BRITAIN'S CHANGING LAND SYSTEM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 88, 2 June 1911, Page 5

BRITAIN'S CHANGING LAND SYSTEM.

“From time to time, and very often of late, appear announcements as to flic break-up of largo istutcs and offers to dispose of blocks or lots of properties winch have ■ hitherto tor many years, perhaps many atinns, belonged intact to tlio lanun-s Ot the present owners,” says tlio “London Times.” “According to ’common knowledge all over t.io enunt; v, ami not merely as to agricultural laud, this is going on. To he rn.ivOj such sales wevo never ivnknown. Broad acres, the patrimonies of people of ancient lineage, were always slipping from the grasp of tneir possessors, even when entails and settlements were strict and universal. “What will in time bo the resultsr What effects arc already visible? Due answer, given perhaps with more confidence than knowledge, is that tit this is for the best; that this dispersion nr morcellemont of proper v will draw to tiie land a class now to its loss severed therefrom; that the more landowners there are, the _hotter for the weal and safety of society. ' “’There are elements of truth in this; im impartial observer would deny that in the highly complex results there must bo a leaven of good. But tlio stiictly optimist answer is not tiie whole answer. It does not appreciate the magnitude of the change, which may be impending. It slurs over some of the consequences of the revolution in the position of the landowner and his duties. “The landowner’s 1 duties have col so far been, if he were worthy of his station, measured by the covenants of the leases which he granted,” continues “The Times.” ‘‘He interpreted them probably in a spirit of equity. If ids tenants were in difficulties from no fault of theirs they might generally rely upon Ids stretching’ a point iii their favour. Individuals might not conform to this standard ; the macs of landlords were fairly loyal to this ideal. The honest tenant who had been unfortunate might generally appeal with some measure of success to’ the custom or tradition of the estate, as a rule more merciful than the letter of the lease. There is a class of reformers who would destroy this understanding. They would assimilate the relations of landlords and tenants to those of business men dealing in stocks and shares or pigiron. Probably the last persons whom they will convince of the entire benolicoi’.co of the change are those who best know tlio facts; and at al! events it is an immense change which is proposed. There would pass away what come call the residuum of feudalism, and others friendly human ties to lie preserved if possible.

“It is still much too soon to lie confident about all the strictly economic effects of such sales, if carried out on a large scale. Hut this much is certain—that. whether for belter or worse, looking at land solely as an instrument of production, the breakup (1 lug" estate- would, in the long mu, profoundly alter the life of rural England. The mobility of capital in trade,means, as a rule, greater economic efficiency, it means generally that capita! goes where it is most needed. That is not the whole, or even the chief, result of mobility of property in land. With it human ties and urccious traditions arc linked; upon it rest the foundations of men’s lives; the enduring connection of families with certain spots gives continuity tc the race: and the rapidity and frequency of transfer of land are the solvents of invisible social assets perhaps not much less valuable man some more obvious elements .of wealth. Conceive a rural England in which land changed hands as rapidly oi ” ith as much ease as the fate Sii Robert Torrens could have desired, one in which the owners of land diseased of it almost as freely as their investments, according to the state of the market. There might here and there ho gain. Property might pass from a poor man to rich owner caliable of improving it. There " would have slipped awa\ something not adequately replaced hy the increased ex>>mdituro on the best manures or the latest developments of agricultural science. “Ho who parts with the lands which have been his forbears* will go •Jsewheie and Jive, at less expense, iv'rhaps, as, pleasant a life as before. ‘With a clear conscience lie can now spend his time ami money as an absentee and escape the rigour of. the English wmter in the Couth of Eraime, living there on the proceeds of sale of part oi' his estate invested abroad.’ So writes. Lord Onslow. So may act many landowners; and they may leave a gap not to he replaced. The resistless charm which rural England has for the stranger is made up in Ihe main of its variety, its mixture of the old and the new, the marks of an unbroken contimiiiy and the graces which time and peace have scattered with generous hand. That landscape is ttpieal of the society of rural England—complex, made, up of many elements, yet a unity which is broken may he replaced hy something much less attractive.” The immediate cause of “Tim Times” article was a letter from Lord Onslow mi the sale of his estates.