In Monday's Daily News, Mr. Clifford, of Charlbury, Oxford- shire,
gives a most interesting account of his town. It con- tains 1,500 inhabitants, and covers 2,700 acres. These are owned, not by one big man, but by 152 small ones. Some 110 acres are let in allotments, varying from 1 chain to 2 acres, and there are over 400 acres in small holdings of from 4 to 40 acres. The people are not unenterprising, as is shown by the fact that, though the death-rate is only 17 and the birth-rate 40, the population of the town is stationary. The extra population has found homes elsewhere. There are good primary schools, and a "free grammar-school." It is interesting to note that " yeomanry " is hereditary at Charl- bury. Mr. Clifford declares the town's name to mean the Freeman's town,—the Churl's bury, or settlement, that is. The history of the town is a most convincing proof of the good results of private property in land. Yet, for all that, we expect to see Mr. Clifford's letter quoted as an argument for Socialism. The English people are nothing if not illogical, and seem just now to have got it into their heads that small holdings and Socialism go together.
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