xlii INTRODUCTION 



appears to have been partly due to the antipathy of the local 

 authorities, for allotments and small holdings have been in vogue 

 from the earliest times, and the provision of land for labourers 

 has long been a recognized principle of English law. The Poor 

 Law of Elizabeth gave power to the overseers to acquire land for 

 allotments, and during her reign, and also that of Queen Anne, 

 areas under cultivation by labourers were greatly extended, 

 the labourer ever taking a chance of bettering himself on his native 

 soil, and experience has shown that he makes very good use of it. 



The power granted by Elizabeth was extended by an Act passed 

 in the last year of George Ill's reign, which gave the churchwardens 

 and overseers power " to provide land for employment of the 

 poor to an extent not exceeding twenty acres." This was ex" 

 tended to fifty acres by an Act passed in the last session of the 

 unreformed Parliament, which also gave power to the church- 

 wardens and overseers to enclose waste and common land with 

 the consent of the lord of the manor, or belonging to the Crown. 

 These Acts also gave the parish authorities power to find land 

 on which to employ the poor an early recognition of the " right 

 to work " and live. 



The first " Allotments Act " was passed in the very last days 

 .of the unreformed Parliament. It provided that, when enclosure 

 Acts were passed, the parish vestry might let portions of the land 

 set aside for the use of the poor, to cottagers in allotments of not 

 less than one acre in extent. This Act was amended, and 

 the powers under it increased, by another Act passed in 1873. 

 Its principle was further extended by Mr. Jesse Collings's Allot- 

 ment Act of 1882. This Act enacted that the trustees of the 

 parish charity funds should offer them to cottagers and 

 labourers in allotments of not more than one acre. The statute 

 was fenced round with many restrictions, but in spite of this it 

 did good work in many parishes practically founded the small 

 allotment system of a few perches in area, say from 10 to 20 

 perch plots, of great value to artizans and others in towns 

 for the growth of vegetables, and also in villages the residents of 

 which had not sufficient ground attached to their dwellings for 

 the production of vegetable crops equal to the requirements of 

 the household, besides affording profitable employment for leisure 

 time. As to the former Acts, intended to benefit toilers on the 

 soil, they seem to have fallen into disuse. 



" Three acres and a cow " controversy and the elections in 1885 

 and 1886, the first in which the agricultural labourer had 

 a vote, awoke the country to the importance of keeping the 

 labourer on the land, and certainly aimed at establishing 

 " peasant proprietors." Nothing, however, was done until 

 the Spalding election in 1887, when the Unionist Govern- 

 ment hastily introduced the Allotment Act of 1887. This Act 



