1
10
4
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/a64b23b1834ef2bd9f6febf7b9516936.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=JWvOizOhSQQbi9qs-54yF00xY5nO7XOtjsdk4T97RZhh7SjwDFEEgVHpyKUlj59CqkMbr05V3AUleScw1VVE91qHPz6Y%7EuAhpk93Rswml5DuN1xHZkaBQingTRLpr97hg%7EMLHY6FSSVs5SMoz%7ELdRsTZ83kBKtQYLxva2NXQHIIdquQkqtQcX2FUT7xHNIjU3l2N72g1XZz10TIAq%7EfE1QrSfIYWW7xmIcBK6hsr53850ggo7PncYCQJKF1DNqoGzLnAGl0-PWwXrdLmdF0rgpv4LjNCquXQ1WhoOJczIuFrh2sm62cMypIIjB%7EnYtySfBwsz3yVrPdZ68RTQmgtlg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
e69e57804ed9808b7af310212be3a43b
PDF Text
Text
THE LAND, THE PEOPLE,
AND
THE COMING STRUGGLE.
BY
CHARLES
BRADLAUGH.
LONDON:
Austin & Co., 17, Johnson’s Coubt, Fleet Street, E.C.
PBICE TWOPENCE,
��PART I.—THE LAND.
It will be on the Land Question that that large section of
the English aristocracy which regards the preservation of
territorial rights and privileges as essential to good govern
ment, will shortly have to encounter a stronger force, and to
cope with a wider movement than has been manifested in
England during the last 200 years. It is in connection
with the Land Question that thoughtful working men are
commencing to look for a speedy solution of some of the
most difficult problems as to the more striking evils of
modern society. At the present moment it is credibly
stated—•
1. That the bulk of the land in Great Britain and Ireland
is in the hands of extremely few holders, and that the
number of landed proprietors decreases daily. The West
minster Review for October, in a thoroughly honest article
on this question, declares that 180 years ago there were no
less than 180,000 families owning freehold estates; and that
now less than 160 persons own half England and threefourths of Scotland.
2. That these landholders treat their freehold rights as
of. infinitely more importance than the happiness of the
peasantry of the neighbourhood. Ancient footpaths are
closed, common rights denied, game preserving and rabbit
breeding carried on to the point of crop annihilation,
county members nominated and returned as if the title to
the freehold carried with it monoply of political right; and
a most contemptuous indifference is shown as to the con
dition of the tiller of the toil, or, what is even worse, a
mockery of charity to remedy in small part the evil which
the very charitable gentry have themselves created.
�4
The Land and the People.
3. That for the last 156 years this landed aristocracy has
been the real governing class, superseding the Crown and
controlling the people — certainly ever since, to use the
words of Earl Grey, they adopted the “ highly beneficial
custom” of excluding the Sovereign from the meetings of
the Cabinet, in consequence of George I.’s ignorance of the
English language.
4. That during this time—viz., from 1714—the standing
army has been built up, the National Debt—now amounting
to more than ^800,000,000 in England, and to nearly
^120,000,000 in India—has been almost entirely created,
the pension list swollen to exorbitant dimensions; while
imperial taxation and the rent rolls of the few privileged
ones have enormously increased—most of the burdens of
imperial and local taxation having been shifted from the
shoulders of the landholder on to those of the labourer.
For since, with the accession of the Brunswick family to the
English throne, the monarch, excluded even from the political
councils of the nation—at first because he could not speak
the language of his subjects, as in the case of George I.;
then because of his indifference, as in that of George II.;
and then because of his oft-recurring insanity, as in that of
George III.- has been practically reduced to a mere costly
show puppet; it is impossible for the student of our history
not to remark how the landed aristocracy have utilised their
possession of political power for the transference from their
own shoulders of the bulk of the local and imperial taxation.
5- That pauperism has become more permanent and more
widespread—and that consequently certain classes of crime
and misery have more prevailed—as the land monopoly has
become more complete.
6. That the agricultural labourers of many English
2°™ties’ and n°tably of Dorset, Wilts, Gloucester, Norfolk,
Suffolk, have from bad and insufficient food and shelter
degenerated, so that their state is a disgrace to any civilised
country in the world. _ The Westminster Review urges, on
the evidence of Mr. Simon, Medical Inspector, that rather
more than one-half our southern agricultural population are
so badly fed, that a class of starvation diseases, and a
general deterioration of mind must result. That in Berk
shire, Oxfordshire, and Somersetshire, insufficiency of nitro
genous food is the average.
7. That landowners in the large majority of instances, and
�The. Land and the People.
5
this whether the proprietor be Whig or Tory, regard their
tenants as bound to follow the politics of their freeholder,
and as fairly liable to ejectment when malcontent
Mr. Latham, a magistrate of Cheshire, before the House
of Commons Committee, said that “ it was the evil of
property that a man considers that he owns not only the
property itself, but that he owns the souls of the tenants
also.”
The Duke of Buccleuch, not content with the influence
which his vast holdings in Scotland give him, has actually
taken to the practice of manufacturing false and fraudulent
voters, by granting to certain of his dependents pretended
feu rents or freehold rent charges, so as to qualify them for
county voters, and this to such a glaring extent as to excite
popular indignation. This fabrication, however immoral, is
held to be legal, although, since the grant of the rent charges,
his Grace has actually sold to a railway company a con
siderable portion of the property charged. This Duke, of
Buccleuch, in his Wanlockhead mining works, in Dumfries
shire, employs a number of wretched lead miners, who
sometimes do not see five pounds in actual money from
year’s end to year’s end, being constantly in debt to the
overseer’s shop. They are badly paid and tyrannically dealt
with.
In Wales, because at the last general election the advan
tage was “won by the Liberals, through the votes of the
freeholders and leaseholders of cottages, the landlords,”
says the Westminster Review, “ enraged at their defeat, pro
ceeded to wreak their vengeance upon those of their tenants
who had presumed to vote in accordance with their convic
tions.” Mr. Harris, a gentleman of independent means in
Cardiganshire, “ believed that as many as 200 notices to
quit had been served in Cardiganshire alone, at Lady Day
after the election. He was himself aware of from thirty to
thirty-five served upon tenant farmers, in some cases where
the families had been 200 years upon the estates ; in others
where considerable sums had been laid out by the farmers
in improving their farms, which, as the law now stands in
England, they have no means of recovering.”
In Ireland you have a landlord—perhaps like the late
Most Noble the Marquis of Hertford—constantly residing
out of the country, having no sympathy or connection with
his property, except that of sucking it as dry of vitality as
�---- UrtHil'
6
The Land and the People.
the law permits him. At election times, “ his lieutenant,
the agent, armed with notices to quit, and backed by the
police, is sufficiently formidable. Threats of eviction (and
more than half a million evictions have taken place in Ire
land during the last thirty years), distresses, and demands
for immediate payment of rent, large arrears of which are
usually due,” assail the voter. “ It has long been the prac
tice in Ireland for the landlords to collect together their
tenants who are voters, to place them upon cars, and send
them in a body under the agent to record their votes at the
polling-booth. These parties of voters are frequently es
corted by detachments of police and military, on the alleged
ground that there is fear of their being prevented by violence
from going to the polling place. It is observable that these
escorts are always asked for by the landlords or their agents,
never by the voters themselves.” General MacMurdo, who
commanded a brigade in Ireland at the last election, ad
mitted, before the House of Commons Committee, in answer
to. Mr. Gathorne Hardy, that these voters are practically
prisoners, one. of whom would not be allowed to go away,
even if he desired, until he had been escorted to the pollingbooth.
Consider the first and second points as to the property in
the possession of the great landowners in England, Scot
land, Ireland, and Wales. Under the feudal system in
England, bad as it was, there were no seignorial rights
without a declaration of corresponding duties—the vassals
gave their services, and in return the lord apportioned them
land, and gave them some sort of protection ; but now the
lord claims the land as his own freehold, without any admis
sion of obligation accompanying the o\\ nership, and regarding
himself as unduly taxed if any fiscal imposition touch his
pocket. In many cases, in order to relieve themselves from
the burdens of supporting the poor, the great proprietors
have ordered the wretched cottages of the labourers work
ing on their lands to be destroyed. The tillers of the soil
cleared out from a noble landowner’s domains get shelter
how they can, in hovels in bad condition and dearly priced,
w ere they are huddled together, as the following picture,
taken from the Parliamentary Blue Book, shows :—“ Mo
desty must be. an unknown virtue, decency an unimaginable
thing where, intone small chamber, with the beds lying as.
hickly as they can be packed, father, mother, young men,
�The Land and the People.
7
lads, grown and growing up girls—two and sometimes three
generations—are herded promiscuously, where every opera
tion of the toilette and of nature—dressing, undressing,
births and deaths-—is performed by each within the sight or
hearing of all; where children of both sexes, to as high an
age as twelve or fourteen, or even more, occupy the same
bed ; where the whole atmosphere is sensual, and human
nature is degraded into something below the level of the
swine. It is a hideous picture, and the picture is drawn
from life.”
In Scotland, even under the old semi-barbarous, but patriar
chal, system of clanship, we believe we are correct in stating
that the land was treated as the property of the entire clan
—so much so, at any rate, that the chief of the clan had no
power, under penalty of death, to alienate any portion of
the land without formal authority of the clan given in solemn
assembly, and the meanest member had privileges in connec
tion with the cultivation of the soil.
In Ireland the old Brehon laws as to the land are more
clear and distinct than on most other topics. Each member
of the local society or tribe had a life interest in the land of
the society, and when he lost it by death, or by quitting the
tribe, a new partition of lands was made, so as to prevent
too large a portion falling into the hands of any one holder.
And yet, after generations of progress, we find that the land
is now practically in the hands of a few large families, who
consider that they are entitled to hold the soil without any
sort of consequent liability to provide for the lives or to en
sure the happiness of the inhabitants.
The land is constantly increasing in value, or at any rate,
a higher rental is exacted by the freeholder, and yet there is
no corresponding contribution from the landowner towards
the imperial burdens j on the contrary, the landowner shifts
the fiscal burdens on to the labourer.
In illustration of this, the territorial incomes for England
and Wales alone amounted, in 1800, to ^22,500,000 ; in
1810 they had increased seven millions ; in 1850 they had
swollen to ^41,118,329 ; in 1861 they had grown to
^54,678,412 ; to-day they exceed ^65,000,000; while the
land-tax, which in 1800 was about ^2,000,000 per annum,
is now reduced by redemption to about one-half that
amount.
Since the date of the usurpation of power by the terri-
�8
The Land and the People.
tonal aristocracy—viz., since the accession to the throne of
the House of Brunswick—land has, according to the West
minster Review, increased in value in Great Britain to a
startling extent. Our taxation is constantly and fearfully on
the increase; in 1849 it was under 57 millions; in 1869 it
was nearly 74 millions—an increase of 17 millions in twenty
years.
Out of this taxation in this country, less than oneseventieth portion of the burden falls on land. In France
land bears one-sixth of all imperial burdens ; in India nearly
one half. To make the contrast more striking, we may point
out that twenty-five years before the accession of the House
of Brunswick land paid nearly two-thirds of all the imperial
taxes, the rents received by the aristocracy being then only
the seventh part of what they are to-day. And these rents,
which have grown sevenfold in two hundreds years, for what
are they paid ? For the natural fecundity of the soil which
the owner seldom or never aids. It is for the use of air,
moisture, heat, for the varied natural forces, that the culti
vator pays, and the receiver talks of the rights of property.
We shall have for the future to talk in this country of the
rights of life—rights which must be recognised even if the
recognition involves the utter abolition of the present landed
aristocracy. The great rent-takers have been the opponents
of progress, they have hindered reform, they kept the taxes
on knowledge, they passed combination laws, they enacted
long parliaments, they made the machinery of parliamentary
election costly and complicated so as to bar out the people.
They have prevented education, and then sneered at the
masses for their ignorance. All progress in the producing
power of labour has added to the value of land, and yet
the landowner, who has stood worse than idly by while the
land has increased in value, now talks of the labourer as of
the lower stratum to be checked and restrained. As Louis
Blanc says, “ The general wealth and population are suscep
tible of an almost indefinite increase, and, in fact, never do
cease increasing; commerce demands for its operations a
territorial basis wider and wider; towns are enlarged, and
new one built; the construction of a railway suddenly gives
to this suburb, to that district, an artificial value of some
importance. All this combines in a manner to raise the value
of land.”
These land monopolists too are ever grasping; they
�The Land and the People.
9
swallow common lands and enclose wastes, relying on their
long purses, the cost of legal proceedings, and the apathy
of a peasantry ignorant of their rights and unable to per-,
form their duties.
The Westminster Review says that no less than 7,000,000
acres of commons have gone to increase the already large
estates of adjoining proprietors during the last 200 years—
all, be it remembered, since the landed aristocracy have,
under the dissipated Guelph family, wielded full parliamen
tary power, all taken during the time that the imperial
national debt has risen from about ^52,000,000 to
j£8oi,ooo,ooo in England, and ^120,000,000 in India.
Side by side with this increased taxation, and upon these
huge estates, we find an unimproved—if not an absolutely
deteriorated—farm population. The parliamentary bluebooks describe the population round Mayhill as seeming
“ to lie entirely out of the pale of civilisation; type after
type of social life degraded almost to the level of barbarism.”
In Yorkshire we are told of the “ immorality and degrada
tion arising from the crowded and neglected state of the
dwellings of the poor.”
In Northamptonshire some of the cottages 11 are disgrace
ful, necessarily unhealthy, and a disgrace to civilisation.”
In a Bedfordshire parish “ one-third of the entire popu
lation were receiving pauper relief, and it seemed altogether
to puzzle the relieving officer to account for the manner in
which one-half the remainder lived.” In Bucks the labourer
has to “ pay exorbitant rent for a house in which the
ordinary decencies of life become a dead letter.” So we
may go through all the eastern, southern, south-western,
and most of the midland rural districts, until the repetition
grows as nauseous as it is hideous.
The wages of this wretched agricultural class vary from
7s. to 15s. per week, wage of 10s. to 12s. per week being
the most common, out of which a man has to pay rent, and
feed, clothe, and educate himself and his family. Children
are sent into the fields to work sometimes before they are
seven years old, often before eight years, and nearly always
about that age. And with education thus rendered prac
tically impossible, we find the organs of “ blood and cul
ture ” taunting the masses with their ignorance. We allege
that the mischief is caused by those who exact so much for
rent, and waste so much good land for pleasure, that no fair
�10
The Land and the People.
opportunity for happy life is left to the tiller of the soil.
While the condition of the agricultural population is as thus
■ stated, it cannot be pretended that sufficient compensation
is found in the general prosperity of the artisan classes.
Probably there are at this moment in England and Wales
more than half-a-million able-bodied paupers, that is, men
able to work who cannot get work in a country where mil
lions of acres of land fit for cultivation lie unfilled.
In Plymouth, a few weeks since, one out of every fifteen
persons was in receipt of pauper relief, and we fear that
throughout England and Wales it would be found that, at
the very least, one in every twenty is in the same position,
while in addition many thousands struggle on in a sort of
semi-starvation misery. At Cardiff the most fearful revela
tions have been made before the Parliamentary Commis
sioners, as to the state resulting from the folly or crimi
nality of some of the large capitalists. In this part of Wales,
by paying wages at long intervals, men, who were some
times justices of the peace and large landowners, in 1870
compelled their labourers to ask advances as a favour when
they were really entitled to payment as of right. Then by
a dexterous evasion of the Truck Act the men were forced
to a “ tommy shop,” where the advance was made in goods
instead of cash. Men swore before the Commissioners that
it was with the greatest difficulty they could get a few shil
lings of ready money, and that to obtain it, they were often
compelled to re-sell the goods forced on them at a loss. The
shop being sure of its customers, the women have been
kept waiting for nine hours for their turn, and assemble two,
and sometimes four, hours before the opening of the shop,
this even in the winter weather, and have, in two or three
cases, been known to wait outside all night, and this through
rain and storm, to secure a good place when business should
commence, so that they might get the food they were unable
to obtain elsewhere, and without which the breakfast meal
coold not be got. We wonder what kind of homes they can
possess which can be left for nine hours, and what is done
with the young children ! The cruelty inflicted upon the
women themselves by such a necessity is scarcely credible.
One woman had not “ seen money for twelve years,” being
constantly in debt to the shop. The same woman on oath
said : “ I went once when my son-in-law was ill, and I
wanted only two or three shillings, and I begged and cried
�The Land and the People.
11
or it, but do you think I could get it ? No 1” Nay, it was
proved that when a collection was made for a funeral, as the
bulk of the workers were without money, the cashier entered
the amount subscribed by each man in a book. Five per
cent, was charged for cashing the list, then any amount due
from the deceased’s family to the shop was taken out, and
even then part of the balance had to be taken in goods.
Deductions were made week by week for the doctor, who
was paid by bill at the end of the twelve months, and the
men had no means of knowing how much.
Nor is the state of things just described confined to
Wales. In Scotland a companion picture may be traced.
In the lead mines belonging to his grace the Duke of
Buccleuch, near Elvanfoot, in Lanarkshire, the miners have
been treated more like serfs than free labourers. Young
men of from eighteen to twenty are stated to be now work
ing for rod. per day, and while the nominal wages are 14s.
to 16s. per week, or ^36 8s. to ^41 12s. per annum, for
the ordinary working men, the Duke’s manager has—by a
fraudulently clever system of infrequent payments, occa
sional advances, a “ tommy shop,” and a complicated system
of accounts—so entangled the men that their pay for the
year is said to range from ^25 to ^35. The Duke of Buc
cleuch is more careful of his game and his salmon than he
is of his lead miners. About twelve months ago, not far
from Hawick, a poor woman, with a child at the breast,
was sent to gaol for being in possession of a salmon for
which she could not account. The child died whilst its
mother was in gaol, but the Duke of Buccleuch’s interest in
the salmon fisheries was maintained.
In the Liverpool Mercury it is alleged that the wickedlyfraudulent truck system—here, too, cunningly disguised to
evade the Truck Act—also prevails in the Wednesbury dis
trict. And yet the noble lords and high-minded gentlemen
who thus grind down the poor, and who, by cheating their
labourers, demoralise honest labourers into cheats—will pre
side at pious gatherings, and talk about saving the souls of
those whose lives they are damning. Or these bom legis
lators will denounce trades’ union outrages—these highminded men who draw scores of thousands out of the
muscle and heart of their wretched workpeople, and then
endow a church, and listen to a laudatory sermon preached
by the local Bishop.
�12
The. Land and the People.
We affirm the doctrine laid down by Mr Mill and other
political economists, “ that property in land is only valid, in
so far as the proprietor of the land is its improver,” and
that “ when private property in land is not expedient, it is
unjustwe contend that the possession of land involves
and carries with it the duty of cultivating that land, and, in
fact, individual proprietorship of soil is only defensible so
long as the possessor can show improvement and cultivation
of the land he holds. And yet there are, as Captain Maxse
shows in his recent admirable essay in the Fortnightly
Review, in Great Britain and Ireland, no less than about
29,000,000 acres of land in an uncultivated state, of which
considerably over 11,000,000 acres could be profitably cul
tivated.
There are many thousands of labourers who might culti
vate this land, labourers who are in a semi-starving condition,
labourers who help to fill gaols and workhouses. To meet
this let the legislature declare that leaving cultivable land in
an uncultivated state is a misdemeanour, conviction for
which gives the Government the right to take possession of
such land, assessing it by its actual return for the last five
years, and not by its real value, and handing to the pro
prietor the amount of, say, twenty years’ purchase in Con
solidated 31 per cent. Stock, redeemable in a limited term
of years. The land so taken should not be sold at all, but
should be let out to persons willing to become cultivators,
on sufficiently long terms of tenancy to fairly recoup for
their labour and capital the cultivators, who should yearly pay
into the National Treasury, in lieu of all other imperial
taxes, a certain proportion of the value of the annual pro
duce. This tenancy to be immediately determinable in the
event of the improvement being insufficient, and extensible
on evidence of bona fide improvement of more than average
character.
All land capable of producing food, and misused for
preserving game, should be treated as uncultivated land.
The diversion of land in an old country from the purpose
it should fulfil—that of providing life for the many—to
the mere providing pleasure for a few, is a crime. The
extent to which the preservation of game has been carried
in some parts of England and Scotland shows a reckless
disregard of human happiness on the part of the landed
aristocracy, which bids fair to provoke a fearful retribution.
�The Land and the People.
13
It is calculated that for the deer forests of Scotland alone
nearly two million acres of land—some of it the choicest
pasture, much of it valuable land—is entirely lost to the
country. Two red deer mean the displacement of a family,
and it is therefore scarcely wonderful that we should learn
that much of the Duke of Sutherland’s vast estate is a mere
wilderness.
Country members who shun the House of Commons
while estimates are voted, and go to dinner when emigration
and pauperism are topics for discussion, crowd the benches
of St. Stephen’s when there is some new Act to be intro
duced for the better conviction of poachers without evidence,
or for the protection of fat rabbits, which eat and spoil
crops, against lean farm labourers, who, having not enough
to eat, pine alike in physique and intellect
The Game Laws are a disgrace to our civilisation, and
could not stand twelve months were it not for the over
whelming influence of the landed aristocracy in the Legis
lature. The practice of game preserving is injurious in that,
in addition to the land wasted for the preserve, it frequently
prevents proper cultivation of surrounding lands, and de
moralises and makes criminals of the agricultural labourers,
creating for them a kind and degree of crime which would
be otherwise unknown.
Poaching, so severely punished, is often actually fostered
and encouraged by the agents of the very landholders who
git as Justices of the Peace to punish it. Pheasants’ and
partridges’ eggs are bought to stock preserves; the game
keepers who buy these eggs, shut their eyes to the mode in
which they have been procured, although in most instances
it is thoroughly certain how they have been obtained. The
lad who was encouraged to procure the eggs, easily finds that
shooting or catching pheasants gains a much higher pecuniary
reward than leading the plough horse, trimming the hedge,
or grubbing the plantation. Poaching is the natural con
sequence of rearing a large number of rabbits, hares,
partridges, and pheasants, in the midst of an under-paid,
under-fed, badly-housed, and deplorably ignorant mass of
agricultural labourers. The brutal outrages on gamekeepers,
of which we read so much, are the regrettable, but verynatural, measures of retaliation for a system which takes a
baby child to work in the fields, sometimes soon after six
years of age, commonly before he is eight years old, which
�14
The Land and the People.
trains all his worst propensities, and deadens or degrades
his better faculties, which keeps him in constant wretched
ness, and tantalises him with the sight of hundreds of acres
on which game runs and flies well-fed, under his very nose,
while he limps ill-fed along the muddy lane which skirts the
preserve—game, which is at liberty to come out of its covert
and eat and destroy the farmer’s crop, but which is even
then made sacred by the law, and fenced round by carefullydrawn covenants.
An agricultural labourer (with a wife and family) whose
weekly pittance gives him bare vitality in summer, and
leaves him often cold and hungry in winter, in the midst of
lands where game is preserved, needs little inducement to
become a poacher. Detected, he resists violently, for his
ocal judges are the game owners, and he well knows that
before them he will get no mercy. Indicted, he goes to the
county gaol, and his wife and children go to the union work
house. Imprisonment makes the man worse, not better,
and he is confirmed into the criminal class for the rest of
his life, while his family, made into paupers, help to add
still more to the general burdens of the country.
In the agricultural districts, offences in connection with
the Game Laws are more numerous than those of any other
class. Men suspected of inclination for poaching are easily
sent to gaol, for cutting a twig or for nominal trespass, by
magistrates who, owning land on which game is reared,
regard it as most wicked sacrilege that hungry labourers
should even look too longingly across the hedge.
In this land question the abolition of the Game Laws
must be made a prominent feature.
The enormous estates of the few landed proprietors must
not only be prevented from growing larger, they must be
broken up. At their own instance and gradually, if they
will meet us with even a semblance of fairness, for the poor
and hungry cannot well afford to fight; but at our instance,
and rapidly, if they obstinately refuse all legislation. If they
will not commence inside the Houses of Parliament, then
from the outside we must make them listen. If they claim
that in this we are unfair, our answer is ready.
/ou have monopolised the land, and wrhile you have got
each>year a wider and firmer grip, you have cast its burdens
on others; you have made labour pay the taxes which land
could more easily have borne. You now claim that the
�The Land and the People.
15
rights of property in land should be respected, while you
have too frequently by your settlements and entails kept
your lands out of the possibility of fulfilling any of the obli
gations of property, and you have robbed your tradespeople
and creditors, because your land was protected by cunningly
contrived statutes and parchments against all duty, while it
enjoyed all privilege. You have been intolerant in your
power, driving your tenants to the poll like cattle, keeping
your labourers ignorant and demoralised, and yet charging
them with this very ignorance and degradation as an in
capacity for the enjoyment of political right. For the last
quarter of a century, by a short-sighted policy, and in order to
diminish your poor-rates, you have demolished the cottages on
your estates, compelling the wretched agricultural labourers,
whose toil gave value to your land, to crowd into huts even
more foul and dilapidated than those you destroyed. We
no longer pray, we argue—we no longer entreat, we insist—
that spade and plough, and sickle and scythe, shall have
fair right to win life and happiness for our starving from the
land which gave us birth. To you, Dukes of Athol, Devon
shire, Sutherland, Buccleuch, Norfolk, Northumberland; to
you, the Most Noble the Marquis of Westminster, of Breadalbane, of Bute—to you and your few confreres we speak now
in solemn warning. Is it not monstrous that one of you
should own land more than ioo miles long, another more
than 90,000 acres in one county only, another a rent-roll of
more than ^1,000,000 a-year, while pauperism grows with
fearfulrapidityunder the shadowof yourtown-houses, and semi
barbarism flourishes amongst the poor on your vast estates ?
It is on the land question, my lords, that the people
challenge you, at present in sorrow and shame. Take up
the matter while you may, and do justice while yet you can.
The world is wide for you to seek pleasure in, the poor can
only seek life—where death finds them—at home. Give up
your battues, your red deer, your black game, your pheasants,
your partridges; and when you see each acre of land
won by the fierce suasion of hardy toil to give life and hope
to the tiller, in this you will find your recompense. Ye
twelve who lock up in your iron safes the title-deeds of
nearly all Scotland’s broad acreage, I plead to you ; forget
pride and power, and be generous while you may, for the day
is near when your pride may be humbled, and your power
broken.
�16
The Land and the People.
For you, lords of Erin’s fertile soil—you who have wrought
her shame and made her sin—you who have driven her
children across the broad ocean to seek for life-—even for
you there is the moment to save yourselves, and do good to
your kind. Thoughtful "workmen will try to win your land
by law, hungry paupers may wrest it from you in despair;
you may yield it now on fair terms, and grow even richer in
the yielding. Which it will be, who can say ? All I know is,
that England is growing hungry, that empty bellies act faster
than heads reason, and that the Land Question cannot stand
still.
THE END.
London: Printed and Published by Austin & Co., 17, Johnson’s
Court, Fleet Streep E.C.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The land, the people, and the coming struggle
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bradlaugh, Charles
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 16 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Tentative date of publication from British Library.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Austin & Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1877?]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G4939
Subject
The topic of the resource
Land reform
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The land, the people, and the coming struggle), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Land Reform-Great Britain
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/a875d3401b42f5826d827d04b0b43784.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=TzA414gWoVy-xl%7ETnC5tCaL69L4ZL-0tDy-ZNHPnsVHDWfgoYn-C4BJLP9TmY42UsTZbOJA%7E5t4Tvddl8pm42we07eYfZEog51znk9fLww8FjKOojqy6xKb%7EX11XTc5DbJBF2BvDZdn6rTWJgMQx2vQqZDCU01%7EjdkyAyeYEi4Hev5jo-%7E2Pvapa3%7EpiJcMjsHzs0QqEYcDe2sTo3ZNNU1AvecOwavaqZxCcN8vpDcMKc9KKrZUZxiEWVJrLbJBL93gR-C9-ANXe2fE8Tqrq7qBBAWSyc6FI8QKttXysIILkuuargI93Lj8CPvGtBfwir6fxnKRCYPOz47OpJ6QDEw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
682d1577276342de03827c28cfe213a2
PDF Text
Text
| gg
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
English Land Restoration League.
No. 4.
(3d..per 100.
"FREE TRADE IN LAND.”
Would it Benefit the People?
/
“ The notion,” says Carlyle, ” of selling for certain bits of metal the ‘ Iliad of
Homer,’ how much more the land of the World Creator, is a ridiculous impossi/ bility.” Yet this ridiculous object is what the recently-constituted Free Land
League propose to themselves to attain. The “ Great Liberal Party ” is just now
badly off for a “ cry,” and Mr. John Bright and Mr. Arthur Arnold are chiefly
responsible for supplying it with one of the worst conceivable. They desire to
knock down the land of the World Creator to him who can bid for it the most bits
of metal. This news must of all men rejoice the soul of Mr. Winans. The
depopulator of the Highlands abounds in bits of metal, and when the Free Land
Millennium sets in he will be able to carry on his favourite business of supplanting
men by deer to his heart’s content. Free Trade in Land is an excellent trade for
those who have accumulated or stolen plenty of bits of metal; but for such as
have not—that is to say, for the vast majority of honest poor—it is simply a
mockery and a snare. Did the institution of” Slavery in the Southern States
benefit the “ Mean Whites ” with empty purses, who could not so much as invest
in a single Slave ? On the contrary, it degraded them far below the level of the
corresponding class in the Northern States. ' Now, Free Trade in Slaves and Free
Trade in Land are perfectly analogous institutions, and it is doubtful if the evil
effects of the latter are not even more far-reaching than those of the former. Both
are contrivances by which the few are enabled to rob the many of the fruits of
their industry. The private ownership of land clothes one man with the power
of depriving his fellows of shelter, food, and raiment. It invests the few with a
life and death control over the many.
Now, it is easy to see that Free Trade in Land is as false an application of
the Free Trade theory as was Free Trade in the bones and blood of factory
women and children. Free Trade in commodities that can practically be supplied
without limit has unquestionably been an immense boon to this country; but it
does not at all follow that Free Trade in an element which no human ingenuity can
augment by a single atom would be similarly beneficial. On the contrary, if the
soil of England, like its manufactures, is to be brought within the grasp of the
.great capitalists, undivided power will be delivered over to the already too
powerful upper middle class, and then woe betide the workers! The yoke of the
capitalist will be more complete, and assuredly it will be none the less heavy than
that of the feudalist. The.evil of ‘‘unearned increment” is as great in Broadway,
New York, or in Bourke Street, Melbourne, as it is in the City of London. Free
Trade in a natural monopoly like the land is simply a contradiction in terms—“ a
ridiculous impossibility.” Carlyle saw the absurdity at a glance; but then he was a
genius, whereas the Free Land Leaguers are at the best but a superior order of
bagmen. In its very essence land can neither be purchased nor mortgaged. It
is common property, and the community which parts with it to individuals
voluntarily is a. community of imbeciles, and the community which parts with it
involuntarily is a community of cowards.
But if our Free Land Leaguers have misapplied the Free Trade theory,
they have still more notoriously misinterpreted Free Trade in Land facts. They
go to the sparsely-populated United States and the Colonies for their
illustrations; whereas densely-peopled England can only be compared with
herself or some country similarly situated. In the United States there are
■still many, many millions of acres to homestead and pre-empt, and till they are
I
�all taken up the inherent evils of Free Trade in Land cannot be expected
to show themselves in anything like their natural proportions. Men do not
buy land which they can get for next to nothing. But even in the United States,
the farmers—the most splendid yeomanry that ever existed—are beginning todiscover to what Free Trade in Land inevitably leads. Very many American
farms are covered by mortgages on which interest is paid worthy of the expe
riences of the Egyptian fellaheen. Recently the New York Times—a perfectly
temperate authority—warned the American farmers of their fate. They were
destined to become like the rack-rented tenant farmers of England ! Nay, their
final condition will probably be worse. One had much better pay rent to a feudal
landlord, bound to his tenantry by many traditional ties, than be fleeced by a
remorseless money-lending Shylock, moved by considerations of filthy lucre
alone.
And there are other still more alarming symptoms. A phenomenon is appearing
in some of the Western States which is comparable only with that which heralded
the fall of ancient Rome. Rome conquered the world by the swords of her fouracre yeomanry. But Rome, like the United States, was a Free Trade in Land
State; and her yeomanry eventually either fell hopelessly into the grasp of theusurer, or succumbed to the expropriating capitalist. Then Italy was tilled, so
far as it was tilled, by immense gangs of homeless slaves, and the end was not far.
Now, an American Bonanza Farm is as like a Roman slave estate as can well b-jimagined. The Bonanza Farms of Minnesota, Dakota, Texas, Kansas, and Cali
fornia each contain thousands of acres owned by Presidents and Directors of
railways, by bankers in St. Paul, New York, London, and Frankfort-on-the-Main.
They are “ run" on purely capitalist principles. There is neither woman, child,
nor home. The men work thirteen hours daily. They receive from 8 dols. to
16 dols. per month, according to the season. In the neighbourhood of theseBonanzas the small farmers are hopelessly in debt. They have generally to pay50 per cent, more than the Bonanzas for the conveyance of their produce, and.
33 per cent, more for their farming implements. How Mr. Jesse Collings’s peasant
proprietors are to stand up against capitalist farming it is hard to see. In a veryinstructive article on “ Bonanza Farms ”in the Atlantic Monthly for January, 1880,
the concluding sentence is this :—“ We are taking immense strides in placing our
country in the position of Great Britain, and even worse.”
In Europe, as in America, the freeholder is victimised. In France, in Germany,
in Russia, the Land Mortgage Banks are already pressing on the peasantry with:
something like the vigour of the ancien regime. In India, the soucar, schroff,
bania, or mahajun drains the last drop of the poor ryot’s blood. He is virtually
a serf. In a word, wherever Free Trade in Land has fairly run its course it hasbeen a ghastly failure. It has at one end the money-lender, and at the latter the.Bonanza Farm.
Let us have neither. Let us pass direct from feudalism to municipalisation
vest the site of every town in its Town Council, and of every parish in its Parish
Council. The land is the birthright of the people. The Free Land Leaguers aver
trying to hand it over to the capitalists. If they succeed in gulling the electors,
the little finger of every new landlord will be thicker than his predecessor’s loins,
and a long era of suffering—the Capitalist era—as fatal as that inaugurated by the.Norman Conquest, will be the result.
Nota Bene.—The first man who, having enclosed a plot of ground, took uponhimself to say “This is mine!" and found people silly enough to believe him, was.
the real founder of Civil Society. How many crimes, how many wars, how many
murders, how much misery would have been spared the human race, if some one, .
tearing up the fence and filling in the ditch, had cried out to his fellows, “Give no
heed to this imposter; you are lost if you forget that the produce belongs to all,
the land to none."
J. Morrison Davidson.
All who are willing to aid in circulating this and similar leaflets on the Land Question,
are earnestly requested to communicate with Mr. FREDK. VERINDER, Secretary of theENGLISH LAND RESTORATION LEAGUE 8 Duke Street, Adelphi, London, W.C., from,
whom all information may be obtained.
Page & Pbatt, Limited, Printers, 5, 6 & 7 Ludgate Circus Buildings, London, E.C.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
"Free trade in land" : would it benefit the people?
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Davidson, John Morrison [1843-1916]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: [2] p. ; 21 cm.
Series title: English Land Restoration League [leaflets]
Series number: No. 4
Notes: Printed by Page & Pratt, London, E.C. Tentative date of publication from KVK. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
English Land Restoration League
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[189-?]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
N188
Subject
The topic of the resource
Land reform
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work ("Free trade in land" : would it benefit the people?), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Land Reform-Great Britain
NSS
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/50c6ef603e0ad3b03e764eccae0d1ff5.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=AmI-eUCdzrZZjQNUrm2gpkmxCpEeRg756Ft5w-6DTZYEuNjsDapJOIO8TbNC7YKlZvhJH4Ll0fGo9cKfCeNt9iLtHbiTnmL99kInSwfNKPCxwlBJMSIYbRpBysijunUSRCFRzp2sVKAM298LxqyxN70ZYSccYSPPo4YUwVzjnaQ52mgQUuYLzex7ykWy4%7E5RkuGG74b0lAQO167kBWjPus2o2CZ3GKLxzTWqFdHoD5IhwKYLbpCJcZbRtwIBPxuFz677Ct%7Ewam9pYmOXbnNK9jz4sv-CHjWwMF4HpyPKU9VVAdwBgsf1psi6WySmh9dbJGLiS78sCnGsZcKGiLPSPA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
386564a31d1543b9aab57a6c5666fd40
PDF Text
Text
����������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Land lessons for town folk
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jameson, William
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 12 p. ; 22 cm.
Series title: Clarion Pamphlet
Series number: No. 9
Notes: The cover states "Clarion" Pamphlet - No, 9; half title page reads "Pioneer" Pamphlets - No, 1. (1) "Why should London grow?" (2) "Guardian angels." (3) "Cockneyfied socialism." Date of publication from KVK (OCLC, WorldCat). Publisher's series list inside back cover. William Jameson was Hon. Sec. of the Land Nationalisation Society.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
"Clarion" Newspaper Company, Limited
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1896]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5776
Subject
The topic of the resource
London
Land reform
Socialism
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Land lessons for town folk), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Land Reform-Great Britain
London
Population Increase
Socialism
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/55e808443f69cdf4e7147a115f7686a1.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=sJeKp87PSvnYVxEf2en-5RrbTqQWJglds4lar0uNxYaYgEifG5j4IghUHefSp00CMXrhuAh0D9AXMNtI2FfQO2Hf-qTIrNoaCxkHawws7THWmaYUSzKzrUmvB6BrWI8Drn8XvAw5HwWg0UFhDd1WbG6WPXyXGw825WGBs7wW6tkT6GdzInRYxRlrev0jeg6RyomdEBCyWzoOuuZWZBdwWmnCGLOdMDSNLut5Ez8UAg-nduexhnErQzy-Q9%7EPLEldw7BdZZZxmPOdag5S19wbv03n%7EVR04chte5Kqnt0TCgpVIKF3zZMSX%7EFV71vSA7027y7ELPBn%7EPf2pf3-U50gDA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
b00aa27c7dabb4ac6d32e7fc3a93c28c
PDF Text
Text
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETV
EugUsh Land Restoration League, No.
IS.
per ioo.
mr/
m a\%
Tu.
~Tc>Sk^
THE EIGHT TO THE USE OH THE EABTE.
NDER the above heading Herbert Spencer, the great< apost e
of individualism, devotes an eloquent chapter of his Social
Statics” to proving the incontrovertible equity ot Land.
Nationalisation. For assuming that—
“ Each of them has freedom to do all that he wills, pro
vided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other, then each
of them is free to use the earth for the satisfaction of his wants,
provided he allows all others the same liberty. And, conversely,
ft is manifest that no one may use the earth in such a way as toprevent the rest from similarly using it; seeing that to do this is.
fo assume greater freedom than the rest, and consequently to break
f
thGThis sentence very neatly puts out of court their Graces the
Dukes of Sutherland and Buccleugh, and those other seventy
persons who own between them just one half of the Scottish soil.
“ Equity, therefore,” he proceeds, “ does not permit property in
land. For if one portion of the earth’s surface may justly becomethe possession of an individual, and may be held by him for' his
sole use and benefit, as a thing to which he has an exclusive right,,
then other portions of the earth’s surface may be so held, and
eventually the whole of the earth’s surface may be so held; and our
planet may thus lapse altogether into private hands. Observe
n ow the dilemma to which this leads. Supposing the entire habit
able globe to be so enclosed, it follows that if the land-owners have
a valid right to its surface, all who are not land-owners have noright at all to its surface. Hence such can exist on the earth by
sufferance only. They are all trespassers. Save by permission of
the lords of the soil, they can have no room for the soles of their
feet. Nay, should the others think fit to deny them a resting-place,,
these landless men might equitably be expelled from the earth
From this he has no difficulty in proving that an exclusive
possession of the soil necessitates an infringement of the law of
equal freedom. For men who cannot live and move and have their
being without the consent of others cannot be equally free with
those others. He then deals with the claims of the present
possessors of land.
�(
2
)
. / Can neYer be Pre.t?nded>” he says, “ that the existing titles
to such property are legitimate. Should anyone think so, let him
look in the chronicles. Violence, fraud, the prerogative of force
the claims of superior cunning—these are the sources to which
those titles may be traced. The original deeds were written with
the sword rather than with the pen ; not lawyers, but soldiers,
were the conveyancers ; blows were the current coin given in pay
ment ; and for seals, blood was used in preference to wax. Could
valid claims be thus constituted? Hardly. And if not, what
becomes of the pretensions of all subsequent holders of estates so
obtained
Does sale or bequest generate a right where it did not
previously exist ? Would the original claimants be nonsuited at
the bar of reason because the thing stolen from them had changed
ands . Certainly not. And if one act of transfer can give no
title, can many ? No; though nothing be multiplied for ever
it will not produce one. Even the law recognises this principle.”
,, fb
-n Proceeds to combat the arguments of those who assert
that time is a great legaliser, and that immemorial possession must
be taken to constitute a legitimate claim. On grounds of pure
equity, he has no difficulty m proving the absurdity of this propo
sition, but he admits that great difficulties must attend the
resumption by mankind at large of their rights to the soil. He
does not advocate the leaving of the present holders, who can
neither toil nor spin, to starve.
‘‘Men having got themselves into this dilemma,” he says, “ by
disobedience to the law, must get out of it as best they can, and
with as little injury to the landed class as may be. Meanwhile, we
shall do well to recollect that there are others besides the landed
class to be considered. In our tender regard for the vested in
terests of the few, let us not forget that the rights of the many are ,
in abeyance, and must remain so as long as the earth is mono
polised by individuals. Let us remember, too, that the injustice
thus inflicted on the mass of mankind is an injustice of the gravest
nature. The fact that it is not so regarded proves nothing. In
early phases of civilisation even homicide is thought lightly of.
It was once also universally supposed that slavery was a°natural
and quite legitimate institution. A higher social development
has, however, generated in us a better faith, and we now, to a
considerable, extent, recognise the claims of humanity. But our
civilisation is only partial. It may by-and-bye be perceived
that Equity utters dictates to which we have not yet listened •
and men may then learn that to deprive others of their rights
to the use of the earth is to commit a crime inferior only in
lTberti s ”SS
Cr*me
taking away their lives or personal
•
with the question of the reclamation of waste land by
individuals, he shows that they have an equitable claim to com
pensation lor their improvements, but to nothing more; and he
points out what are some of the results to which the theory
�(
3
)
tliat men have a right to make the soil private property inevitably
leads.
7
“ If they have such a right,” he argues, “ then it would be
proper for the sole proprietor of any kingdom—a Jersey or Guern
sey, for example—to impose just what regulations he might choose
on its inhabitants, to tell them that they should not live on his
property unless they professed a certain religion, spoke a particu
lar language, paid him a specified reverence, adopted an authorised
dress, and conformed to all other conditions he might see fit to
make. There is no escape from these inferences. They are
necessary corollaries to the theory that the earth can become
individual property. And they can only be repudiated by denying
that theory. The change required need cause no very serious
revolution in existing arrangements. It would simply be a change
of landlords. Instead of being in the possession of individuals,
the country would be held by the great corporate body—society.
Instead of paying his rent to the agent of Sir John or his Grace,
the farmer would pay it to an agent of the community. Stewards
would he public officials instead of private ones, and tenancy the
only land tenure. A state of things so ordered would be in
perfect harmony with the moral law. Under it all men would
be equally landlords—all men would be alike free to become
tenants.”
We have here given extracts from Herbert Spencer’s arguments.
We will also give his summary of them.
“ Briefly reviewing the argument, we see that the right of each
■man to the use of the earth, limited only by the like rights of his
fellow-men, is immediately deducible from the law of equal freedom.
We see that the maintenance of this right necessarily forbids pri
vate property in land. On examination all existing titles to such
property turn out to be invalid; those founded on reclamation
inclusive. It appears that not even an equal apportionment of the
earth amongst its present inhabitants could generate a legitimate
proprietorship. We find that if pushed to its ultimate consequences,
a claim to exclusive possession of the soil involves a land-owning
despotism. We further find that such a claim is constantly denied
by the enactments of our Legislature. And we find, lastly, that
the theory of the co-heirship of all men to the soil is consistent
with the highest civilisation ; and that, however difficult it may be
■to embody that theory in fact, Equity sternly commands it to be
■done.”
It rests with the legislators to execute the orders of the people.
We call upon the people to insist upon the accomplishment of that
which Equity commands.
J. L. Joynes, B.A.
PAGE. PRATT, & TURNER, Printers, 5, 6 & 7 Ludgate Circus Buildings, London, E.C.
�English Uanb IRestoration league.
OBJECT : The Abolition of Landlordism.
METHOD: The Abolition of all taxes upon labour and the products of labour and the
earnings of labour ; and the increase of taxation upon land values until the whole
annual value of land is taken In taxation for public purposes.
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS.
Manifesto of the E.L.R.L.
.................................
(2 pp.) 6d. per 100
“Free Trade in Land: Would it benefit the People ?” By
J. Morrison Davidson
..
..
..
..
(2 pp.)
•I
“ London’s Unearned Increment.” By Sidney Webb, LL.B.,
(2 PP-)
•I
“ Land Common Property.” By J. Sketchley
..
(4 pp.) is. per ioo>
“The Right to the Use of the Earth.” By Herbert Spencer
(4 PP-)
“ The Great Great Grandson of Captain Kidd.” By Henry
George
......................................................
(4 pp.)
“ Landlordism the Cause of Trade Depression.” By Arthur
O Connor, MP.
..
..
..
..
..
(4 pp.)
91
" A Candidate’s Catechism.".................................
(4 pp.)
••
(New leaflets are in preparation.)
“ Our Inheritance in the Earth.” By “ Terrigenous ”
“God and the Land.” By Rev. T. T. Sherlock
•‘Progress and Poverty.” By Rev. G. Sarson (reprinted from
the Modern Review)
“Mine Rents and Mineral Royalties.” By C. M. Percy
“ Poverty, Taxation and the Remedy.” By Thomas Briggs
(214 pp.; published at One Shilling)
..
..
..
id.
id.
id.
2d.
6d..
BY HENRY GEORGE.
“Taxing Land Values.”
..
“ The Land Question.”
..
“ The Peer and the Prophet.”
of Argyle)
..
..
“ Progress and Poverty." ..
“Social Problems.”
..
“ Protection and Free Trade.”
..
..
(12 pp.) jd.; 3s. 6d. per ioo»
..
..
..
(paper covers) 3d..
(Henry George and the Duke
..
..
..
..
..
..
6d..
..
(In paper covers) is. (Cloth) is. 6d.
..
,,
is.
„
is. 6d.
..
„
is.
„
is. 6d.
tggp One of the best ways to help the Cause is to purchase a small parcel of the above
Leaflets, etc., and to undertake their careful distribution. “ Spread the.
Light ! ”
FREDK. VERINDER,
Secretary, E.L.R.L,
Offices : 8 Duke Street,
Adelphi, London, W. C.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The right to the use of the earth
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Joynes, J.L. (James Leigh) [d.1893]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 3 p. ; 21 cm.
Series title: English Land Restoration League [leaflets]
Series number: No. 7
Notes: Debates Herbert Spencer's arguments in his work 'Social Statistics'. Publisher's list on back page. Tentative date of publication from KVK. Printed by Page, Pratt & Turner, London, E.C. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
English Land Restoration League
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[189-?]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
N418
Subject
The topic of the resource
Land reform
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The right to the use of the earth), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Herbert Spencer
Land Reform-Great Britain