The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-06-10
THE LANDOWNERS OF GREAT BRITAIN
AND IRELAND.
tNew York Sum June ~

completed, into the distribution of real
property in GTeas Britain. What invests
this achievement with peculiar interest is
the fact that since the compilation of the
Domesday Book under William the Nor
mao, nothing like 1t has been accomplished.
Before citing, however, come of the more
| striking results, it is proper to note that
the present registration does not repro
duce all the useful features of it's unique
and time-honored exemplar. 1t by NO
means contemplated q survey of all public
and private domains, q precise determine
tion of their selling or renting value, de-
| tailed statement of the kinds OF culture
employed, or separation ot improved
| from Don-improved property. 1t aimed
simply at an approximate estimate ot The
numb Der of landowner in the United King
dom, together with the amount and value
of their holdings. For this purpose resort
was bad to the existing schedules of the
Poor Law and Income Tax Commission
| ers, and the report lately presented to Par
| lament may be regarded as an abstract
from those data, defective &c sHnef IN
| come particulars, yet on the whole, suff1-
ciently exhaustive and correct. We should
premise further that neither London and
| the built up district enciTcling the metrop'
oils, nor waste lands, common lands, for
ests, parks and pleasure grounds, fell
within the scope of the inquiry and that
the Irish rents, being computed upon an
y
| furnish au adequate measure of present
values. But We are enabled to answer the
capital question, who owns the arabic coil
| of Great Britainf
The aggregate of real property in the
three Kingdoms, excluding the kinds of
lard above specified, somewhat exceeds
seventy.two millions of acres. OF this
total super fcies we find that 34S proprie-
tors, those, namely, - hose estates several
ly comprise twenty thousand acres or
more, engross nearly quarter, OF in ex-
act figures IL 300 600 acres. Next we
note that 2,195 proprietors who individu
ally own five thousand acres or upward
are collectively credited with about thirty
four million acres, or one-half of the whole
area. A somewhat larger category, yet
still inconsiderable in point of.numbers, to
| wit, the 10, 900 landowners who possess one
| thousand acres or more, is actually master
of ffty-two million acres, or more than two
| thirds of the entire arabic surface of the
United Kingdom. 1t appears that the
| remaining third is shared between 1,160.
| 900 small proprietors. whose average hold
ing does not exceed seventeen acres.
These figures undoubtedly confirm the
prevailing impression regarding the alb
| sorption of British soil by great land
owners, but scrutiny of this report in
| more detail reveals Il fact for which we
| were less prepared, namely, that this mon
| opnly ls far less decisive in England than
III CCOliaiu auu 1Teiduu. nus, III oCoG-
| land, there are twenty four proprietors,
| and three In Ireland, each of whom pos
| sc sses one hundred thousand acres or up
| ward, whereas iu England there is only
one man who controls 80 wide an area.
| Again, the aggregate territory bsloDgin &
to the twelve largest English landowners
| is computed at abont Que million acres !;
| the property of the twelve foremost Irish
| landowners reaches nearly a million and a
third ; while twelve real estate magnates
| in Scotland have among them not less thau
| four and a third millions OF acres, or
about one quarter of the whole area of
that kingdom. There is one Scottish land
owner VINO controls one and q third million
acres, more thau the sum of the estates
| belc ngirg TO the twelve greatest proprie-
tors in England or in Ireland, aud we may
add that the same man possesses consid-
| erable pr0perty-sore thirty thousand
! acres-sOuth of the border.
To point in another way the contrast
between the several divisions of the Uuited
Kingdom we may say that England has
one landed proprietor for every twenty
inhabitants, Scotland one for every twenty
| five, and Ireland one in seventy nine in e
habitants. In England, too, the mean
area of each holding is only 33 acres, in
Scotland it is 143, and in Ireland not less
than 293 acres. 1t is to be noted, likewise,
that whI!e the whole English soil is divided
among nearly million owners, the mum
Der OF fFeeholders in Scotland is but 1872 600,
and in Ireland not more thun GO 900. IL,
finally we leave out of view those who
possess less than an acre, and take into
account only such as have one acre CT
more, we observe that England has one
proprietor in 70 inhabitants, Scotland one
in 176 and Ireland one in I66. OF l,173, 900
landowners in the three Kingdoms, it
seems that $50 900 command less than a
single acre, while the remainder belongs
to q more fortunate class.
When we turn to the relative values OF
land in the several parts of the United
Kingdom, we find the difference singular
~ favorable to England. Looking. foI
instance at the income from rents of the
twelve largest properties in each of the
three countries, we see that the mean rev.
enue per acre is about $5.62 in Euglsnd
but oulJ 81 30 in Ireland, and scarcely
} eighty cents in Scotland. Again, the
average return from his estate to each
Euglish holder of lar d is estimated at five
hundred dollars, against seven hundred
} for his Scottish and nearly a Thousand fol
ria lot 10 @