136 Large and Small Holdings 



proposal to give credit to the landlords, and emphasised, on the other 

 hand, the necessity for further measures favouring the creation of 

 small ownership. These measures he also discussed in a book 

 published in icjoo" 1 , and embodied in a Bill brought in by him but 

 never passed into law. But the advocacy of "occupying ownership " 

 at least was common to him and to the Majority Report From 

 this view there naturally developed strong opposition to the system of 

 compulsory hiring of land as advocated from the Liberal side for some 

 years previously. Mr Collings' arguments on this point were prac- 

 tically the same as those of the Report, which said that: "The 

 exercise of compulsory powers of this kind would involve the creation 

 of a system of tenant right, under which the ownership of land 

 would, in effect, be divided between two or even more persons 

 and authorities. The result would be, in the opinion of the Com- 

 mittee, that the sense of responsibility which should accompany 

 ownership would cease to exist, and also that endless disputes and 

 litigation would arise between landlords and tenants. Another result 

 would be to provoke, quite unnecessarily, the hostility of all large 

 farmers and landowners. ...Experience has proved that a system of 

 dual ownership of land is one which, under ordinary economic con- 

 ditions, cannot be permanent, and which, while it lasts, is fatal to the 

 proper maintenance of holdings, to harmony between landlord and 

 tenant, and to the prosperity of agriculture 3 ." 



Some courage was required to appeal to this "sense of responsi- 

 bility," in view of the fact that so many English landlords regard their 

 land in the first place as a means of obtaining sport, social considera- 

 tion, or political advantage; but the reference is a clear indication of 

 the spirit by which the Report was inspired. So far as it recognised 

 the principle of compulsion at all, namely only in the case of purchase 

 and only by the authority of the central Department, it was where it 

 could be of little value. It was much more important that the right 

 of compulsion should be extended to the authority which first comes 

 into play, i.e. the County Council; and that it should be available not 

 only for the purchase, but also for the hire of land. These necessities 

 were taken into account by the Liberal Bill and by the Act of 1907, 

 and it may be said that it is precisely these provisions which give 

 the Act its character as a genuine measure of reform. 



The Act of 1907, although it stands for the principle that the 

 creation of small tenancies is to be favoured, by no means refuses to 



1 Jesse Collings, Land Reform, 1906. 



2 Small Holdings Report, 1906, p. 33, 144. 



