The Labour Question. 319 



increased expense of living, had joined several small farms into 

 one holding, raised the rent to the utmost, and thus avoided 

 the cost of keeping in repair several separate homesteads. In- 

 stead of numerous small farmers, one rich individual engrossed 

 as many holdings as he was able to stock, and out of their 

 united profits made ample provision for his own family. But 

 no decrease of population occurred, because farmhouses and 

 cottages hitherto occupied by a single family had become sub- 

 divided into two, three, and even four separate dwellings, — 

 consequently a small decrease in the number of houses would 

 not necessarily imply any diminution in the number of families. 

 In fact, the publications of Wales and Hewlett, based on evi- 

 dence obtained from the parish registers, afforded presumptive 

 proofs to the contrary ; while the progressive improvement 

 of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and shipping, shown 

 by Chalmers in his Comj^aratwe Estimate^ corroborated the 

 testimony of the registers. That the Government may have 

 been deceived into the same belief as Price, is possible, for in 

 1776, the Act of Elizabeth forbidding the erection of cottages 

 without at least four acres of land attached, was repealed, thus 

 proving that the country was convinced that there could not 

 be too many labourers' dwellings.^ 



But if the system of engrossing did not check population, it 

 swelled the ranks of the rural poor. For thousands of families 

 which formerly gained an independent livelihood on separate 

 farms, had been thus gradually reduced to the class of day- 

 labourers, and unhappily another cause tended to reduce these 

 to a lower grade still. The influx of a large quantity of wealth 

 into the kingdom, together with its diffusion amidst the higher 

 ranks, had, in spite of the increased taxation, created an expen- 

 sive habit of living, which was one of the chief causes of the 

 enhanced cost of necessaries. The villages were deserted by 

 the rich families during a greater part of the year. The poor 

 lost that valuable support which the charity of the resident 

 squire had freely bestowed upon them ; for now two-thirds of 



' Sir Fred. Eden, later on, drew public attention to the insufficiency of 

 this class of habitation. — Stat& of the Poor, vol. i. p. 361. 



