2i6 History of the English Landed Interest. 



Equally sound advice appeared in 1767, from the pen of a Mr. 

 Forster, Rector of All Saints, Colchester, who wrote An En- 

 quiry into the Causes of the Present High Prices of Provisions. 

 Then, too, a Mr. Lamporte advocated the enclosure system in 

 an able pamphlet, entitled Cursory Remarhs on the Importance 

 of Agriculture^ etc., which met with favourable mention in the 

 Monthly Review for January, 1785. 



There was indeed hardly an economical grievance of the 

 period which did not sooner or later involve a discussion of 

 the enclosure question. In spite of increasing prices and the 

 introduction of mixed husbandry, the system had not become 

 by any means universally popular ; and hardly had Lamporte's 

 pamphlet appeared in prints when it was attacked by the retort 

 of a Society of Farmers in 1785.^ This treatise, full of un- 

 practical economical theories, together with another of a 

 similar nature,^ called forth a crushing rejoinder ^ from the 

 Rev. John Hewlett in 1787 ; and so the controversy progressed, 

 the enclosure policy being alternately indicted and defended 

 in much the same way as we have already shown that of the 

 public registry of titles to have been. 



Now, although old-fashioned husbandmen might air their ob- 

 jections against the new system in this manner, its ultimate 

 progress was insured ; for the common field economy, like 

 Monasticism and Feudalism, had had its day. Had, however, the 

 political franchise about a century back been extended to the 

 lower classes of agriculturists as widely as it has been since, 

 the new economy would have never been allowed to exist ; and 

 a parliamentary candidate of the Georgian period, who staked 

 his seat on the advocacy of the enclosure system, would have 

 had no chance whatever of being elected. But the Acts of 

 Anne c. 5 and 33 Geo. II. c. 26 had for a time artificially 

 prolonged the political supremacy of the country gentleman. 



' A Political Enquiry into the Consequences of Enclosing Waste Land, 

 etc. Holborn, 1785. 



"' Cursory Remarks upon Enclosures, by a County Gentleman. 



•' Enclosures a Cause of Improved Ayricidture, of Plenty and Cheapness 

 of Provisions of Population, and of both Prirafe and National Wealth, 

 beincj an Examination of Two Pamphlets, etc. London, 17S7. 



