JO 0« manorial Claims. Jan. 



fruitlefs endeavours to reconcile all jarring interefls to the de- 

 fireable meafure of enclofing feme thoufands 6f very improve- 

 able land ; after having fo far fucceeded, as to fecure the ufual 

 majority of common rights or claims-, after having waved their 

 obje6tions to the payment of tithes in kind, in confequence of 

 the tithe-holder's refufal of any terms of commutation; (till 

 the exorbitant, and perpetually increafing demands, of the 

 agent of the lady of the manor, entirely defeated the whole 

 fcheme of this enclofure, which might have been the means of 

 advantage and comfort to thoufands of families, not to men- 

 tion its obvious public benefit. All thefe are given up to the 

 avarice or caprice of an individual, and to the idea, ftrongly in- 

 culcated, of the unlimited manorial power to oppofe, with fuc- 

 cefs in Parliament, any application for enclofure. Is this law ? 

 or is it equity? No: but it is a cuftom, and a cullom which, 

 being deilructive of the common right, and threatening mife- 

 ry and famine to the community, demands an immediate al- 

 teration. Can any thing be more abfurd in law ? Can any 

 thing be more fubveriive of every principle of political cecono- 

 my, than the very exiftence of an undefined power in indivi- 

 duals to prevent fuch plans of peculiar and obvious utility to 

 the public, as enclofures of unproduflive land in times like 

 thefe, when, from various caufes, the- price of articles of the 

 firft necefiity, the common produce of the country, is raifed 

 fo high, as to be almofl out of the reach of the lower clafles 

 of the community, and almoft to portend the extindlion of 

 them, and their helplefs offspring, by thoufands ? 



5. Minerals, fuch as Coal, Stone, &c. — Some of the metals, 

 as iron, lead, &c. are in many places claimed by the lord of the 

 manor, and in nearly the whole of the wafte or common lands j 

 fometimes to the great injury of the owners of enclofed lands, 

 and frequently of the community at large, by preventing the 

 opening of collieries in convenient rituations,'by the enterprjze 

 of individual freeholders. Under this claim, when the lord of 

 the manor takes into his head to bore, or to make trials, by 

 digging, &c. in fearch of coal or other minerals, he can enter 

 property, and do what he plcafes of that fort, in fpite of all 

 oppofition, even upon the mofl favourite and valuable fpcts, 

 (houfe, garden, &c. excepted); and thefe frequently have been 

 undermined, and almoft ruined, while the owner is obliged to 

 iubmit to it for a compenfation, which, though the diliurber 

 be liable to pay to the amount of the mifchief done, yet fuch 

 compenfation is too often much beneath a full, fair, and equal 

 remuneration for the damages. This claim forms another pro- 

 minent feature of that ftern and tyrannous countenance, which, 

 livil by armsj and violence, and rapine, in the days of chival- 

 ry ; 



