The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-09-25 00:00:00

THE TENURE OF LAND.

CIRCUMSTANCES have of late combined to force
he land ques'on prow uefore the atL,ll-
- of the people of this country. It is indeed
a subject wl-zch c; n never fail to be of interest in
corumu- ity wbere.t he population is so dense,
:•nd where ,Je 11nd bu;C Ole for cultivation, being
necessa• rest,lcted in quPtltity, is bound to
maintain its value. Onne a year especially, that
is to say a 6 he vest time, the notice of all classes
is dralha to the laud question; and it is then
seen how importr it a factor is the soil in con-
tributiug to +he prosperity of a people. 'rho
farmer" toil,' end sows for harvest the seed up-
on the land," end "re in the crowded town and
in the peaceflo hamlet, hopes are mingled with
spectilationg as to the restilts of his appeal to the
productive powers of the earth. The recent
legislation in Parr ament has also tended to
bring into Et-ong rel;ef the great iwportance
attached to the possession, tenure, and cultivation
of the soli.

In the beginning, when the heavens and the
earth were created, three-fourths of the surface
of the globe were covered with water, leaving
only one quarter to the land, upon which man
was to build his cities and to raise hireproduce.
Cho solid ground is therefore restricted in its
area. We often hear of encro.chments by the
sea; and there is no doubt that the sea has at
times invaded the thy land, and added it to its
own unconquerable domain. But what it has
taken in one place it has given tip in another;
and reclamations of lend from the waste of waters
are frequently taking place. There can be little
doubt that the propor‘ions of the land and sea
remain age after age pretty much the same. And
this very fact brings forcibly to the mind one
great truth which spelks volumes for the value
which attaches to the land. The quantity as-
signed to man at the time of the Crest on re-
mains suistantially the same. There is a vast
interval between the development of the human
intellect as it existed then, and as it appears now.
Even in the last centuiy, to say nothing of the
thousands of years which n separate us from
the time when " the earth was without form
_and
void," astonishing progeess has been made in
arts, iniseicnces, ia literature, in statesmanship,
in philosophy, and in solving the numerous
problems which come under the description of
social reform. But p.!' the ingenuity of man has
never been able to add a single square yard of
land to the se, face of the ea h. It has been
reclaimed from the shores of the sea, and from
the margina of Ipege livers ; but no monarch,
however powei:r', no ph "osopher however astute,
no necromancer, Lierev-r dexterous, was ever
able to c., ate it. It is thie consideration whieli
makes it so vpluable ; for as the population of
the globe increases, more land will be required
for the settlement of its people. And while the
quantity of land at inP,i's disposal cannot be
materialty increased, even by reclamation, it is
obvious that the volume ofwater upon the
ets,•th's suxiace is impossible of diminution by
human TrieVls. Room has still to be found in
the sea for tie mighty streams of the Amazon
and the Mississippi in one hemisphere, and for
the lesser currents of the Volga and the Danube
in the other. The broad bosom of the ocean still
receives, as it did thousands of years ago, the
contributions made by the Gauges, the Hooghly,
and the Tndus in Asia, and the Nile, the Congo,
and the Niger in Africa. " All rivers run into
the sea, yet the sea is not full." Bcause, as
fast as water is poured into it, it is raised again
by evaporation; and whether the moisture is
distributed over the land or over the ocean, the
result is the same in the end. And thus it comes
inevitably to pass that the quantity of land and
water on the earsh must in every age be very
mt arly the same.

The indispensable nature of the service which
'a )d renders to the production of wealth is too
obvious to ruquire elucidation. Necessarily re-
st i icted in area, it yet supples the entire popu-
lation of the globe with every artic!e of commerce
and, with the exception of fish, with every do
scription of food. We no longer live in days
when manna descends miraculously from the
clouds in order to proNide tho sustenance of a
people. Ono pleasatit and nut, itous article is
found in the sea and in our rivets; but every-
thing else is contributed to our comfort by the
land. Food, clothing, hixiiiies, all inalufactured
articles, produced as they are from either nni-
rnO, toineral, or vege.table kingdoms, ere the re-
:;&ts f the euWvation of the soil. The
poi taoce cf lard as an agent of prodac!ion, End
as a means for seeming Wealth, is regarded as
so great, that the French economists, in the time
of Adam Smith, asserted that land was the sole
cane uf that wealth, It would, however, be
easy to show that labor,- and capital are also
necess vio •he production of wealth ; but that
land is 'ire g .eat mov.ng cause there can be no
doubt whatever. A mid the crowds of the busy
town, or the celuded qaiet of the country, in the
wildest solitudes of mooutain rrnges, or in the
lonely sbip wisich sails the aniface of the ill;mit-
tblo °cern, not a s‘nglo fuer' is taken which does
not remind the recipient (.4 'the all-pavr mount
p t played by
+he hind 'Ti suppl 3 ing sabs'stence
1-
o tLe teeming willions wiii.eh wake up the popu-
littiou A sbo
•