^be minctcentb (rcutiu\\ 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE LAND FROM THE CITIZEn's STANDPOINT. 



The end of the century was obscured with the shadow of 

 coming Reform. All the controversies with which we have 

 hitherto dealt in these pages were now approaching a crisis, 

 and the results are to be found in those laws relating to the 

 labourers, the poor, the titheowners, the farmers, and the 

 landlords, which fill so many pages of the statute book referring 

 to the first half of the present century. 



It will be our principal task in the few remaining chapters 

 of this volume to complete our examination of the various 

 causes which led to the General Enclosure Acts of ISOl, 

 1836, and 1845,^ to the emancipation of labour by the repeal 

 of the Elizabethan Statute of Labourers in 1813 and 1814, and 

 the removal of the prohibitions against the combinations of 

 workmen in 1825,- to the redistribution of the Franchise in 

 1832,3 to the abolition of Recoveries in 1833,^ to the Poor Law 

 Reforms in 1834,^ to the Commutation of Tithe in 1836,« to 

 the extension of the qualification for a seat in the Lower House 

 of the Legislature to other forms of Property besides Realty in 

 1838,'^ to the evasion by the commercial interests of their 

 liabihties for Land Tax in 1833,^ and for Poor rates in 1840,^ 

 to the Enfranchisement of Copyholds in 1841, ^^^ to the altera- 



1 41 Geo. III. c. 109 ; 6 and 7 Will. IV. c. 115 ; 8 cand 9 Vict. c. 118. 



2 53 Geo. III. c. 40; 54 Geo. III. c. 96; 4 and 5 Geo. IV. c. 95 and 97. 

 •"' 2 and 3 Will. IV. c. 45. ■* 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 74. 



5 4 and 5 Will. IV. c. 76. " 6 and 7 Will. IV. c. 71. 



^ 2 and 3 Vict. c. 48. » 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 12. 



« 3 and 4 Vict. c. 89. •" 4 and 5 Vict. c. 35. 



