STATE PAPERS. 



463 



the measure of enclosing ; and as 

 it appeared upon that inquiry, 

 that many cottagers were deprived 

 of the benefit of cows, without 

 any necessity for such deprivation, 

 the Board, in order the better to 

 understand the question, dis- 

 patclied a person in 1801, for the 

 express purpose of fully ascer- 

 taining it in the two comities of 

 Rutland and Lincoln : the report 

 of that jouiney was one of the 

 most interesting memoirs ever 

 laid before the public ; and proved 

 unquestionably the immense ad- 

 vantages resulting from the sys- 

 tem, to the landlord, the farmer, 

 the cottager, and the public. A 

 few short extracts will fully sup- 

 port the asjertion. Lord Win- 

 chelsea thus expresses himself: 



" I am more and more con- 

 firmed in the opinion I have long- 

 had, that nothing is so beneficial, 

 both to the cottagers and to the 

 land-owners, as their having land 

 to be occupied either for tlie 

 keeping of cows, or as gardens, 

 according to circumstances. 



" By means of tliese advan- 

 tages, the labourers and their fa- 

 milies live better, and are conse- 

 quently more fit to endure labour ; 

 it makes them more contented, 

 and more attached to their situa- 

 tion ; and it gives them a sort of 

 indejK-ndenc-e, which makes them 

 set a liiglier value ujion their cha- 

 ractei'. In the neighbourhood in 

 which I live, men so circum- 

 stanced, are almost always consi- 

 dered as the most to he. depended 

 upon and trusted : the possessing 

 a little property certainly gives a 

 spur to industry ; as a proof of 

 this, it has almost always hap- 

 pened to me, that when a laboiuer 

 has obtained a cow, and land 



sufficient to maintain her, the first 

 thing he has thought of, has been, 

 how he could save money enough 

 to buy another ; and I have al- 

 most always had applications for 

 more land from those people so 

 circumstanced. There aie several 

 labourers in my neighbourhood, 

 who have got on in thai manner, 

 till they now keep three, and 

 some four cows, and yet are 

 amongst the hardest working 

 men in the country, and the best 

 labourers. I believe there are 

 from scA'enty to eighty labourers 

 upon my estate in Rutland, who 

 keep from one to four cows each ; 

 and I have always heard that they 

 are hard-woiking industrious 

 men ; they manage their land 

 well, and always pay their rent. 



" In a village near me, where 

 there are a great number of la- 

 bourers who keep cows, the poor's 

 rate is not at this time above six- 

 pence in the pound : tiie number 

 of inhabitants 335. 



" Some difficulties may occur, 

 in establishing the custom -of la- 

 bourers keeping cows, in those 

 parts of the countiy where no 

 such custom has existed : where- 

 ever it luis, or does exist, it ought 

 by all means to be encouraged, 

 and not suffered to fall into dis- 

 use, as has been tlie ca«e to a 

 great degree in the Midland coun- 

 ties ; one of the causes of which 

 I apprehend to be, the dislike the 

 generality of farmers have to see- 

 ing the labourers rent any land. 

 Perhaps one of their reasons for 

 disliking this is, that the land, if 

 not occupied by the labourers, 

 would fall to tlieir own share ; 

 and another, I am afraid, is, that 

 they rather wish to have the la- 

 bourers more dependent upon 



them. 



