DEFECTS OF THE SYSTEM 111 



found himself directing the destinies of an estate 

 of moderate dimensions, that he was one of many 

 similarly circumstanced, and that his powers of 

 organisation and arrangement were not overtaxed 

 by the calls made upon them, then he could apply 

 concentrated energy to the accomplishment of his 

 objects, an additional incentive to endeavour being 

 furnished by busily competing neighbours. Then, 

 instead of paying eternal ground-rents, and ham- 

 pering his undertaking by the acceptance of 

 conditions which he cannot be sure at the outset 

 of his ability to fulfil, the industrial or agricultural 

 developer of the future would commence his 

 enterprise with far more peace of mind, secure in 

 the knowledge that instead of a grasping task- 

 master, eyeing with calculating self-satisfaction 

 every success he achieved, he would possess in his 

 landowner a benevolent agency whose interests 

 were wholly bound up in his own. 



Africa has in the past had enough of large landed 

 companies. In fact, this portion of the continent 

 has suffered from a positive epidemic of them ; 

 and yet I do not know of a single enterprise of 

 this character, either in our own or any other sphere 

 of influence, which has attained to anything hke 

 conspicuous success, either financially or, indeed, 

 from the point of view of fostering either industry 

 or agriculture.* They have tried to do these things, 

 and have brought to bear upon the questions con- 

 nected with them the mature judgment and ripe 

 experience of men of exceptional prominence and 



* I am speaking, naturally, of landed companies unprovided with a 

 charter. 



