l8oO. On Manorial Claims* t^ 



and conftitution of a free country mufl and ought to find a 

 remedy: For how can a conftitution be defined, that redrefTes 

 not the grievances of the people, nor prote61:s its fubjecls 

 from the vexatious impofitions, unjuft extortions, and feudal 

 tyranny of a few individuals ? 



Many thoufands of pounds have been' vainly fpent in law- 

 fuits, on this very harafling caufe. In the cafe of one very 

 confiderable manufacluring town in the county of York, the 

 inhabitants appeared to have a near profpe^l of emancipation 

 from thefe grinding fiachleSy as they had fucceeded in proving 

 the infufficiency of the mill to grind the quantity required ; 

 when, by a ftratagera, (for ftratagems occur in law, as in 

 war), the plaintiifs put them off the fcenc, gained time, from, 

 the common procrailination of the law, to rebuild the mill, 

 and entirely defeated them. The profperity of the town al- 

 luded to has been, however, materially atFe£led, in confequcnce 

 of the above mentioned confirmation of the claim of foke. 



4. Wajlesy or Common Lands. — Thefe will be found, on due 

 reflection, fubjcds worthy of all the attention that can be be- 

 flowed on then:; and involving objects of the firfl: importance 

 to a nation, fituated, like this, between an increafing papulation, 

 on one hand, and an inadequate fupply of produce on the other. 

 In cafes of intended enclofures of the wafte or common lands, 

 the lord of the manor ufually m.akes a claim on them to a confi- 

 derable amount; which, being in fome degree undefined, gives 

 rife to much altercation, difficulty, and dilcouragement, in that 

 important work; fo that the adjuftment of his claim frequent- 

 ly raifes an obflacle which entirely defeats the plan of enclo-' 

 fure, fo beneficial to the public, and leaves the whole in their 

 old unprodu6live ftate. For it is well underilood, that the op- 

 pofition in a committee of Parliament, which the lord of a ma- 

 nor generally has the power of raifing, will be fo far prevalent, 

 as to leave the commoners little chance of fucceeding againft 

 him. This, added to the ufual practice of appointing one com- 

 millioner out of two or three, together with the tithes y raife an 

 almoft infuperable bar to the enclofure, and confequently im- 

 provement, of a great proportion of the wafte lands in the 

 illand. The tithes are worfe, if poffible; for the hatred of the 

 commoners, in general, to that creeping abufe, is fo great and 

 increafing, that, between their averfion to them, when taken 

 in kind, and the facrifice of a fifth to a tenth part of the M'-afte 

 to their exonerations, they are rendered, in many inftances, 

 perfectly indifferent about any enclofure at all. 



The cafe of the walle lands in the manor of J-Iatfield, near 

 Thorne, in Torkftiire, is a proof of the above obfervations ; 

 where the commoners, after riumerous and heavy exoences, in 



fruitlefs 



