52,642 farms of from 3 to 10 acres only-a size considerably less than is required to maintain a family. The result of free trade in land is therefore already apparent, and the people are influenced to labour and to economise in the New World as much as they are influenced to arduous exertions and the practice of self-denial in the continental countries of the Old; and, as we have seen, the only exception to this happy condition exists in Great Britain and Ireland, and its effects are most severely felt, on account of there being a paucity of industrial occupation in the latter.

CHAPTER VI.

WHAT ARE THE BEST LANDHOLDING AND AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS OF SOCIAL WELL-BEING?

In the two previous chapters we have endeavoured to describe generally the leading characteristics of land tenure in the various countries of Europe and in America, and their effects. In the greater number of countries land is practically as free and descends to the next generation according to the same law as movable property. But in Great Britain and Ireland there are certain restrictions upon its inheritance and transfer which operate to prevent its being free,-it is, in effect, generally shut up in the hands of rich landowning families, and specially it is so shut up that the nominal are frequently not real or full owners. The results flowing from such different systems have been fully indicated, and they have been shown to be, where the people generally may possess land-and that is almost everywhere-most beneficial to the material and moral condition of the country; and where the people generally may not possess land-and that is in Great Britain and Ireland-they have been shown to be unfortunate, and likely to be disastrous.

But it may be objected that the system adopted in this country must be, as regards the cultivation of the soil, a most beneficial one; for the crops of the United Kingdom are immensely heavier than those of any other country, and the existence of large proprietorships

tends towards the maintenance of large farms where machinery may be profitably employed; so that not only are heavy crops grown, but they are grown cheaply. And, additionally, the tenant-not having his capital shut up in the soil, which would be the case were he the proprietor of his farm-is the more able to utilise it profitably in cultivating the land. And then, upon the other hand, it is asserted that the influence of the system of small proprietorships must necessarily be pernicious; for, as for instance in Norway, which is not very far away from Britain, the proprietors have become common labourers, being all reduced to one dead level, no men of wealth existing anywhere among the farming proprietors of that country.

Now it may be premised that in such a comparison as is instituted when we compare systems of land tenure prevailing in countries differently situated, there are a vast number of different considerations to be taken into account and carefully weighed before we can hope to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion, and it is, therefore, very easy to draw false inferences. In comparing in any respect the condition of Great Britain with that of other countries, there are two large considerations to be taken into account. The first is, that capital in the United Kingdom is more secure, and, therefore, more abundant and cheaper, than it is in any other country; it is indeed, so far as the danger of foreign war or interference is concerned, at home, dwelling in perfect peace, multiplying without restriction, possessing thus a very singular advantage. The second consideration consists in the fact that the mineral wealth of Great Britain is enormous, so that in many parts the land is valuable to an immensely greater degree on account of its mineral rather than of its agricultural capabilities. In these two respects this country possesses a

CH. VI. SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES OF GREAT BRITAIN.

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decided superiority over any other country in the world; and this advantage cannot fail to be reflected powerfully on the cultivation of the land and upon the condition of the cultivators, so that any defect in the economical system under which land is owned or cultivated is not easily seen or felt, the bright light proceeding from the firmament of industrial prosperity preventing the ordinary vision from perceiving the dark clouds that may be floating about. In other countries, such as Switzerland, Wurtemberg, Norway, Sweden, and the greater part of France, there can be no such optical deception, for there are none of the same causes of industrial prosperity existing—at least, in anything like the same degree.

It is, therefore, unlikely that any comparison instituted between the agricultural condition of Great Britain and that of these other countries can be instructive, without taking into account the two mighty factors of industrial wealth and prosperity which exist here. Even in the other countries of Europe-and there are few, it may be said only two (Prussia and Belgium)-the rise of indus trial occupation has been so very recent, that there has not yet been time wherein the progress and the wealth attained can have very materially affected the position of the masses of the population or the condition of agriculture. There is also another consideration which is applicable to the most part of Europe, and particularly to Russia; namely, that the people have only within one or two decades escaped from the condition of serfdom, wherein their labours were unspirited, and the fruit of them belonged to others, wherein the stimulus of selfinterest was not known, and the ignorance of listlessness and the apathy of monotony characterised the masses of the people. It would be indeed wonderful if, with all their singular disadvantages, the people or the cultivation

of the most part of Europe were other than they are. But if the reader have bestowed some attention upon the narration of the condition of the agricultural populations of Europe contained in the last chapter, he will not have failed to perceive that there is now a regular movement of advance, and that regularity is, so far as the movement proceeds on the basis of the enlightened self-interest of proprietorship, perfectly ensured. It is gratifying, moreover, to reflect that that movement occurs at the time in which it does; namely, when the introduction and extension of steam power produces such facilities for the extension of industrial enterprise, so that those who find difficulty in the transition from the old condition of serfdom and dependence to the new condition of action and independence, where there is naturally an enhanced struggle between the individuals composing the masses, have that difficulty resolved into facility. The surplus population which flows from the agricultural districts to the industrial districts everywhere, find, in engaging in the new kind of labour, a rate of remuneration to which, under the old condition of things, they had not been accustomed; and the more capital is realised and the mineral resources of a country or district are developed, the more the individual labourer has the difficulty of adapting himself to the new condition of things reduced. Still, the greater proportion of the masses of the European populations are probably destined to labour as agriculturalists, deriving their living from the produce of the fields. On the other hand, the normal and general occupation of the greater mass of the people in Britain is that of manufactures or mining, where the existence of abounding capital and the rapid development of minerals rewards the labourer much more lavishly than if he had been merely a tiller of the soil.

In the first case, where the population is upon the