IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. A SERIES OF ESSAYS PUBLISHED UNDER THE SANCTION OF The Cobden Club. London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1870. All Rights reserved. PREF A СЕ. THE present volume contains a series of independent Treatises on various national systems of land tenure. It is published by the Cobden Club, in the belief that they cannot better promote the objects which Cobden had at heart than by collecting, from competent authorities, statements of the law and practice prevailing in different civilized communities, in relation to property in land, and in thus contributing towards the formation of a public opinion on this important subject, founded upon a wide and varied experience. The views taken by Cobden of the effects upon the prosperity of the nation, especially upon the well-being of the agricultural labourer, and the poorer classes generally, are well known; and the advice and warning which he gave to his fellow-countrymen on the last occasion upon which he addressed them in public, possess a peculiar interest at the present time. Political events have already brought into prominence in Ireland questions which, however they may be allowed to sleep in ordinary times, lie at the root of all social progress, and are now engaging the anxious attention of all parties in the State. |