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change the habits of a race which has grown up under
harsh treatment. Progress, however, has been rapid.
There are no more deserted farms. On the estate of
Kronoborg, the home farm has been turned into an
agricultural school, greatly to the benefit of the
agricultural folk of the neighbourhood. Much benefit has
been derived on the same estate from the settlement
of Swedish peasants from Ostrobothnia, who came here
after the famine in 1867—8. Many of the farms have
only been transferred quite recently, because the
process of enclosure had to be finished before it was
possible to determine what each tenant had to pay.
The whole reform is a remarkable example of a
radical change, in which all private rights have been
most carefully respected. We, for our part, believe
that the English government would have done well
to treat Irish land in the same manner, instead of
depriving the landlords of part of their property, while
at the same time they left the tenants discontented
at not obtaining a clearly defined position. There is
nothing better for the small cultivator of the soil than
owning his land, and it is not impossible that it may
one day be found expedient in Ireland to imitate on a
larger scale the example of this northern country, and
purchase big estates to re-sell to the tenants.
It was, of course, highly desirable that as many as
possible of those persons who have no home of their
own should obtain land. Finland is inferior to the
most civilised countries of Europe, both in the number
of its landed proprietors and in the number of persons
entirely without homes, but it is far superior in both
respects to the less civilised nations of Southern and
Eastern Europe. There are better openings for
workmen nowadays, and a larger part of the population
can now live without homes of their own, and without
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