have ever met, yet they found it absolutely
impossible to earn a living from the land simply because the conditions
of their tenure were unreasonable. For thirteen acres of land, with a
small farm-house and farm-buildings, they paid eighty pounds per annum,
with an additional charge of thirty shillings a year for the right of a
boat upon the lake. The most that they could do with this small
holding was to graze four cows, and in a good season they got nearly
enough hay to feed their cattle during the winter months; but with all
the pinching in the world they went steadily behind at the rate of
about forty pounds per annum. This is a concrete example of the
difficulties of the small farmer, and it is sufficient to show how vain
is the hope of any return to the land as long as rents are maintained
at their present level. Were it possible for an English government to
offer free grants of land as the Canadian government does, or even to
fix rents and provide for the purchase of land as is the case in
Ireland, multitudes of able-bodied men, wearied with the fierce
struggle for bread in cities, would avail themselves of the
opportunity; but under the present conditions of farm-tenure those who
know the country best, know that, except in a very few districts, it is
next to impossible to live by the land.

In these important respects, I admit that little can be deduced from my
example. All that I can pretend to teach is that any man possessed of
a small but secure income can live with ease and comfort in the
country, where he would be condemned to a bitter struggle in a city;
that a country life presents incomparable advantages of health and
happiness; that it is not dull or monotonous to the man who has a
genuine love of Nature, and some intellectual resources in himself; and
that what are called the privations of such a life are inconsiderable
compared with the real injuries endured by the man of small income, who
earns his difficult bread in the fierce struggle of a city or a
manufacturing town.

This leads me to a final question, viz. can nothing be done to
regenerate our cities? Is it quite impossible that the City of the
Future should be so contrived as to offer the best advantages of
corporate and communal existence without those intolerable
disadvantages which at present make the city a realm of 'dreadful
night' to the poor, the weak, and the sensitive?

I began by saying that I am not a hater of cities. I fe