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SOCIALISM  IN  ENGLAND.

an  account  of  the  rival  scheme  of  land  nationalization  proposed
by  Mr.  Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  the  celebrated  naturalist.
In  1882  Mr.  Wallace  published  his  book,  “  Land  Nationalization ­
  ;  its  necessity  and  its  aims,”  with  the  object  of  showing
that  “a  properly  guarded  system  of  Occupying  Ownership  under
the  State  ”  would  afford  a  complete  remedy  for  the  evils  of
landlordism,  and  of  explaining  how  the  change  may  be  practically ­
  effected  “  with  no  real  injury  to  existing  landowners,”
and  “  without  producing  any  one  of  the  evil  results  generally
thought  to  be  inseparable  from  a  system  of  land  nationalization.”
In  the  earlier  chapters  of  his  book  Mr.  Wallace  discusses  the
causes  of  poverty  in  the  midst  of  wealth,  and  illustrates  the
evils  resulting  from  Irish,  English,  and  Scotch  landlordism
mainly  by  quotations  or  compilations  from  well-known  writers.
He  then  contrasts  the  system  of  Occupying  Ownership  with
that  of  Landlordism,  and  endeavours  to  show  that  “just  in  proportion ­
  as  the  cultivator  of  land  has  a  permanent  interest  in  it,
is  he  well  off,  happy,  and  contented.”  Mr.  Wallace’s  piethod
is  an  induction  from  facts,  but  he  claims  the  support  of  Mr.
George’s  deductive  reasoning,  which,  he  says,  is  “  founded  on
the  admitted  principles  of  Political  Economy,  and  the  general
facts  of  social  and  industrial  development.”  Finally,  in  his
last  chapter,  after  maintaining  that  Free  Trade  in  land,  as
advocated  by  many  English  Liberals,  would  merely  have  the
effect  of  increasing  the  large  estates  and  intensifying  the  evils
of  Landlordism,  Mr.  Wallace  propounds  his  own  solution  of
the  question,  which  may  be  summarized  as  follows  :—The  State
must  be  the  sole  owner  of  the  land.  1  he  tenants  under  the
State  must  have  a  permanent  tenure,  and  must  be  subject  to  no
restrictions  as  to  cultivating,  selling,  or  transferring  their  holdings  \
but  sub-letting  must  be  absolutely  prohibited,  and  mortgages
strictly  limited.  The  ownership  of  the  State  is  not  to  be  merely
nominal,  as  in  England  to-day,  but  is  to  involve  the  receipt
of  a  perpetual  quit-rent  in  respect  of  the  inherent  value  of  the
land.  The  amount  of  this  quit-rent  will  be  determined  in  the
following  way  :—An  elaborate  valuation  of  every  separate  plot
of  land  in  the  United  Kingdom  will  have  to  be  made,  and  the
annual  or  rental  value  so  fixed  must  be  divided  into  two  parts.