68 The Revolution in Agriculture 



thousand families were removed from their old homes, such as 

 they were, how in a few years many landlords had built up 

 estates, how a minority of the farmers became tenants with a 

 large if not unlimited control of much larger farms than they had 

 held before, how the majority of the displaced landholders dis- 

 tributed themselves among the new industries, or became farm 

 labourers, or went as emigrants to the new worlds. The period 

 from 1770 to 1850 was one of extraordinary unsettlement and 

 resettlement. The country was like a hive of bees which kept 

 swarming all the time. There were serious hardships and 

 injustices, as was inevitable. The struggle for and against enclo- 

 sure was not only one between individuals ; it was one between 

 the two deep principles in human nature, the desire for efficiency 

 and the desire for fair play. Fair-minded men like Arthur Young, 

 who were keen on progress, advocated enclosure, and at a later 

 time they expressed regret for the great suffering and injustice 

 which had been inflicted on thousands of displaced families. 

 ' By nineteen out of twenty Inclosure Bills ', said Arthur Young 

 in 1801, ' the poor are injured, and some grossly injured.' Many 

 protests were made against the methods of enclosure and many 

 appeals on behalf of schemes which would provide the evicted 

 families with an allotment and cottage. They had no success. 

 In 1800, and even in 1900, the British people were no more 

 capable of harmonizing the demand for efficiency with the 

 demand for fair play in this matter of enclosure than they were in 

 1500. This problem still faces us. 



To stir up and confuse things more thoroughly England went 

 to war with France in 1793. Except for two short interruptions 

 the war lasted till 1815. It made certain things come about 

 more quickly than they would otherwise have done. It raised 

 prices and hastened enclosures ; it forced people to realize again 

 that next to fighting agriculture is the most important business 

 in any serious war. During the twenty-three years of war the 



