◆¹ In the minds of most of our extreme reformers, excepting a few Socialists, the income of the landlords figures as something limitless; and the landlords themselves as the representatives of all luxury. It is not difficult to account for this. To any one who studies the aspect of any of our rural landscapes, with a mind at all occupied with the problem of the redistribution of wealth, the things that will strike his eye most and remain uppermost in his mind, are the houses and parks and woods belonging to the large landlords. Small houses and cottages, though he might see a hundred of them in a three-miles’ drive, he would hardly notice; but if in going from York to London he caught glimpses of twelve large castles, he would think that the whole of the Great Northern Railway was lined with them. And from impressions derived thus two beliefs have arisen—first that the word “landlord” is synonymous with “large landlord”; and secondly that large landlords own most of the wealth of the kingdom. But ideas like these, when we come to test them by facts, are found to be ludicrous in their falsehood. If we take the entire rental derived from land, and compare it with the profits derived from trade and capital, we shall find that, so far as mere money is concerned, the land offers the most insignificant, instead of the most important question[10] that could engage us. Of the income of the nation, the entire rental of the land does not amount to more than one-thirteenth; and during the last ten years it has fallen about thirteen per cent. The community could not possibly get more than all of it; and if all of it were divided in the proportions we have already contemplated, it would give each man about twopence a day and each woman about three half-pence.[11] [Sidenote ◆1 The landed aristocracy are not the chief rent-receivers.] [Sidenote ◆2 A multitude of small proprietors receive twice as much in rent as the entire landed aristocracy.] [Sidenote ◆3 The entire rental of the landed aristocracy is so small that its confiscation would benefit no one.]