SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND. 
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not less than one acre or more than five acres, and will cease 
on any estate from which a fixed proportion, say ten per cent, 
of the whole, has been taken, while it should not apply at all 
to very small holdings ; and finally, it will be limited by 
proximity to the dwelling of the occupier of the land, so as to 
subject him to no unnecessary annoyance.” All questions 
arising out of this curious, but in many ways attractive, scheme 
(and they would be numerous) would be settled by local 
courts of the same character as the Sub-Commissions under the 
Irish Land Act Mr. Wallace calculates that perhaps, as a 
maximum, one and a half million families would take advantage 
of this right of pre-emption, to the extent of three million acres, 
or one-tenth of the whole agricultural land of the country, 
within the first ten years. 
A society called the “ Land Nationalization Society ” has 
been formed under the presidency of Mr. Wallace, with the 
object of carrying out his scheme. In his address at the third 
annual meeting of this Society, held in June, 1884, Mr. 
Wallace maintained that Mr. George’s remedy—the appropria 
tion of the whole ground-rent for common purposes—would 
not have the effect of redressing the fundamental wrong, the 
monopoly of land by the few, nor of securing the fundamental 
necessity, free access for all to the land. “ It would not,” he 
said “ give the labourers land, and therefore would not raise 
wages. It would tend, on the contrary, to intensify the 
monopoly of land, because the landlords, possessing the houses 
and other improvements as well as the land, would raise the 
price of these improvements to recover what they had lost in 
taxation. And this could not be prevented, because the 
owners of a necessary of life are masters of the situation, and 
can command any prices which those who must have these 
necessaries are able to pay. It is, therefore, absolutely im 
possible that such a course as Mr. George proposes should 
produce any good whatever.” 
Mr. Wallace’s Society has lost some of its most energetic 
members, who were unable “ to concur with its consideration 
to landlords or other principles.” These seceders, early in 
1883, formed the “Land Reform Union,” a society already