Lord Elcho has published a most characteristic letter. He affirms
that it is the easiest thing in the world to buy estates in Britain. In his own county (Haddington) there are eighty-five estates, and within sixty years fifty of these have changed hands, some of them repeatedly ; while the sales of smaller pro- perties have been incessant. In Norfolk, also, "of my own know. ledge," estates have often changed hands; and in Suffolk, one man has gradually acquired an estate of 23,000 acres. In short, land. can be acquired to any extent, by purchasers willing to accept 2 per cent. Lord Eleho thinks these facts fatal to the idea that.settlement and transfer stop sales, but he can think only of purchasers for investment. The point is not whether a millionaire can buy 23,000 acres, but whether John Hodge can buy ten acres without paying an unreasonable fine. Nobody doubts that large estates can be sold readily enough, even when in settlement, the trustees reinvesting the money ; but what trustee of 1,000 acres will sell Hodge ten acres, even for treble their value ? The money is nothing to him, as it would be to a freeholder. To Lord Elcho, the rich are the British people.
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