The Land And the Community

they were not wholly raised by rates. Of course the allotments received by lords of manors 620 in number, mostly contributed to swell the acreage of large estates, and even those received by the 22,000 common-right owners would often form appendages to existing freeholds. But it may fairly be presumed that of the 3,500 purchasers among whom the residue of 35,450 acres was distributed, chiefly in small lots, a large proportion became landowners for the first time. 347 "About 1850, Mr. Porter estimated Rent, that with scarcely any exception the revenue drawn in form of rent has been at least doubled in every part of Great Britain since 1790. The rent of cultivated land per acre which in 1770 averaged but 13. reached 27s. in 1850, and T,os. in 1878. The income tax returns show this cultivated ' land' of England and Wales assessed at 44 millions of pounds in 1863, and at 52 millions in 1877. The annual value of lands alone in 1814, was 37 millions and in 1868 474 millions. A progressive and continuous rise in rental of land has taken place within the last 20 or 30 years preceding 1880, though checked in 1878-9 by effects of bad seasons. The increase of rent in England and Wales alone between 1857 and 1875 is nearly 9 millions according to income tax returns. The landed interest of England is estimated to have received a sum exceeding the national revenues from railway companies alone over and above the market price of the land thus sold. One nobleman is known to have...