Country Life
A SCOTTISH TRAGEDY.
For some little while the Duke of Montrose, writing in the
Countryman and elsewhere, has made himself the spokesman of a scheme that brings two extreme political-social philoso-
phies together. He argues that justice would be done to the landowner of rural acres if the Government would accept land in lieu of a money tax in satisfaction of Death Duties. By this simple expedient the land nationalizers (who reckon among their numbers even such stalwart and conservative agriculturists as, Mr. 4. S. Orwin, director of agricultural• economics at Oxford) and the .Squirearchy, so to call it, would
be simultaneously satisfied. For a brief and happy period it was thought that the Government, who have permissive powers to accept land in settlement of duties, would use their opportunity. But the law has been defeated by the depart- ment, as often in England, for example, in respect of the remission of tithe on low-priced land. The alternative
has been as good as nullified by a Treasury minute.
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