f land under grain is not, PER SE, followed by an increase
of meat. If the area under grain were increased, it would be preceded by
an increase in the growth of turnips, and followed by a greater growth
of clover; and these cattle-feeding products would materially add to the
meat supply.

A most important change in the system of landholding was effected by the
spread of RAILWAYS. It was brought about by the influence of the trading
as opposed to the landlord class. In their inception they did not appear
likely to effect any great alteration in the land laws. The shareholders
had no compulsory power of purchase, hence enormous sums were paid for
the land required; but as the system extended, Parliament asserted the
ownership of the nation, over land in the possession of the individual.
Acting on the idea that no man was more than a tenant, the state took
the land from the occupier, as well as the tenant-in-fee, and gave it,
not at their own price, but an assessed value, to the partners in a
railway who traded for their mutual benefit, yet as they offered to
convey travellers and goods at a quicker rate than on the ordinary
roads, the state enabled them to acquire land by compulsion. A general
act, the Land Clauses Act, was passed in 1846, which gives privileges
with regard to the acquisition of land to the promoters of such works as
railways, docks, canals, etc. Numbers of acts are passed every session
which assert the right of the state over the land, and transfer it from
one man, or set of men, to another. It seems to me that the principle
is clear, and rests upon the assertion of the state's ownership of the
land; but it has often struck me to ask, Why is this application of
state rights limited to land required for these objects? why not apply
to the land at each side of the railway, the principle which governs
that under the railway itself? I consider the production of food the
primary trust upon the land, that rapid transit over it is a secondary
object; and as all experience shows that the division of land into small
estates leads to a more perfect system of tillage, I think it would be
of vast importance to the entire nation if all tenants who were, say,
five years in possession were made "promoters" under the Land Clauses
Act, and thus be enabled to purchase the fee of their holdings in the
same manner as a body of railway proprietors. It would be most useful
to the state to increase the number of tenants-in-fee-