THE EDUCATION OF LANDOWNERS. as vas Eons. or Tea 4.
SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—It is little better than a truism to say in these days that success in any particular calling in life can only be attained by an education specially adapted to its requirements, but there is at least one instance in which the principle is so frequently disregarded in practice that it cannot be idle or out of place to call attention to it. What position in life in more difficult to fill adequately and efficiently, what duties more important and far-reaching in their effect, than those which a young man is called on to fill and perform when he succeeds early in life to the inheritance of a large landed estate, and what is the customary preparation for it P There are hundreds, nay, thousands, of young men in this country who, after passing through the ordinary curriculum of a liberal education at school and college, are called on at the age of twenty-one or soon after to enter on the duties and responsi- bilities of owning and managing landed property producing an income which renders it unnecessary and undesirable that they should turn to any other means of money- getting.
What is the usual fate of these young men, assured of a rent-roll and income, immediate or prospective, of, say, five to a hundred thousand a year P Most of us know pretty well, with or without the speeches, moderate or immoderate, sound or merely abusive, of up-to-date land reformers, in what directions these imperative duties lie— that they necessarily imply the ascertaining, learning, incul- cating, and encouraging the best methods of tilling and cultivating the soil, the best, most useful, and most remunera- tive crops to produce, the education of young farmers and farm labourers, the studying and practical pursuit of the best systems of housing estate and farm employees of different grades, the providing of entertainment and occupation for their leisure hours, and the numberless ramifications and developments involved. Instead of a careful attempt to master these subjects, essential for the maintenance of the position and rights of himself and his successors, the young and well-endowed landowner is generally launched straightway into what is too often, it must be confessed, a life of ease and pleasure, with a commission in the Household Cavalry or the Guards, preceded, perhaps, by six or twelve months of world travel. In the majority of cases the young landowner fortu- nately becomes at any rate a good soldier, fond of his profession, and perhaps an adept at it. But would it not have been infinitely better for himself, for his family, for his successors in the estate which be has inherited as well as for the hundreds or thousands of farmers and labourers who are so largely dependent on him, that the young man should have passed on to his younger brother the attractive Army com- mission, and should himself have taken the trouble. for which he will be so handsomely remunerated, of apply- ing himself to the acquisition of the knowledge essential to his position, instead of being obliged to delegate all such matters to an agent? What can the young or middle- aged landowner know, after a few years of military service in London and Windsor, and of the life of sport and pleasure which he customarily enjoys during his annual leave, of the real duties which have fallen to his lot, and which he bas undertaken to perform P Nothing, or at best very little, even in the most favourable cases. The knowledge necessary for the performance of the duties above enumerated is to be acquired only by careful, special, and prolonged study, and he has not taken the trouble, has not been given the opportunity, to acquire it.
The fault is not his; it is his parents and guardians. The opportunities are not wanting to those who will seek them, and are prepared to give up a portion of their idle pleasures to enable them to perform creditably the duties to which they have been called. The Universities, the public schools, the specialist institutions, will play their part if they are given the chance. These opportunities are now utilized by young men entering the profession of a land agent. Why are they not utilized still more by the young landowner him- self and by his eldest son, who have so much more at stake P We are fortunate in this country in having a large and capable class of professional land agents, whose services will always be needed; but it is principals, and not merely agents, that are wanted for the country at large, men who can themselves, and for their own account, take part in formulating and directing those far-reaching measures affecting the land and its culti- vators which are now needed to meet the reasonable requirements of the whole rural population.—I am, Sir, do, LANDOWNER AND LAND REFORMER.
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