DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 77 



XIX. 



INCLOSURE OF WASTE LANDS. MR. JOHN WALTER 

 FORMATION OF A PEASANT PROPRIETARY. 



A NOT inconsiderable alteration in the distribu- 

 tion of land in England took place at the end of the 

 last and commencement of the present century, 

 through the operation of inclosures. Under the 

 sanction of Parliament, waste lands were divided 

 among those who had rights of common over them, 

 in proportion to the estimated value of those rights, 

 and the area of cultivated land was thus consider- 

 ably increased. 



Some interesting statistics respecting inclosures 

 are given in a pamphlet, entitled " A Letter to the 

 Electors of Berkshire, by John Walter, Esq., 1839," 

 from which it appears that, while the average 

 number of Inclosure Acts from 1783 to 1793 was 

 about thirty annually, the annual average rose to 

 ninety from 1793 to the close of the war in 1815. 



The inclosure of waste lands does not appear to 

 have produced the improvement in the condition of 



