V AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES 85 



Somerset's desire to check enclosure was resisted by Par- 

 liament itself. But now there is no further conflict. The 

 Houses of Parliament, the Central Executive, and the local 

 bodies of administration are all working together towards 

 a common end the advancement of the interests of a great 

 commercial and land-owning aristocracy, who were all the 

 more contemptuous of any opposition with which their 

 views might meet, and disregardful of any distress their 

 conduct might cause, because the astounding advance which 

 the nation made under their guidance seemed to prove 

 beyond dispute the correctness of their policy. 

 )^ One of the most characteristic illustrations of this new 

 departure is to be seen in the attitude now adopted towards 

 enclosures. We have previously noticed that even before 

 the middle of the seventeenth century both public opinion 

 and Parliament itself were wavering as to the policy to be 

 adopted. But after the Restoration, and still more after 

 the Revolution of 1688, the change in. favour of enclosures 

 is decisive. The note is clearly struck by Houghtcn, who, 

 in his collections (1693), says, 'he cannot but admire that 

 people should be so backward to enclose, which would be 

 more worth to us than the mines of Potosi to the King 

 of Spain/ l And from that time forward this opinion is 

 reiterated, with variations and elaborations, until it cul- 

 minates in the earlier works of Arthur Young. 2 In 1710, 

 the { Old Almanack with a Postscript ' advocates the enclo- 

 sure of wastes, and sarcastically asks who can object. ' Will 



have been the chief and almost only authors of and gainers by 

 enclosures. Law which hinders profit of a powerful man is not 

 effectually executed.' 



1 Quoted, English Hist. Review, xxiii. 483. 



2 Cf. more especially Woolidge, Systema Agriculturac, 1681 ; Nourse, 

 Campania Felix, 1700; J. Mortimer, The whole Art of Husbandry, 

 1707; John Laurence, A New System of Agriculture, 172t>; Ed. 

 Laurence, Duty of a Steward, 1727. 



