THE ENGLISH LAND SYSTEM 8i 



those who opposed it turned out to be correct. Some 

 official writers and others, speaking in the landed 

 interest, endeavour to show that great advantages 

 resulted from the administration of the Inclosure Com- 

 missioners who were appointed ; that a certain extent 

 of the inclosed land was sold in parcels to many per- 

 sons of different classes ; that a large number of roads 

 were made ; that the existing commoners who could 

 make good their claim had land assigned to them ; 

 and especially that field gardens and allotments were 

 put aside for the labourers. All this is true as far as 

 it goes, but it affected the general results of the Act 

 to such a small degree as not to be worth con- 

 sideration. 



A Parliamentary return of Inclosures, dated 1869, 

 gives 614,804 acres as the quantity of land inclosed 

 since the Act of 1845. Of this large area (about 

 the size of the whole county of Northamptonshire) 

 only 2223 acres were allotted to the "labouring 

 poor." The reasons given by the Commissioners for 

 setting aside such a small quantity of land for that 

 purpose were of the most flimsy kind. The people 

 "had gardens already." Land was "too distant from 

 the dwellings." It was "too elevated" or otherwise 

 "unfit." Much of the land inclosed "was not subject 

 to the operation of the Act," etc. etc. 



This policy pursued by the territorial classes through- 

 out the centuries — a policy often checked but never 

 abandoned — may be said to have been completed 

 about the sixties of last century. The proceedings 

 connected with the policy, so far as statistics and 

 dry facts go, are recorded in the numerous Parlia- 

 mentary Blue Books and other official documents, 

 but the sufferings and wrongs inflicted on the rural 



