Great Land Holdings of England
ONE of the great causes of discontent in England is the large amount of land which is held by the nobility uncultivated, untaxed. In the aggregate British peers possess one fifth of the total area of the United Kingdom, or nearly 16,500,000 acres. The Lords whose votes defeated the recent budget own more than 10,000,000 acres, an amount of land double the area of Massachusetts. The average ducal domain is 142,564 acres, an area almost equaling that of Chicago and St. Louis combined. Marquises own an average of 47,500 acres; earls, 30,217; viscounts, 15,324; and barons, 14,152. Seven titled landlords alone derive an annual income of over $70,000,000 from their property holdings in London. The Duke of Westminster receives $15,000,000 a year from this source; Lord Howard Walden, $14,500,000; the Duke of Bedford, $11,500,000; and the Duke of Norfolk, $7,500,000. They were opposed to the three forms of taxation in the proposed budget which was defeated; the twenty per cent tax on unearned increment, a tax of two tenths of one per cent on the value of undeveloped land and on the mining royalties, and a 10 per cent duty on benefits accruing to the owners of leased land at the termination of the lease. At the present writing it would look as tho Mr. Lloyd-George would be sustained by the suffrages of the people, altho his parliamentary majority will be much less than before. The result of the election reveals the perplexity and uncertainty of the people.