The first sovereign of the House of Hanover ascended the throne not by
right of descent but by election; the legitimate heir was set aside, and
a distant branch of the family was chosen, and the succession fixed by
act of Parliament; but it is held by jurists that every Parliament
is sovereign and has the power of repealing any act of any former
Parliament. The beneficial rule of some of the latter monarchs of this
family has endeared them to the people, but the doctrine of reigning by
divine right, the favorite idea of the Stuarts, is nullified, when
the monarch ascends the throne by statute law and not by succession or
descent.
The age of chivalry passed away when the Puritans defeated the
Cavaliers. The establishment of standing armies and the creation of
a national debt, went to show that money, not knighthood or knight's
service, gave force to law. The possession of wealth and of rent gave
back to their possessors even larger powers than those wrested from
them by the first Tudor king. The maxim that "what was attached to the
freehold belonged to the freehold," gave the landlords even greater
powers than those held by the sword, and of which they were despoiled.
Though nominally forbidden to take part in the election of the
representatives of the Commons, yet they virtually had the power, the
creation of freehold, the substance and material of electoral right; and
consequently both Houses of Parliament were essentially landlord, and
the laws, for the century which succeeded the ascension of George I.,
are marked with the assertion of landlord right which is tenant wrong.
Among the exhibitions of this influence is an act passed in the reign
of George II., which extended the power of distraint for rent, and the
right to sell the goods seized--to all tenancies. Previous legislation
confined this privilege solely to cases in which there were leases,
wherein the tenant, by written contract, gave the landlord power to
seize in case of non-payment of rent, but there was no legal authority
to sell until it was given by an act passed in the reign of William III.
The act of George II. presumed that there was such a contract in all
cases of parole letting or tenancy-at-will, and extended the landlord's
powers to such tenancies. It is an anomaly to find that in the freest
country in the world such an arbitrary power is confided to individuals,
or that the landlord-creditor has the precedence over all other
creditors, and can, by his own act, and without either trial or
evidence, issue a warrant that has all the force of the solemn judgment
of a court of law; and it certainly appears unjust to seize a crop, the
seed for which is due to one man, and the manure to another, and apply
it to pay the rent. But landlordism, intrusted with legislative power,
took effectual means to preserve its own prerogative, and the form of
law was used by parliaments, in which landlord influence was paramount,
to pass enactments which were enforced by the whole power of the state,
and sustained individual or class rights.
The effect of this measure was most unfortunate; it encouraged the
letting of lands to tenants-at-will or tenants from year to year,
who could not, under existing laws, obtain the franchise or power to
vote--they were not FREEMEN, they were little better than serfs. They
were tillers of the soil, rent-payers who could be removed at the
will of another. They were not even freeholders, and had no political
power--no voice in the affairs of the nation. The landlords in
Parliament gave themselves, individually by law, all the powers which a
tenant gave them by contract, while they had no corresponding liability,
and, therefore, it was their interest to refrain from giving leases, and
to make their tenantry as dependent on them as if they were mere serfs.
This law was especially unfortunate, and had a positive and very great
effect upon the condition of the farming class and upon the nation, and
people came to think that landlords could do as they liked with their
land, and that the tenants must be creeping, humble, and servile.
An effort to remedy this evil was made in 1832, when the occupiers, if
rented or rated at the small amount named, became voters. This gave the
power to the holding, not to the man, and the landlord could by simple
eviction deprive the man of his vote; hence the tenants-at-will were
driven to the hustings like sheep--they could not, and dare not, refuse
to vote as the landlord ordered.
The lords of the manor, with a landlord Parliament, asserted their
claims to the commonages, and these lands belonging to the people,
were gradually inclosed, and became the possession of individuals. The
inclosing of commonages commenced in the reign of Queen Anne, and was
continued in the reigns of all the sovereigns of the House of Hanover.
The first inclosure act was passed in 1709; in the following thirty
years the average number of inclosure bills was about three each year;
in the following fifty years there were nearly forty each year; and in
the forty years of the nineteenth century it was nearly fifty per annum.
The inclosures in each reign were as follows:
Acts. Acres.
Queen Anne, 2 1,439
George I., 16 17,660
George II., 226 318,784
George III., 3446 3,500,000
George IV., 192 250,000
William IV., 72 120,000
---- ---------
Total, 3954 4,207,883
These lands belonged to the people, and might have been applied to
relieve the poor. Had they been allotted in small farms, they might have
been made the means of support of from 500,000 to 1,000,000 families,
and they would have afforded employment and sustenance to all the
poor, and thus rendered compulsory taxation under the poor-law system
unnecessary; but the landlords seized on them and made the tenantry pay
the poor-rate.
The British Poor Law is a slur upon its boasted civilization. The
unequal distribution of land and of wealth leads to great riches and
great poverty. Intense light produces deep shade. Nowhere else but in
wealthy England do God's creatures die of starvation, wanting food,
while others are rich beyond comparison. The soil which affords
sustenance for the people is rightly charged with the cost of feeding
those who lack the necessaries of life, but the same object would be
better achieved in a different way. Poor-rates are now a charge upon a
man's entire estate, and it would be much better for society if land
to an amount equivalent to the charge were taken from the estate and
assigned to the poor. If a man is charged with L100 a year poor-rate,
it would make no real difference to him, while it would make a vast
difference to the poor to take land to that value, put the poor to work
tilling it, allowing them to enjoy the produce. Any expense should be
paid direct by the landlord, which would leave the charge upon the land,
and exempt the improvements of the tenant, which represent his labor,
free.
The evil has intensified in magnitude, and a permanent army of paupers
numbering at the minimum 829,281 persons, but increasing at some
periods to upward of 1,000,000, has to be provided for; the cost, about
L8,000,000 a year, is paid, not by landlords but by tenants, in addition
to the various charities founded by benevolent persons. There are two
classes relieved under this system, and which ought to be differently
dealt with--the sick and the young. Hospitals for the former and schools
for the latter ought to take the place of the workhouse. It is difficult
to fancy a worse place for educating the young than the workhouse, and
it would tend to lessen the evil were the children of the poor trained
and educated in separate establishments from those for the reception
of paupers. Pauperism is the concomitant of large holdings of land and
insecurity of tenure. The necessity of such a provision arose, as I have
previously shown, from the wholesale eviction of large numbers of the
occupiers of land; and, as the means of supplying the need came from
the LAND, the expense should, like tithes, have fallen exclusively
upon land. The poor-rates are, however, also levied upon houses and
buildings, which represent labor. The owner of land is the people, as
represented by the Crown, and the charges thereon next in succession to
the claims of the state are the church and the poor.
The Continental wars at the close of the eighteenth and the commencement
of the nineteenth century had some effect upon the system of tillage;
they materially enhanced the price of agricultural produce--rents were
raised, and the national debt was contracted, which remains a burden on
the nation.
The most important change, however, arose from scientific and mechanical
discoveries--the application of heat to the production of motive power.
As long as water, which is a non-exhaustive source of motion, was used,
the people were scattered over the land; or if segregation took place,
it was in the neighborhood of running streams. The application of steam
to the propulsion of machinery, and the discovery of engines capable of
competing with the human hand, led to the substitution of machine-made
fabrics for clothing, in place of homespun articles of domestic
manufacture. This led to the employment of farm-laborers in procuring
coals, to the removal of many from the rural into the urban districts,
to the destruction of the principal employment of the family during the
winter evenings, and consequently effected a great revolution in the
social system. Many small freeholds were sold, the owners thinking they
could more rapidly acquire wealth by using the money representing their
occupancy, in trade. Thus the large estates became larger, and the
smaller ones were absorbed, while the appearance of greater wealth from
exchanging subterranean substances for money, or its representative,
gave rise to ostentatious display. The rural population gradually
diminished, while the civic population increased. The effect upon the
system of landholding was triplicate. First, there was a diminution in
the amount of labor applicable to the cultivation of land; second, there
was a decrease in the amount of manure applied to the production of
food; and lastly, there was an increase in the demand for land as a
source of investment, by those who, having made money in trade, sought
that social position which follows the possession of broad acres. Thus
the descendants of the feudal aristocracy were pushed aside by the
modern plutocracy.
This state of things had a double effect. Food is the result of two
essential ingredients--land and labor. The diminution in the amount of
labor applied to the soil, consequent upon the removal of the laborers
from the land, lessened the quantity of food; while the consumption of
that food in cities and towns, and the waste of the fertile ingredients
which should be restored to the soil, tended to exhaust the land, and
led to vast importations of foreign and the manufacture of mineral
manures. I shall not detain you by a discussion of this aspect of the
question, which is of very great moment, consequent upon the removal
of large numbers of people from rural to urban districts; but I may
be excused in saying that agricultural chemistry shows that the
soil--"perpetual man"--contains the ingredients needful to support human
life, and feeding those animals meant for man's use. These ingredients
are seized upon by the roots of plants and converted into aliment. If
they are consumed where grown, and the refuse restored to the soil, its
fertility is preserved; nay, more, the effect of tillage is to increase
its productive power. It is impossible to exhaust land, no matter how
heavy the crops that are grown, if the produce is, after consumption,
restored to the soil. I have shown you how, in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, a man was not allowed to sell meat off his land unless he
brought to, and consumed on it, the same weight of other meat. This was
true agricultural and chemical economy. But when the people were removed
from country to town, when the produce grown in the former was consumed
in the latter, and the refuse which contained the elements of fertility
was not restored to the soil, but swept away by the river, a process
of exhaustion took place, which has been met in degree by the use of
imported and artificial manures. The sewage question is taken up mainly
with reference to the health of towns, but it deserves consideration in
another aspect--its influence upon the production of food in the nation.
An exhaustive process upon the fertility of the globe has been set on
foot. The accumulations of vegetable mould in the primeval forests
have been converted into grain, and sent to England, leaving permanent
barrenness in what should be prolific plains; and the deposits of the
Chincha and Ichaboe Islands have been imported in myriads of tons, to
replace in our own land the resources of which it is bereft by the civic
consumption of rural produce.
These conjoined operations were accelerated by the alteration in the
British corn laws in 1846, which placed the English farmer, who tried to
preserve his land in a state of fertility, in competition with foreign
grain--growers, who, having access to boundless fields of virgin soil,
grow grain year after year until, having exhausted the fertile element,
they leave it in a barren condition, and resort to other parts. A
competition under such circumstances resembles that of two men of equal
income, one of who appears wealthy by spending a portion of his capital,
the other parsimonious by living within his means. Of course, the latter
has to debar himself of many enjoyments. The British farmer has lessened
the produce of grain, and consequently of meat; and the nation has
become dependent upon foreigners for meat, cheese, and butter, as well
as for bread.
This is hardly the place to discuss a question of agriculture, but
scientific farmers know that there is a rotation of crops, [Footnote:
The agricultural returns of the United Kingdom show that 50 and 1/2 per
cent of the arable land was under pasture, 24 per cent under grain,
12 per cent under green crops and bare fallow, and 13 per cent under
clover. The rotation would, therefore, be somewhat in this fashion:
Nearly one fourth of the land in tillage is under a manured crop or
fallow, one fourth under wheat, one fourth under clover, and one fourth
under barley, oats, etc., the succession being, first year, the manured
crop; next year, wheat; third year, clover; fourth, barley or oats; and
so on.] and that as one is diminished the others lessen. The quantity
under tillage is a multiple of the area under grain. A diminution in
corn is followed by a decrease of the extent under turnips and under
clover; the former directly affects man, the latter the meat-affording
animals. A decrease in the breadth under tillage means an addition to
the pasture land, which in this climate only produces meat during the
warm portions of the year. I must, however, not dwell upon this topic,
but whatever leads to a diminution in the labor applied to the land
lessens the production of food, and DEAR MEAT may only be the supplement
to CHEAP CORN.
I shall probably be met with the hackneyed cry, The question is entirely
one of price. Each farmer and each landlord will ask himself, Does it
pay to grow grain? and in reply to any such inquiry, I would refer to
the annual returns. I find that in the five years, 1842 to 1846, wheat
ranged from 50s. 2d. to 57s. 9d.; the average for the entire period
being 54s. 10d. per quarter. In the five years from 1870 to 1874 it
ranged from 46s. 10d. to 58s. 8d., the average for the five years being
54s. 7d. per quarter. The reduction in price has only been 3d. per
quarter, or less than one half per cent.
I venture to think that there are higher considerations than mere profit
to individuals, and that, as the lands belong to the whole state as
represented by the Crown, and as they are held in trust TO PRODUCE FOOD
FOR THE PEOPLE, that trust should be enforced.
The average consumption of grain by each person is about a quarter
(eight bushels) per annum. In 1841 the population of the United Kingdom
was 27,036,450. The average import of foreign grain was about 3,000,000
quarters, therefore TWENTY-FOUR MILLIONS were fed on the domestic
produce. In 1871 the population was 31,513,412, and the average
importation of grain 20,000,000 quarters; therefore only ELEVEN AND A
HALF MILLIONS were supported by home produce. Here we are met with the
startling fact that our own soil is not now supplying grain to even
one half the number of people to whom it gave bread in 1841. This is a
serious aspect of the question, and one that should lead to examination,
whether the development of the system of landholding, the absorptions of
small farms and the creation of large ones, is really beneficial to the
state, or tends to increase the supply of food. The area under grain
in England in 1874 was 8,021,077. In 1696 it was 10,000,000 acres, the
diminution having been 2,000,000 acres. The average yield would probably
be FOUR QUARTERS PER ACRE, and therefore the decrease amounted to the
enormous quantity of EIGHT MILLION QUARTERS, worth L25,000,000, which
had to be imported from other countries, to fill up the void, and feed
8,000,000 of the population; and if a war took place, England may, like
Rome, be starved into peace.
An idea prevails that a diminution in the extent under grain implies an
increase in the production of meat. The best answer to that fallacy lies
in the great increase in the price of meat. If the supply had increased
the price would fall, but the converse has taken place. A comparison of
the figures given by Geoffrey King, in the reign of William III., with
those supplied by the Board of Trade in the reign of Queen Victoria,
illustrates this phase of the landholding question, and shows whether
the "enlightened policy" of the nineteenth century tends to encourage
the fulfilment of the trust which applies to land--THE PRODUCTION OF
FOOD.
The land of England and Wales in 1696 and 1874 was classified as
follows:
1696. 1874.
Acres. Acres.
Under grain, 10,000,000 8,021,077
Pastures and meadows, 10,000,000 12,071,791
Flax, hemp, and madder, 1,000,000 ---------
Green crops, --------- 2,895,138
Bare fallow, --------- 639,519
Clover --------- 2,983,733
Orchards, 1,000,000 148,526
Woods, coppices, etc, 3,000,000 1,552,598
Forests, parks, and commons, 3,000,000|
Moors, mountains, and bare land, 10,000,000|- 9,006,839
Waste, water, and road, 1,000,000|
----------- -----------
39,000,000 37,319,231
The estimate of 1696 may be corrected by lessing the quantity of
waste land, and thus bringing the total to correspond with the extent
ascertained by actual survey, but it shows a decrease in the extent
under grain of nearly two million acres, and an increase in the area
applicable to cattle of nearly 8,000,000 acres; yet there is a decrease
in the number of cattle, though an increase in sheep. The returns are as
follows:
1696. 1800. 1874.
Cattle 4,500,000 2,852.428 4,305,440
Sheep 11,000,000 26,148,000 19,859,758
Pigs 2,000,000 (not given) 2,058,791
The former shows that in 1696 there were TEN MILLION acres under grain,
the latter only EIGHT MILLION acres. Two million acres were added for
cattle feeding. The former shows that the pasture land was TEN MILLION
ACRES, and that green crops and clover were unknown. The latter that
there were TWELVE MILLION ACRES under pasture, and, in addition, that
there were nearly THREE MILLION ACRES of green crop and THREE MILLION
ACRES of clover. The addition to the cattle-feeding land was eight
million acres; yet the number of cattle in 1696 was 4,500,000, and in
1874, 4,305,400. Of sheep, in 1696, there were 11,000,000, and in 1874,
19,889,758. The population had increased fourfold, and it is no marvel
that meat is dear. It is the interest of agriculturists to KEEP DOWN THE
QUANTITY AND KEEP UP THE PRICE. The diminution in the area under corn
was not met by a corresponding increase in live stock--in other words,
the decrease of land under grain is not, PER SE, followed by an increase
of meat. If the area under grain were increased, it would be preceded by
an increase in the growth of turnips, and followed by a greater growth
of clover; and these cattle-feeding products would materially add to the
meat supply.
A most important change in the system of landholding was effected by the
spread of RAILWAYS. It was brought about by the influence of the trading
as opposed to the landlord class. In their inception they did not appear
likely to effect any great alteration in the land laws. The shareholders
had no compulsory power of purchase, hence enormous sums were paid for
the land required; but as the system extended, Parliament asserted the
ownership of the nation, over land in the possession of the individual.
Acting on the idea that no man was more than a tenant, the state took
the land from the occupier, as well as the tenant-in-fee, and gave it,
not at their own price, but an assessed value, to the partners in a
railway who traded for their mutual benefit, yet as they offered to
convey travellers and goods at a quicker rate than on the ordinary
roads, the state enabled them to acquire land by compulsion. A general
act, the Land Clauses Act, was passed in 1846, which gives privileges
with regard to the acquisition of land to the promoters of such works as
railways, docks, canals, etc. Numbers of acts are passed every session
which assert the right of the state over the land, and transfer it from
one man, or set of men, to another. It seems to me that the principle
is clear, and rests upon the assertion of the state's ownership of the
land; but it has often struck me to ask, Why is this application of
state rights limited to land required for these objects? why not apply
to the land at each side of the railway, the principle which governs
that under the railway itself? I consider the production of food the
primary trust upon the land, that rapid transit over it is a secondary
object; and as all experience shows that the division of land into small
estates leads to a more perfect system of tillage, I think it would be
of vast importance to the entire nation if all tenants who were, say,
five years in possession were made "promoters" under the Land Clauses
Act, and thus be enabled to purchase the fee of their holdings in the
same manner as a body of railway proprietors. It would be most useful
to the state to increase the number of tenants-in-fee--to re-create the
ancient FREEMEN, the LIBERI HOMINES--and I think it can be done without
requiring the aid either of a new principle or new machinery, by simply
placing the farmer-in-possession on the same footing as the railway
shareholder. I give at foot the draft of a bill I prepared in 1866 for
this object.
[Footnote: A BILL TO ENCOURAGE THE OUTLAY OF MONEY UPON LAND
FOB AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES.
Whereas it is expedient to encourage the occupiers of land
to expend money thereon, in building, drainage, and other
similar improvements; and whereas the existing laws do not
give the tenants or occupiers any sufficient security for
such outlay: Be it enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords
Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in Parliament assembled,
and by the authority of the same:
1. That all outlay upon land for the purpose of rendering it
more productive, and all outlay upon buildings for the
accommodation of those engaged in tilling or working the
same, or for domestic animals of any sort, be, and the same
is hereby deemed to be, an outlay of a public nature.
2. That the clauses of "The Land Clauses Consolidation Act
1845," "with respect to the purchase of lands by agreement,"
and "with respect to the purchase and taking of lands
otherwise than by agreement," and "with respect to the
purchase money or compensation coming to parties having
limited interests, or prevented from treating or not making
title," shall be, and they are hereby incorporated with this
act.
3. That every tenant or occupier who has for the past five
years been in possession of any land, tenements, or
hereditaments, shall be considered "a promoter of the
undertaking within the meaning of the said recited act, and
shall be entitled to purchase the lands which he has so
occupied, 'either by agreement' 'or otherwise than by
agreement,' as provided in the said recited act."