CHAPTER XX.—ENCLOSURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
"In the period from 1792 to 1820, there were 2287 Enclosure Bills passed, and the number in each session was great in proportion to the dearness of corn at the time."—Letter of Mr John Walter, M.P., to the Electors of Berkshire, 1834.
ENCLOSURE went on at even a more wholesale rate in the nineteenth century. During the ten years of George IV., 192 Enclosure Acts were passed, and 72 in the seven years of William IV., enclosing respectively 250,000 and 120,000 acres. There were about 50 Enclosure Acts a year in the first forty years of the nineteenth century. Fisher says: "These lands belonged to the poor. Had they been allotted in small farms they might have been made the means of support of from 500,000 to 1,000,000 families, and thus rendered compulsory taxation under the poor law system unnecessary; but the landlords seized on them and made the tenants pay the poor rate."[1]
During the forty years of which Mr Fisher here speaks, the Corn Laws were in operation, and enclosure was keeping pace with the price of corn. The dearer the quarter of wheat, the more Enclosure Bills. The subject of the Corn Laws is too important to be treated as part of another question, especially as it cannot be treated to any good purpose except in considerable detail. I will only say that enclosure received a fatal impetus in the days when rents were fixed on the expectation of wheat at 80s. the quarter. There came a time when enclosure went mad, when even the village greens were ploughed up for corn, and when wastes were enclosed which must be tilled at a loss unless corn was at famine prices. In those days, private Bills became too slow, and the process too troublesome. It was necessary to obtain the consent of every person who had land to be enclosed, and although it was in most cases not difficult to persuade them to consent, it was not always easy to find them, or to find persons who could legally act
- ↑ "History of Landholding in England," [[Author:Joseph Fisher|]], of Youghal.
