THE REMEDY FOR LANDLORDISM. INTRODUCTION. LEGAL learning and literary skill are not needed in order that any one may see how the laws relating to PRIMOGENITURE, ENTAIL, SETTLEMENT, TITLE, and TRANSFER OF LAND artificially dam up the wealth of the nation, which would otherwise naturally flow and diffuse itself, ever increasing by contact with knowledge and industry. an These laws, which have been contrived for dealing with the landed property of this country, are confusedly intricate, and wasteful of time, labour, and intellect. Oliver Cromwell called them ungodly jumble." They are not only the cause of keeping a few thousand persons extravagantly rich and many millions miserably poor, but they are the B primary political hindrance to the increase of the wealth of the whole nation, while they cause such widespread and intense suffering among the poor, that, in the words of Lord Beaconsfield, "Penury and disease feed on the vitals of a miserable population." These laws, as derived from the feudal system, allow property to be tied up by legal instruments, so that the property cannot possibly be dealt with or disposed of for the benefit of the person who has the income from it. The best interests of living persons are sacrificed to the idea of keeping property intact for some heir that is not born or may never exist. The object of the original feudal system, which was introduced at the Norman Conquest in 1066, has been long since superseded by the formation of a national standing army. These laws are now useless; they only prevent property from being sold or realized, however necessary it may be for a parent to use the capital profitably for himself, or to portion his family, or to have it divided among his children after his death. The natural division of overgrown properties would multiply the number of smaller capitalists of the upper class, who, having received a polished and scientific education, would be fit to set on foot |