THE ENGLISH LAND SYSTEM 77 



sure of it, or any part of it, except for the purpose of 

 the labourers. All around this great tract of land, 

 which is called waste, the borders are studded with 

 cottages of various sizes and forms, but the more 

 beautiful for this diversity."^ 



But remonstrance, opposition, and petitions were 

 all of no avail. On the contrary, in 1844 another 

 departure was made in the matter of inclosures. In 

 order to avoid the expenses connected with private 

 bill legislation, measures were demanded to make 

 inclosures less costly and still more easy. In that 

 year a General Inclosure Bill was introduced. This 

 being a public Bill came under the notice of the whole 

 House, where it received so much opposition that it 

 had to be withdrawn. The debate on the measure 

 is, however, of much interest from the fact that even 

 in the House of Commons, where the landed interest 

 was predominant, grave doubts were at last felt as 

 to the soundness and justice of the manner in which, 

 under Parliamentary sanction, the policy of inclosures 

 had been carried out during more than a hundred 

 years past. 



Mr. Aglionby, in opposing the Bill, said : — 



"If the poor had rights, they ought to be inalien- 

 able, they ought to be protected. . . . Inclosure Bills 

 had been introduced heretofore and passed without 

 discussion, and no one could tell how many persons 

 had suffered in their interests and rights by these 

 Bills. They were referred to Committees upstairs, but 

 everyone knew how these Committees were generally 

 conducted. They were attended only by hon. members 

 who were interested in them, being lords of the manor, 



* "Selections from Cobbett's Political Register," 1813, Vol. IV. 



