You see, the land system of England remains--the changes having been
for the worse. William the Conqueror wanted to keep the Saxon
peasantry contented, so he left them their "commons"; but in the
eighteenth century these were nearly all filched away. We saw the same
thing done within the last generation in Mexico, and from the same
motive--because developing capitalism needs cheap labor, whereas
people who have access to the land will not slave in mills and mines.
In England, from the time of Queen Anne to that of William and Mary,
the parliaments of the landlords passed some four thousand separate
acts, whereby more than seven million acres of the common land were
stolen from the people. It has been calculated that these acres might
have supported a million families; and ever since then England has had
to feed a million paupers all the time.

As an old song puts the matter:

Why prosecute the man or woman
Who steals a goose from off the common,
And let the greater felon loose
Who steals the common from the goose?

In our day the land aristocracy is rooted like the native oak in
British soil: some of them direct descendants of the Normans, others
children of the court favorites and panders who grew rich in the days
of the Tudors and the unspeakable Stuarts. Seven men own practically
all the land of the city and county of London, and collect tribute
from seven millions of people. The estates are entailed--that is,
handed down from father to oldest son automatically; you cannot buy
any land, but if you want to build, the landlord gives you a lease,
and when the lease is up, he takes possession of your buildings. The