228 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



properties, these new proprietors are likely to afford an appreciable 

 accession of political stability to the whole landowning section 

 of the community. On the other hand, many country squires, in face 

 of financial stringency and even of domestic discomfort, have been 

 estopped by the ties of family sentiment and tradition from seeking, by 

 the alienation of their ancestral domains, a short cut to material pro- 

 sperity or enhanced comfort. In such cases desirable estate improve- 

 ments and sometimes necessary repairs have had to be abandoned, and 

 eleemosynary gifts reduced to a minimum, causing thereby much heart- 

 burning and compunction. How much better it would be, assuming 

 that the estate is not subject to a strict settlement, rendering such a 

 process ultra vires, if part of the estate were sold in order to provide 

 the necessary capital for the cultivation or industrial equipment of the 

 remainder of it ! 



It is here material to consider more closely to what extent the land- 

 owner in Continental countries has b©en instrumental in advancing 

 the prosperity of agricultural industry, economically, politically, 

 and socially. 



On the Continent, speaking generally, the landowner had to derive 

 his livelihood from his land, and in a large measure from its actual 

 cultivation. Landowners with large invested funds were relatively 

 scarce, and there was not any large influx of rich manufacturers whose 

 ambition it was to acquire such power and social distinction as might 

 be deemed to flow from territorial possessions. The Continental land- 

 owner was generally forced to regard his occupation as landowner as 

 the main business of his life, a business requiring proper training, a 

 business to be steadily developed, and just as steadily maintained, as 

 any commercial undertaking. From this personal and individual stand- 

 point arose his sound and intelligent attitude towards the whole rural 

 industry. He realised that if his own individual business was to 

 achieve the maximum of success, the industry of which it was a part 

 must be as highly organised as any other industry in the country. 



Speaking generally, in all Continental countries (whether they have a 

 definite agrarian party or not) the political power enjoyed by agriculture 

 is founded on the fact that agriculture is an organised industry. In 

 Great Britain it is not. Foreign agriculturists realised that the effective 

 and complete organisation of their industry was the surest path to 

 political power, and in every case landowners became the leaders in this 

 movement. Although in different countries its details may have varied, 

 its underlying principle was the same. The great incentive to this 

 development of agricultural organisation was the competition of the new 

 world. On the Continent such competition was strenuously fought, 

 and the aid of science was invoked in the contest. In Great Britain 

 the same competition was not effectively met because organisation was 

 wanting, and the landowner failed in the duty of leadership. As he 

 reduced his rents, so the tenant-farmer reduced the labom' bestowed 

 upon the land, and reduced, instead of augmenting, what he put back 

 into the land with a view to its yielding an economic return. Agricul- 

 turists and Governments were alike to blame. 



In Denmark sixty years ago the landowners co-operated with the 



