Excerpt from The English Land Laws: Being an Account of Their History, Present Features and Proposed Reforms The Land Question is one which before very long must hold the foremost rank in the line Of English politics. It is a question which materially affects the well-being of our working population generally: but it must be Of more Special interest to those Of the rural districts, - to those two millions - who, by reason Of their late political enfranchisement, have become a power in the state which neither party can afford to despise. They are no longer compelled to Obey laws in the making of which they have had no voice: and legislation concerning the soil they till is no longer at the mercy of those whose interest it was to make laws for the benefit of a class and to maintain the unjust privileges of a landed aristocracy. The Agricultural Labourers are now indeed responsible citizens of a great country, - responsible because they at last form part Of that democracy into whose hands we have placed the destinies of England. And if the great questions of the day are clearly placed before them, at any crisis of our nation's history, I do not think we Shall ever have reason to doubt the wisdom or the patriotism Of their decision. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.