CHAPTER I. THE OBJECT OF THE BOOK. FOR some years past the public has been made familiar with depreciative expressions on the subject of the reduced value of our British broad acres. The daily papers, magazines, books, reports, Parliamentary debates, etc., have continued a despondent tone, and those persons from whom words of hope and encouragement were to be expected have (with some few exceptions) joined in the general chorus which has contributed towards a continuance of depressing influences. The unfortunate effect of all this pessimism has been an alienation of capital from the soil, and millions sterling have been diverted into joint stock investments—many of which have turned out to be unremunerative, and some total failures, whereby individuals have been wrecked and the nation injured. Rural districts have become in a measure impoverished, farmers have had to desert the old homesteads of their ancestors, labourers have been reduced to great poverty and have been compelled to immigrate to towns, tradesmen have had to curtail or close their businesses, and commerce generally (as well as agriculture) has sustained widespread and deep-rooted losses. Yet in the face of all these facts little effort has been made to win back capital to the soil, and residents to our empty country mansions, houses, and cottages. ་;t The Empire is wealthy, and although large sums have been lost to it in the channels recorded in the chapter on Stock Exchange losses, yet immense sums still await investment, and fresh wealth is being continually created. The welfare of the country at large demands that our rural districts should not be allowed to continue to be starved of that use of capital, and deprived of residential owners, without some effort being made to influence public opinion, so that country homes and country investments should be more sought after. Capitalists should be invited and encouraged to use some portion of their wealth in investments connected with the soil, so that there may be extended developments of various forms of agricultural improvements and adaptations of modern science contributing to assist the larger farmers, to re-create a body of yeomen, to increase the number of the peasantry, and to build up many branches of rural commerce. The subjects connected with land are so vast that it would take a whole library to exhaust them; but what I have invited the contributors to this work to write, embraces repeated chapters on the attractions and advantages of country life, instructive chapters on the varied uses of pastural and arable lands, chapters exposing the losses sustained by those who have left investments in solid mother earth for airy or bubble ones, chapters on legal matters affecting land, and chapters on other subjects, some of which do not directly affect our British broad acres, but which are added as being of themselves interesting on the subject of land generally. A wider diffusion of land is greatly to be desired, not by unjust coercive or confiscatory measures, but by making transfer more easy and expeditious, and by some |