[ 36 3 



the cottager's COW so much below what it ought to be, deprives 

 him of every real advantage. 



Proprietors or occupiers of large estates in the vicinity of a com- 

 mon, by turning out great quantities of stock by day, and taking 

 them home to feed by night have derived the only benefit which an 

 overfed common could afford. 



The cattle of the cottager, as well as of the distant commoner un- 

 der this competition, must unavoidably suffer. The latter may be 

 recruited by occasional removal to better pasturage ; the former 

 having none, must hire, or leave them on the common either in 

 a stunted or starved condition. These are facts of general noto- 

 rity, on which it will not be easy to deduce {commuaibus aunts) any 

 material benefit to the cottager from stocking; but when the ex- 

 pence of winter support is added, the question is decided, and the 

 presumed advantage, is converted into a positive loss. For ten or 

 twelve shillings per annum a common might be rented. Nothing 

 gives with greater accuracy the value of a thing, than fair and 

 unrestrained competition, if so, when the privilege of stocking 

 a common for a year, might be obtained for ten or twelve shillings, 

 by a farmer in possession of means to accommodate stocking to 

 every variety of season, what can the value be to a cottager de- 

 prived of these ? instead of ten or twelve shillings, the annual 

 ■neat value of commons inclosed has been raised from 3I. to 20I. per 

 annum, which as an unquestionable fact establishes without scruple, 

 or hesitation, the private as well as public importance of the in- 

 closing system. Most of the stocking cottagers have rights ap- 

 pendant to their cottages, without land, under the denomination 

 of auster tenemants. To these, allotments are made equal in quan- 

 tity, and quality, as to farms of the greatest extent. Here, the 

 cottage claimant, by relinquishing a privilege, injurious rather than 

 lucrative is placed in a better situation than the proprietor of an 

 extensive farm, who surrenders every advantage of stocking which 

 capital, situation, and convenience might give him, for an equality 

 of allotment with the former, who has no sacrifice to make but 

 ignorance and prejudice, and derives from his allotment a clear 

 undiminished profit. 



Besides, moral effects of an injurious tendency, accrue to the 



tottager from a reliance on the imaginary benefits of stocking a 



2 common. 



