Page:The Land Question.djvu/24

24 Recapitulation. And now I have finished my discourse and will briefly recapituaterecapitulate [sic] the changes in the law which I have proposed. These are:—the alteration of the law of intestate primogeniture and the abolition of family settlements; the making public all mortgages and charges on land; the enfranchisement of leaseholds of houses with more than twenty years unexpired; the bestowal of the right on municipal or town authorities to take up the land around the town for building purposes; the prevention of the removal of agricultural tenants without sanction of some public authority; the creation of local Land Courts with power to fix rents in case of dispute and to order reductions under existing leases; the granting the farmer a right to sell his tenancy, subject to the landlord's right to object to the new tenant in the Land Court; the enforcement upon landlords of an obligation to provide reasonable cottage-accommodation on their estates; the empowering the parish to take up land for labourers' and other small holdings; the authorising of local authorities and those in control of charitable funds to advance money on loan to stock labourers' holdings; and finally the investiture of local Land Courts with the powers now exercised by the Legislature, to grant, whether to individuals or associations, for sufficient reason and on equitable terms, compulsory powers of purchasing land.

These changes, if carried out, would, I believe, make England, in a way that it has not been for the last hundred years, the home of the English people; and these changes will, I hope, be urged in a reformed Parliament by the representatives of your famous city.