72 LAND REFORM 



of the "Rural Labourers' League" of the present 

 day,^ 



In 1835 The Labourer's Friend Society issued a 

 report which throws a strong side-Hght on the miseries 

 and injustice inflicted on the rural population, "by 

 enclosing waste lands and depriving labourers of their 

 hitherto available resources." 



A few extracts from this report might be interesting 

 to the general reader. In support of the contention 

 that " enclosures and the severance of the labourer 

 from the land was a principal cause that has led to the 

 peasant's degraded condition," the report, among other 

 cases, states that " the parish of Abringdon Pigots 

 in Cambridgeshire was enclosed in 1770; before the 

 enclosure every man had a cow. On the enclosure 

 the owners of common riohts had allotments assisfned 

 to them, but they were soon severed from the cottages 

 and thrown into the adjoining farms. Before the en- 

 closure no poor's rates had been levied, but ever since 

 the allotments had been taken from the cottages, the 

 poor's rates have been gradually increasing, and they 

 now bear a large proportion to the rental." 



" In the parish of Lidlington, in consequence of the 

 same system of depriving cottagers of land, the poor's 

 rates, which in the year 1751 were only sixpence in the 

 pound, became four shillings in 1801, and have been 

 since annually increasing." 



The report contains a remarkable letter from the 

 Rev. R. Warner, Vicar of Castle Carey, Somerset- 



^ The principal objects of the Rural Labourers' League are : to assist 

 every practical effort to secure a more direct connection between the agri- 

 cultural population and the soil ; to improve the condition of the rural 

 labourers with a view to make village life more attractive, etc. (Office ; 

 110 Strand, London.) 



