CAUSES OF DISTRESS REMEDIAL AGENCIES. 557 



acres in the agricultural counties, which, during the late calamitous 

 depression, have gone nearly out of cultivation, and which it has 

 been impossible to let upon any terms. Again, notwithstanding the 

 millions of acres which have been inclosed during the last century, 

 there are still millions of waste fit for cultivation scattered over 

 every part of the country. It must be borne in mind, that our 

 labourers should be a fixed population ; and the more closely they 

 can be bound by local ties, the better men and the better citi- 

 zens will they be. There can be no difficulty in finding land, as 

 the u waste lands of the kingdom ought to be treated as a national 

 domain, to be divided and allotted as the demands of society for 

 space and employment happen to increase." The community is 

 entitled to address the proprietors of such lands, in the following 

 terms : " Thousands of your fellow-countrymen are destitute of em- 

 ployment and food you own thousands of acres of waste, which 

 yield very little profit to you, but on which labour might enable 

 them to raise the necessaries of life which they require. If you 

 choose, yourselves, to undertake the cultivation of these neglected 

 lands, well and good ; this will create an extra demand for labour, 

 and afford to those persons the employment of which they are now 

 destitute ; but if you decline this task, which is become necessary on 

 public grounds, the general good requires that the state should step 

 in, and take from you this source of employment and wealth, which 

 you think proper to overlook, giving you, at the same time, the most 

 ample compensation for the rights and advantages which you are 

 called upon to relinquish." This would be perfectly just, and would 

 open an immense field for improvement. Well, but it is urged 

 again, how many of the enclosures of wastes have failed as profitable 

 speculations? how much poor land is thus lying useless? Very 

 true ; but why have these enclosures failed as sources of profit ? 

 from want of a due understanding of the nature of the soil, and of 

 the means necessary to reclaim it. It is amongst the large allot- 

 ments only in these enclosures, where failure can be instanced. The 

 cottage allotments, varying from half an acre to an acre and a half, 

 have been invariably successful ; witness, amongst multitudes of other 

 examples, Knaresborough Forest and the wastes of Christchurch. 



We have expatiated thus at length on waste lands because we look 

 upon them as valuable accessories, and they occur in all places : but 



M.M. No. 6. 4 C 



