IIISTORK AT. TXTHODUCTION 21 



Also a certain portion was given up to tillage. A large 

 proportion of the labouring men possessed common 

 rights which were of the utmost value to them. One 

 has only to study a pre- 1790 labourer's family budget 

 to see how much better and more varied was the fare, 

 as compared with the labourer of later years who had 

 been deprived of his common rights. 



The hundred years between 1750 and 1850 was the 

 great period of Enclosure Acts : between 1790 and 1850 

 some 7,000,000 acres were enclosed. 



Not only was the enclosing of common land a great 

 injustice to the labouring class, it was unsound from the 

 social and political points of view ; as stated above the 

 daily fare of the labourer was adversely affected and all 

 direct and independent interest in the land was removed, 

 and the agricultural labourer was forced into the ranks 

 of the landless proletariat. 



We have not even yet come to the end of the effects 

 of this disastrous policy. 



The advocates of enclosure ever insisted upon the 

 tact that " Enclosures secured the better cultivation of 

 the land," and this is quite true ; only the land should 

 have been enclosed and secured to the commoners 

 themsehes, and the large neighbouring landowners 

 should not have been allowed to get possession of it as 

 they actually did owing to the fact that the new small 

 owners, not being able to afford the cost of fencing, etc., 

 had to sell out. It is noteworthy that in Prussia and in 

 certain other countries enclosure on a large scale took 

 place ; but the common land was turned into small 

 holdings, of which the late commoners became the 

 occupying owners to the great benefit of the community 

 generally. 



In some parts of England certain villages have still 



