FARMING FOE PROFIT 23 



labourers were pulled down. At tlie same time wastes 

 and commons were enclosed and tlirown into sheep farms. 

 This conti-action of the area of rough pasture inflicted a 

 second and fatal blow on the interests of the small cot- 

 tagers. The Statutes of Merton and Westminster only 

 protected the interests of the freeholders, and so long as 

 their consent was obtained no rights were recognised in 

 other classes. The dissolution of the monasteries stimu- 

 lated the process. The new landlords treated the royal 

 grant as an excuse to override the customary and common 

 rights of the existing tenants. The doggerel ballad (' Yox 

 Populi Vox Dei,' 1549) laments the change : — 



We have shut away all cloisters, 



But still we keep extortioners ; 

 We have taken their lands for their abuse, 

 But we have converted them to a worse use. 



Legislation was powerless to check the reaction against 

 tillage ; it failed to compel landlords to limit their flocks 

 and maintain their farm buildings. The main object of 

 the Government was to prevent the depopulation of the 

 country ;^ but exemptions were purchased from the re- 

 straining statutes, or their provisions were evaded. The 

 destruction of farm buildings was forbidden, but it was 

 easy to retain a single room for the shepherd ; a solitary 

 furrow driven across newly laid pasture satisfied the law 

 that no fresh land should be converted from tillaofe ; the 

 number of sheep was limited by law, but flocks were held 

 in the name of sons or servants. A petition in the reign 

 of Henry VIII, states that 50,000 ploughs had been put 

 down, each of which, on the average, maintained 13| per- 

 sons. Thus, 675,000 persons were thrown out of work 



' See Appendix II. 



