canals, or any land occupied by towns. The 2250 persons hold half the land in tillage; 1750 others (with from 1000 to 2000 acres each) hold between them 2,500,000 acres more; 34,000 persons, with between 100 and 1000 acres each), hold, in all, 8,926,000 acres; 217,000 own from 1 acre to 10—in all 3,931,000. "It would be interesting to know," says Mr Lefevre, "how many of the 34,000, owning from 100 to 1000 acres, are of the yeoman farmer class, and make a living by their land: how many of the 217,000 with one to 100 are present proprietors." He thinks that a very small percentage of those with from 100 to 1000 acres live by cultivating their own land. In the larger class, with from one to ten acres, a vast number are persons owning villas.[1]
In the division of Dorset referred to in the words quoted at the head of this chapter, there are ninety-two parishes, containing 166,200 acres. Of these, sixty-two parishes belong substantially to a single owner, or are divided between two adjoining owners. In twenty-three others more than three-fourths of the land belongs to two or three great owners. In two parishes only can the land be said to be owned by many persons. Four-fifths of all the land in this Parliamentary Division of North Dorset belongs to thirty persons. One great landowner owns substantially the whole of six parishes and half of six others. Four others hold the whole of two or three parishes and the greater part of two or three others. With the rare exception of a house here and there, villages, as well as land, belong to the great owners. In North Dorset, we are told, the landlords are resident, and there is no complaint. But who can pretend that villagers so placed can call their souls their own? Their livelihood and the very roof that shelters them depend on the goodwill of one man—who is usually the great landowner's agent. If there is no complaint, this is the result of the characters of the great man and his agent. There can be no real independence. The fewer owners the more entirely the people are at their mercy.
The whole body of our Land Laws conspires to promote and perpetuate a state of things in which, as in North Dorset, one man can own six parishes and half of six more. No responsible thinker proposes any violent change, any
- ↑ These figures are for 1893.
