incentive to sobriety, industry, and thrift. 



(8) And, lastly, all this can be effected without any financial opera- 

 tion or increased taxation, and with no greater interference with landed 

 property than is allowed to many of the speculations of capitalists of far 

 less general utility, and often of none whatever. 



Whether the originator of the conference obtained any- 

 thing worth the thousand pounds expended is doubtful. 

 There was no independent and judicial summing-up of the 

 evidence adduced, and the opinions expressed, and the great 

 variety and contradictory nature of these opinions, often 

 quite unsupported by any facts, must have left his mind in a 

 state of greater confusion and uncertainty than before. At 

 all events, I believe he did not leave any large sum to be 

 devoted to helping on the cause he had so much at heart. 

 At the meeting devoted to the land question, at which my 

 paper and one by Professor Francis W. Newman were read, 



