316 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



in this respect, as well as in many others, to our small 

 and middling proprietors, than to our large. 



Scotland, moreover, has long ago experienced a revolu- 

 tion, which has not taken place yet in France, and which 

 even in England has not been carried to the same ex- 

 tent namely, the doing away with commons. Nothing 

 can be done on a large scale, in the way of a good distri- 

 bution of labour and comfort, so long as an important 

 part of the soil remains necessarily in an uncultivated 

 state, serving only to foster misery and idleness. Let 

 portions be retained here and there for public walks, 

 as is the case near London. To this there can be no 

 objection. But there must not be too many of them. 

 Commons still occupy a twentieth part of our territory. 

 The extent in England is greatly less ; and, during the last 

 fifty years especially, acts for enclosure have happily 

 multiplied. About two millions of acres, during that time, 

 have been allotted, enclosed, and cultivated. But there it 

 requires a special act for each common ; while in Scot- 

 land the simple request of the parties interested is all that 

 is necessary. The Act authorising this is dated in 1695, 

 and is one of the last and best passed by the Scotch Par- 

 liament. It has been justly remarked that, had a like 

 law been passed at the same period by the English Parlia- 

 ment, agriculture in England would have made greater 

 progress. 



Since 1695 the Scotch commons have successively been 

 added to property, especially in the Lowlands. All that 

 were capable of cultivation are now reclaimed ; and even 

 the non-arable lands are the object of an intelligent and 

 profitable system of working. Looking back two or three 

 centuries, we find nearly the same rural organisation 

 existing over the whole of Europe ; only, since then, 

 we have severally more or less emerged from our primi- 



