Condition of the Labouring Classes. 70? 



4000 enclosure acts since passed have subjected about 5000 parishes (a 

 moiety of the whole territory of Englandj to the operation of these mea- 

 sures. The change has been a woeful one for our peasantry; a complete 

 severance has been effected between them and the soil ; " the little farmers 

 and cotters of the country have been converted into day-labourers, depend- 

 ing entirely upon daily earnings, which may, and frequently in point of fact 

 do, fail them. They have now no land upon the produce of which they 

 can fall as a reserve whenever the demand for labour happens to be slack. 

 This revolution is unquestionably the true cause of the heavy and increasing 

 burthens now pressing upon the parishes in the form of poor-rates. Inde- 

 pendently of ail reasoning founded upon general principles, this is a truth 

 capable of being substantiated by a mass of evidence, so clear, and so well 

 authenticated, as to leave no reason for doubt. In almost every instance, 

 the increase of poor-rates has kept pace with the progress of enclosure." 



Turning to Scotland, the reviewer shows that the same system of con- 

 solidating farms led to such a band of mendicants as threatened the peace 

 of the Lothians in the time of the celebrated Andrew Fletcher of Salloun, 

 who proposed to reduce the offenders to a state of personal slavery ; that at 

 present the landlords in many parts are almost annually called upon to 

 make large advances for the maintenance of the poor ; and that though they 

 may struggle to put off, as long as they can, the day when a regular poor- 

 rate shall be found indispensable, yet that they can no more prevent this 

 result, than they can prevent the waters of the Tay from making their way 

 to the ocean. 



After showing the enormity of the sufferings and degradation of the 

 poor, in various parts both of England and Scotland; that nothing but the 

 poor-rates prevent an open rupture between the labourers and the farmers ; 

 that the better-informed among the poor are " striving politically to learn 

 the cause of their altered state ; " and that they only suffer in silence, because 

 they have not the means of making their voices heard ; the reviewer 

 glances at the effect of consolidation among the Romans. The limited 

 farms of the early Romans were afterwards generally consolidated; and the 

 defence of the empire, instead of being effected by voluntary recruits 

 drawn from the class of cultivators, was intrusted to hireling legions, and 

 Rome fell. " The fabric of British power may be safe against any foreign 

 attack; it may not, perhaps, fall under the assaults of a host of savage bar- 

 barians emerging from their steppes and forests; but is it equally secure 

 against internal commotions ? In such an emergency, we are really afraid 

 that in many districts of this country it would be unsafe to expect much 

 assistance from the loyal feelings of the agricultural peasantry; there seems 

 to be but too much reason to fear that they might be as ready to abet, as to 

 resist, any outbreak of violence. There remains, we shall, be told, a great 

 and gallant standing army. It should not be forgotten, however, that every 

 standing army must be raised and recruited among the labouring classes, 

 and that, in the long run, feelings and opinions generally and permanently 

 adopted among these can hardly fail to spread among bands necessarily 

 composed of their sons and brothers." 



We have proved in detail (Vol. II. p. 51.) that the money wages of la- 

 bourers in the present day are not equal, in the purchase of the necessaries 

 of life, to what they were two centuries ago; and that while every other 

 class of the connnunity is advanced in food, dress, comforts, and lux- 

 uries, the poor alone have stood still. The reviewer draws a touching 

 picture of their sufferings in different counties in England, and clearly 

 and distinctly points out, from the recorded experience of Lord Brownlow, 

 Lord Winchelsea, Sir T. Burnard, Mr. Sabatier, and others, the great advan- 

 tage to the cottager of having a large garden or a field of two or three 

 acres attached to his cottage. 



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