2 JANUARY 1886, Page 30

PEASANT-PROPRIETORS.*

AMONG the things, new and old, of which Lady Verney dis- courses in the essays she has contributed to Fraser and the Contemporary Review, and has now collected into two volumes, none, perhaps, are at this moment of more interest than those which deal with that much-discussed personage, the peasant- proprietor. While some of his friends describe him-as coming nearer than most of us to the scarcely-attainable state of perfect contentment, Lady Verney puts him before us, on the contrary, as an ill-starred mortal, burdened with debts and difficulties, miserable and sordid in his manner of life, and not to be com- pared with the British farm-labourer in point of comfort, happiness, or culture. So strongly is she prejudiced against the system of peasant-proprietorship that she does not even recognise the immense satisfaction derivable from a sense of possess]on, which is so clearly marked by the prevalence of land.hunger amongst so large a portion of civilised * Peasaat-Propertisa,audwther-Sdleerted-Bssays.. By Lady Vernay. 2 vols. London; Longmaaa, Green, and Co.

populations. Go where she will in France or Germany, Lady Verney sees nothing but objeets of pity and compassion, as well as waste of time, of labour, aud of money, where others find admirable examples of thrift, of industry, and of self-denial ; and most especially is she indignant at the idea that the intro- duction of a similar system can possibly prove advantageous either to us or our Irish neighbours.

A traveller who goes forth with strong preconceived notions, makes-hurried visits here and there, asking all manner of ques- tions, which are, of course, reoeived at best with concealed resentment and suspicion, is surely not in a position to pro- nounce opinions of very great value on a subjeot-so diffinult as to require for its solution a vast amount of calm investigation-and an absolutely judicial consideration of the differing circum- stances in which the system is carried out in various countries, —nay, even sometimes in diverse parts of the same country. Lady Verney always seems to speak as if it were expected. that the peasant-proprietor should subsist entirely on the proceeds of his bit of land, however small; whereas that land is, on the contrary, very often an adjunct to some trade or employment carried on by its owner, who resides in the adjoining villagenr large town ; nor does he, if not occupied in this way, at all object to hire himself out to a more extensive farmer, and in this way to add to his store. But in any case the French, German, and Swiss peasant is always thrifty, the practice of small economies has descended to him from past generations, and is unquestionably- fostered by the desire to retain and possibly increase the little inheritance which he will transmit to his children. He is inde- pendent, and he loves to be so. If he works hard—and he does so—and if his wife and children do the same, be prefers such labour on his own property to a lesser amount on that of another, with the item of subserviency added thereto.

What we specially take exception to in these essays of Lady Verney is that their whole tendency is to discourage the acquisi- tion of a virtue which is so much needed in these islands by stigmatising as sordid those economies which the poor of any class should be taught to practise, and by holding up as things of prime importance a small amount of work and the reckless con- sumption of meat and beer which is what is really meant by the working-classes of England when they speak of "good living." That there may be an advantage to the small farmer in hiring as against buying land, provided he can get it at a low rent, we do not dispute, as, of course, in that case he is able to employ his capital in fruit-culture, the purchase of a cow or two, or in other beneficial ways ; but then we have lately seen, in the accounts of the small proprietors and, tenants of Lincolnshire, that the amount they are required to pay for their holdings is out of all fair proportion when compared with the rent demanded for large ones, and, moreover, that the system of assessment upon the rent, instead of the valuation, absorbs almost entirely the accruing profit. Yet, notwithstanding this injustice, the small occupiers have come through the period of agricultural depres- sion at least as well as the larger ones. In Lady Verney's paper on "Little Takes," she gives a glowing account of some of these miniature farms in different parts of England, and even hopes- to see the system more- exten- sively practised. It is evident that she has always in her eye the benevolent landlord and the ideal cottager ; and that in her foreign rambles she always judges-from the English standpoint, and even lays to the fact of proprietorship and its too great subdivision, certain shortcomings in point of cleanli- ness, Sze., that ought to be classed as national habits. Un- doubtedly Lady Verney is right when she speaks of the-evils-of debt; if properties, whether small or great, can otrly be pur- chased by effecting a heavy mortgage, we- would say; 'Let them alone,' for in this case- a man begins- business with-his-hands tied, and is, in fact, not only paying rent, but paying it under distressing circumstances. All we contend for is that. land should be obtainable by the poor man if he desires to have it.

In describing places and people, Lady Verney-is often happy, though sometimes she evolves strange conclusions from what she sees. Tale, for instance, her account of a service in Cologne Cathedral, very- picturesque no doubt, but entirely imaginative; one could hardly have believed that any educated person would accuse Catholics of thinking that their sins were absolved by their being present at the-elevation of the Host, yet here arethe words, coupled, too, with the assertion that the whole thing was vicarious, and that the congregation were carrying on some private devotions of their own, which they-suspended for the

time in order to be, as the writer elegantly expresses it, "'washed clean and done for' by the priest in the lump" :—

" The great organ sounded like the articulate voice of the enormous building, and the single voices of the choir in the distance like the pleadings of earth with Heaven, plaintive, weak, uncertain, full of sorrows and perplexities. And then came the answer of the Church back again, full, rich, powerful, unhesitating, infallible (if only you accept it !) The extremely vicarious nature of the worship struck one, however, the more from the immense distances at which it took place. A tinkling bell rang, out of sight and a quarter of a mile away, telling us that the Host was being raised, and immediately everybody went on their knees, at what- ever point of their devotions they were. You had only to follow your leader and do as you were bid, and you were washed 'clean and done for' by the priest, in the lump, as it were, instead of the strictly individual relation of the soul to its Creator of real Protestant wor- ship. Then the priest put the remains of our Lord into a box on the altar, the little choir-boys swung their incense-pots, and our adore- tions were over."

It is difficult to understand exactly to what service the writer is referring. It seems as if it were intended for Mass ; but in any case the description is most absurd.

The essay on the powers of women and how to use them is in many points good, but it is amusing to find one of the sex speaking of her sisterhood from such a lofty platform ; however, she is in the right in pleading for efficient domestic as well as artistic and scientific education for women according to their different requirements, and we thoroughly agree with her remark that it is "improbable that God should have created two sets of beings, so different, physically and outwardly, if he had intended one to be merely the repetition of the other, or unless they had been fitted to perform different functions in the world's great work." On the whole, her ladyship's con- clusion seems to be a revival of a very old bit of wisdom, though she puts it in other words,—namely, that woman should be a helpmeet for man, and she would have her educated up to her high destiny.

But we must not let our readers suppose that Lady Verney's essays are all practical. By no means. She deals with Greek songs, with Welsh legends, with art subjects, with mysteries, moralities, and the drama, and many other things, and often introduces amongst them a quaint picture and curious bit of folk-lore.