Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/235

Rh DIVISION OF LAND.] ENGLAND 223 1S1011 uided &amp;gt;ertv. The British emigration of 1876 was made up of 73,396 persons of English, 10,097 of Scottish, and 25,976 of Irish origin. Of the English emigrants, 34,612 went to the United States, 6227 to British North America, 20,582 to Australia, and 11,975 to other colonies and other foreign countries. More persons of British origin returned from the United States than wont there in the year 1876, the number of emigrants being 54,554, and of immigrants 54,697. On the whole, it seems probable that the emigration movement will not soon again rise to the vast dimensions it once assumed, and that, at any rate, it will cease to be an important factor in the growth of the English population. III. Division of the Land. Agriculture. Till within the last few years nothing whatever was known regarding the ownership of land in England, and widely differing estimates, none of them of any real value, in the absence of all authentic facts, were brought forward from time to time about the subject. Various attempts to get official returns failed, till at last the House of Lords consented to an inquiry, which resulted in the publication, in 1876, of a report in two volumes imperial quarto, entitled Landowners in England and Wales: Return of the Owners of Land of One Acre and upwards in England and Wales, exclusive of the Metropolis, ivith their Names, Addresses, Extent of Lands, and Estimated Gross Rental. Though the information put forth in this Bluebook, referring to the year 1873, is not distinguished by great accuracy, the returns regarding the extent and rental of the land being based on the parish valuation lists, mostly very defective, while large extents of land are not accounted for at all, still the publication proved of the highest interest, as containing the only actual facts known about the division and ownership of the land. The summary of the return published by the Govern ment, referred to frequently as the Xew Domesday Book, showed that in the year 1873 there were in England and Wales 972,836 owners of land, holding together 23,013,515 acres, of a gross estimated rental of 99,382,301. The subjoined table exhibits the number of landowners, under thirteen classifications of ownership, the total extent of lands held by each class, and the gross estimated rental: Classification of Ownership. Number. Extent of Lands. Gross Esti mated Rental. Acres.

Less than one acre 703,289 151,172 29,127,679 1 acre and under 10 121,983 478,680 6,438,325 10 acres and 50 72,640 1,750,080 6,509,290 50 ,, 100 25,839 1,791,606 4,302,003 100 ,, 500 32,317 6,827,347 13,680,760 500 ,, 1,000 4,799 3,317,678 6,427,552 1,000 ,, 2,000 2,719 3,799,307 7,914,371 2,000 ,, 5,000 1,815 5,529,190 9,579,312 5,000 10,000 581 3,974,725 5,522,610 10,000 ,, 20,000 223 3,098,675 4,337,023 20,000 ,, 50,000 66 1,917,076 2,331,303 50,000 ,, 100,000 3 194,939 188,746 100,000 and upwards 1 181,616 161,874 Areas not specified 6,448 2 831,453 Rentals ,, 113 1,424 Total of England and ) Wales (exclusive of the &amp;gt; 972,836 33,013,515 99,352,301 Metropolis) .. j Of the total area of England and Wales comprising 37,324,833 statute acres, no less than 4,311,368 are not accounted for in the foregoing returns. These must con sist partly of waste spaces, moorlands, and other areas, including that of the metropolis and crown property, intentionally set aside ; and partly of lakes, rivers, and roads. This leaves perhaps a million or more of acres wanting, through great errors and omissions in the parish lists on which the returns were based. Still, with all these imperfections, and the undoubted miscalculations in the rental values, generally admitted to be large under-state- ments, enough remains to give a fair idea of the division of landed property in England and Wales. One of the mo^t notable features of the returns is the fact that the number of landowners possessed of less than one acre is as high as 703,289, being 72 - 3 per cent of the whole. The great decrease seen in the number of those who possess from one acre to ten, being considerably under one-fifth of the first class, is remarkable; and no less so is it that there are more landowners who possess from 100 to 500 acres than who possess from 50 to 100 acres. The total number of landowners in England and Wales is alto gether, according to these returns, very far above to what was formerly believed, for in the census returns of 1861 the number of &quot; landed proprietors &quot; was given at 30,766, and iu those of 1871 at 22,964. But while it is seen that real property is so widely distributed, there appears not the less from the Bluebook of 1876 the all-important fact that the proprietors of over 5000 acres, who deserve, more especially, the title of &quot;great&quot; landowners, 874 in number, hold 9,367,031 acres, or more than one-fourth of the country. The owners of 1000 acres and upwards, numbering 5408, hold 18,695,528 acres, being more than one-half of the land ; and those of 500 acreo and upwards, 10,207 in number, hold 22,013,206 acres, or two-thirds of the whole of England and Wales. Together with the returns of landowners in England there were issued similar ones for Scotland and Ireland. It is not a little interesting to compare the relative facts given in these various returns, which illustrate to a striking degree the diversity of the ownership of the soil and division of the land in the three portions of the United Kingdom. While in England the proportion of landowners below an acre is 72 - 3 per cent., it is 85 - 5 per cent, in Scot land, and 52 - 6 in Ireland. Again, of landowners possess ing more than one acre, the proportion who have less than 500 acres is 96 1 p&quot;er cent, in En^knd, 86 5 per cent, in Scotland, and 80 1 per cent, in Ireland, With regard to England, the twelve largest owners hold in the aggregate 1,058,883 acres, while the twelve largest owners in Scot land possess 4,339,722 acres, and the twelve largest owners in Ireland 1,297,888 acres. Thus the ownership of the twelve principal landowners of England is not one-fourth that of the twelve chief landowners of Scotland. The total number of landowners in each of the divisions of the United Kingdom was given as follows in the official returns : Great and small land owners Engli.s Scottis andlri land- Divisions. Number of Owners of less than one acre. Number of Owners of one acre and upwards. Total Number of Owners. England. .... 703,289 269,547 972,836 Scotland 113,005 19,126 132,131 Ireland 36,144 32,572 68,716 United Kingdom 852,438 321,245 1,173,683 The gross estimated rental value of the landed property j^ti. enumerated in the returns was stated as follows : mated Estimated relltal Divisions. ,, ental Value England 99,352,301 Scotland 18,698,774 Ireland 13,417,758 value ol land. United Kingdom 131,468,833 In England, one person in 20 of the population is an owner of land, against one in 25 in Scotland, and one in 79