complete maceration, decomposition, and amalgamation in renewed chemical combination, of the elements of which it is composed. This may be assisted by rough-harrowing, the addition of non-indigenous matter to correct the paralysis of neglect, and the prevalence of favourable operations as mentioned under the first heading.

The embankment having been constructed then, of such form and contents as the character of the reclamation demands, efficient drainage secured, and sufficient time allowed for the conversion and reformation of the soil, the agriculturist, after making means of access in the shape of roads, and subdividing the ground into plots of suitable area, puts his hand to the plough and with favouring seasons and virginal response from the object of his assiduous attentions, woos her, till she yields him of her fulness, and then after a period of fertility and rich cropbearing is gradually translated into a placid ever-green age of constant fructivity and beauty.

The reclamation of waste tracts or moorland is of a more tedious nature. The wild beautiful freedom whether of bush or heath has to be curbed and treated with almost barbaric severity, and though the operations are arduous and long, the transformation is the more to be treasured, as, in response to the drainage and liming and the civilising presence of "out-barns" with their complement of cattle, their faces begin to express a more varied alternation of lovely tints than even the pristine glories of ling and moss.

There will be many disappointments in the course of this true love for reclamation, but inspired by the struggles and sacrifices of generations of his fore-fathers, the man who is capable of applying the "science of experience" and the courage of an indomitable will, must go forward in the patriotic-nay, greater-work of the "making of the land," even though it cost years of anxiety, exertion,

and deprivation to carry out such regenerative processes as will fit it for the practice of the best forms of husbandry suited to the times and the wants of the people.

Such efforts, directed on a well considered and practical scheme of reclamation should command the enthusiastic support of Parliament and platform, peer and peasant, pedagogue and press; never forgetful of the fact that, whether the land be the "common birthright of the race or not; in its crude state, it is only valuable in the degree that it presents a surface upon which the operations of varied tillage or occupation may with profit be expended.

ED. HOWARD DAWSON.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE AGITATION FOR RATING GROUND RENTS AND VACANT BUILDING LANDS.

BY C. F. DOWSETT, F.S.I.,

Author of various Articles on Land and House Properties; "Striking Events in Irish History"; etc.

AGITATION does not necessarily mean alteration. Ag tation is an influence conspicuously at work when a General Election is approaching, and, therefore, we should be prepared to give a proper estimate to protestations and promises, especially such as appear to offer great benefits to the greatest number of voters.

There is a strange anomaly abroad, a strange blowing hot and cold by the same mouth. A certain section of politicians demand that by some means or other the people are to have the land, and yet this same political section demand that such burdens shall be laid upon the possessors of land as would ensure that all small capitalists would prefer to put their savings or their stock-capital into anything else but land.

A proposal has been made to tax Ground Values which means:-(1) Ground Rents; (2) Ground Rent Reversions; (3) Vacant Building Lands. To these may be added a fourth, which, however, refers principally to buildings, and which I will call Interim Interests.

This form of the proposal is gathered from the statements of those few persons who held these views

out of the many who held opposite views of those who gave evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Town Holdings, some of whom have since written pamphlets in order to publish more widely the opinions they expressed before that Committee.

Mr. Fletcher Moulton, Q.C.; Mr. William Saunders, late M.P. for East Hull; and Mr. Sidney Webb, have published pamphlets. Mr. Moulton has been answered in an exhaustive manner by Mr. C. H. Sargant, of 9, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, a barrister, in his work entitled "Urban Rating," published by Messrs. Longman, Green & Co., and by his article in "The Contemporary Review," for February, 1890; also by Mr. G. M. Clements, a solicitor, of 17, Gresham House, Old Broad Street, E.C. Mr. Webb was also answered by Mr. Sargant who, however, found that Mr. Webb's pamphlet was "too slight and too violent in tone," therefore needing but little serious consideration. Besides these writings, I must refer my readers to Mr. G. O. Bellewes, the Secretary of the Property Protection Society, 45, Parliament Street, and to Mr. W. C. Crofts, the Secretary of the Liberty and Property Defence League, 7, Victoria Street, Westminster, each of whom have a mass of literature on the subject, exposing the fallacies of the agitators.

There is no central authority setting forth the proposal of the agitators definitely, and I find by their written and verbal statements that they disagree very much in their opinions upon the subject, but the nearest approach to agreement at the time of writing (January, 1892), was shown at a meeting of Mr. Moulton, Mr. Saunders, and a few of their friends held in the Conference Room of the National Liberal Club, on the 19th January,

1892 (reported in the " Daily News" of January 20th), when it was stated that the proposal was to:

I. "Divide the rates between owners and occupiers."

2. "To place a separate tax on the value of land as distinguished from the value of the buildings. But while the first tax ought to be divided between the owner and the occupier the second would have to be laid entirely upon the owners."

3. "That a special tax be laid upon the owners of land values including the owners of vacant land."

Mr. Fletcher Moulton then moved that these proposals "should be kept prominently before the electors during the forthcoming election of the New County Council for London and of a new Parliament."

The object of the agitation, as gathered from the evidence referred to, and from a frequent reference to one clause in the report of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes, is an attack upon the great ground landlords of London, and thus a constitutional principle, which has obtained through all our history, is to be set aside to spite half-a-dozen men of large means, and to inflict an incalculable injury upon thousands of deserving persons of small means.

I have no interest whatever in these great ground landlords of London who, if they were even robbed, as some would wish of a portion of their wealth, would not probably feel it very much, but I have a great interest in the many thousands of persons throughout London and the country who would be injuriously affected if the proposals referred to became law; the funds of trustees representing widows and orphans, the funds of building societies, provident societies, insurance companies and others representing the savings of working men and of thrifty persons in the great middle strata of society, and