THE ENGLISH LABOUREU. 
425 
which I write (April 1846) not one cottager 
in to be found retaining his piece of land. 
From 1762 to 1815, the date at which the 
last croft was transferred to a neighbouring 
farmer, no individual who thus occupied an 
allotment required any relief from the parish, 
while those who had lost their land had be- 
come regular pensioners. Another instance is 
that of North Creek, near Burnham, in the 
same county, which forcibly illustrates the fact 
that in proportion to the allotments having 
been taken from the poor, the assessments for 
the support of such poor have risen in like 
manner. In 1798 a great extent of common 
land belonged to the parishioners, and on this 
land cows were kept during summer, and in 
winter these animals were furnished with 
food in the straw-yards of the neighbouring 
farmers. At that time the poor's rate for the 
parish was about 1.5. 9d. in the pound. Soon 
after the date above referred to, those common 
lands were broken up, and allotments appor- 
tioned in lieu of them ; but it appears that the 
emergencies of the small occupiers were nar- 
rowly watched by their wealthier neighbours, 
and their patches of land became consolidated 
with those of the larger landowners. The con- 
sequence was, that at the end of seven years 
the poor's rate had advanced to 3.s-. in the 
pound ; and in a few years afterwards, when 
the means of keeping the cows were still 
further diminished, to 6»'. in the pound. In 
1817, three labourers still had a cow each, 
so that the produce, in addition to their usual 
wages, enabled them to bring up numerous 
families without ever receiving any relief 
from the parish — one man had four, another 
five, and the third six children. Those heads 
nf families who had no land or cows received 
regularly a weekly allowance of 2s. for each 
child. In the year 1776, when the population 
of the parish was 400, the amount expended 
on the poor was only 95/. 4s. 8d. ; and in 
1821, when the number of inhabitants was 
620, the amount expended was as high as 
937/. 19.s\ ; a disparity which, in my opinion, 
is to be accounted for only by the fact that 
the labourers have not, as heretofore, a cow, 
pig, and piece of land. As with individuals, 
so it has been with helpless societies. Any 
one turning over the Parochial Returns pre- 
sented to the House of Commons on the 
Education of the Poor will meet with cases in 
almost every page, in which alienation of 
small allotments are detailed. In Crowle, in 
tlic county of Lincoln, is a school in which 20 
children were formerly taught ; but at present 
there are no scholars. The donors to this 
school left two copyhold tenements, and rights 
of common, together with six acres of open 
field and uninclosed land; but an Lnclosure 
having taken place, new trustees have been 
appointed, who have let the land to pay the 
expenses incurred by the said inclosure, until 
the debt is discharged. Some years ago, the 
lord of the manor of Fishtot't in Lincolnshire 
allowed the inhabitants to inclose nine acres 
of the common for the benefit of a school for 
the poor only. The tenants in possession 
assert that they have now a right to claim 
the land as their own property ! 
By such and similar means has been 
wrought out that picture of distress so gene- 
rally observed amongst agricultural labourers 
throughout Britain at the present time : the 
helpless classes losing hold of their small plot 
of land, and the merging of it into that of 
their more powerful neighbours. Without 
attempting to attach to this change an im- 
portance which it does not warrant, I may be 
allowed, and, indeed, it may be well, to enu- 
merate a case or two in past times in which 
many will see a counterpart to the picture 
just alluded to. In the breaking up of the 
minute system of agriculture practised by the 
early Romans, Pliny clearly foresaw the ruin 
of the imperial city. The farms of Britain, 
it is true, are not equal in extent to those 
which were to be seen in Italy previous to the 
fall of the Roman Empire, yet in the counties 
of Norfolk, Cumberland, and Northumberland, 
many are to be found containing 1,000 to 
1,500 acres ; and it is sufficient for the pre- 
sent purpose to prove that the tendency of the 
present times is to throw together large tracts 
of country to the complete exclusion of the 
labourer as a person directly and primarily 
interested in any part of its cultivation. Shut 
out from their rights, the labourers of Italy 
became little better than slaves : they had no 
tie of interest, none of affection. How far 
they form the prototypes of the labourers in 
the Eastern Counties of England, may be 
best judged by the calendars at our assizes for 
that district, during the last few years. God 
j forbid that the same effects should be ever 
| traced in this country as was realized from 
: similar causes in the Koman Empire : well 
will it be with us if experience or philosophy 
i warrants us in looking for a more favourable 
j result. At the same time, it would be little 
| short of stupidity to disguise the fact that the 
security and well-being of every nation must 
depend very materially on the condition of 
the labouring classes. The greater the dis- 
tance between them and the higher orders in 
the enjoyment of common rights, the more 
unsafe will be the state of society in that 
community, and the more frequent those broils 
and disorders which impair the stability of 
a nation. 
Now for tlie remedy. I have treated of the 
agricultural labourer deprived of his land, 
penniless, and more or less discontented ; and 
