6o LAND REFORM 



By the Act 31 Elizabeth, chap. 7 (1589), no one was 

 allowed in rural districts to build " any manner of 

 cottage or dwelling unless the same person do assign 

 and lay to the same cottage or building four acres of 

 ground at the least." Anyone building a cottage 

 without this provision "shall be fined forty shillings 

 for every month the cottage is so continued."^ 



Destitution, disorder, and crime, direct results of 

 cutting off the people from the land, had become so 

 serious and widespread throughout the country that 

 in order to deal with them the memorable Poor Law 

 Act, 1 60 1, was passed, which, with amendments, in- 

 cluding the drastic amendment of 1834, is the basis 

 of our Poor Law of to-day.'^ 



Thus of^cial pauperism began. It grew rapidly as 

 regards both numbers and cost, and is now recognized, 

 without shame, as a permanent institution in the social 

 economy of the "wealthiest nation in Europe." Every 

 householder, when paying the poor-rate, should re- 

 member that the origin of the impost was the ousting 

 of the people from the soil, and that its continuance on 



A few shepherds only were required, and thus a vast number of small 

 yeomen and peasants were ruined and rendered homeless, and became 

 for the most part vagabonds. All this was done for greed and in viola- 

 tion of the law. " The husbandman thrust owte of their owne," as More 

 says, by "the covetous and unsatiable cormorante" ("Utopia"). See 

 also for valuable information on the subject, Prof Ashley's " Economic 

 History," Vol. I, chap. iv. (Longmans). 



^ There are evidences that this Act was put in force. Hearn, in 

 his " Book of Dorset Sessions," speaks of persons convicted of breaking 

 this law, and adds the " parties were peremptorily ordered to pull down 

 the cottages erected." Quoted in " History of People in Southern 

 Counties in Past Centuries" (by George Roberts, 1856). This Act was 

 repealed by 15 George III, chap. 3. 



^ For a detailed account of the almost incredible state of degradation, 

 immorality, and semi-barbarism to which the "bold peasantry" of 

 England had been reduced under this Poor Law, see " Report of Poor 

 Law Commission," 1834. This report was reprinted in 1885, No. 347. 



