"even slight difficulties have a powerful influence in arresting the improvement of the land," what must be the effect of a system for securing a man in the possession of property when he cannot improve? And the irony of this is, that whenever small holdings are mentioned, we are told that the peasant is too poor to farm to advantage—he will not get out of his land what could be got out of it by a man able to spend money as well as labour on it; and the very persons who think this a good reason for extinguishing small holdings are the most anxious to prevent the bankrupt owner of half a shire from selling one of the acres, which he is too poor to farm to advantage.
But the evils of our land system are not confined to entail. The transfer of land has long been crying out for reform. In the great debates on the Repeal of the Corn Laws, in 1846, Lord Ebrington described the difficulties and uncertainties which surround the transfer of land even when it is not protected by entail. In those days landowners were always talking about the burdens on land, and demanding peculiar privileges on that account. Lord Ebrington said: "There was another burden upon land, which had not been referred to … he alluded to the laws of real property, and the expense of transferring or mortgaging land. The consequence of this system was, that small properties could with great difficulty be sold, and it lessened the value in the market of great ones. … In England, where all our prejudices and feelings were enlisted in favour of the possession of land, land sold at fewer years' purchase than in any other country" (27 to 30, in England, as against 30 to 35 in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and parts of Germany and Italy). "There was a case where the vendor of some land in Somersetshire paid £4000 purchase-money, and £1000 in law expenses." He told an anecdote: "An eminent lawyer sent a title to a conveyancer for his opinion. The conveyancer pointed out so many defects in the title that the lawyer said: 'Then you advise me to give up the purchase.' 'I beg your pardon,' replied the conveyancer, 'I thought you were for other parties: buy it, by all means: the title is as good a one as you can get.' The state of the law as it at present existed, precluded the possibility of a poor man ever hoping to become a landed proprietor, because the enormous expense of transfer would
