xix.] DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 79 



of the poor, and the high price of wheat stimulated 

 in closure, because when wheat was at from 50s. to 

 100s. and upwards a quarter, it could be cultivated 

 with profit even on inferior lands. 



It may well be doubted, however, whether this 

 conversion of pasturage into tillage has been of 

 permanent advantage to the country, and whether, 

 independently of the interests of the poor, it would 

 not have been well that the wastes should have 

 remained in their original condition of pasture land. 



One of the disadvantages attending inclosures was, 

 according to Mr. Walter, that the recipients of small 

 allotments were sometimes obliged to sell them, in 

 order to meet their quotas of the expense attendant 

 on procuring the Act. And this brings us in face of 

 the great difficulty which besets small proprietors 

 of land. Bad seasons inevitably come, when the 

 produce is insufficient for the maintenance of the 

 owner. He is compelled to seek an advance on the 

 security of his land, and obtains it, not infrequently, 

 on exorbitant terms. Favourable seasons seldom 

 enable him to. do more than pay the interest on the 

 debt he has contracted ; and one, two, or three suc- 

 cessive bad harvests may produce foreclosure and 

 ruin. The same cry comes from the Ganges and the 

 Nile ; the ryot and the fellah are in the grasp of 

 the usurer. Legislation may mitigate, but cannot 

 extirpate, the evil : for it lies in the very nature of 

 things. 



