In the eighteenth century, on the contrary, legislation becomes favourable to large properties. The large landed proprietorstook advantage of their power in Parliament to confiscate, by means of Enclosure Acts, all the domain of the ancient folkland . This was not effected without protest: and numerous writings appeared on the subject. "In a large number ofparishes in Hertfordshire," writes an indignant pen, "twenty-four farms, averaging from 50 to 150 acres, have been formedinto three ." (16) "In Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire enclosure of common lands has been effected on a large scale, and themajority of domains so formed have been converted into pasture, so that, where there were formerly 1500 acres of landunder the plough there are now but 50. Ruins of houses, barns and stables, are the only traces left of the old inhabitants. Inmany places hundreds of houses with the families have been reduced to eight or ten. In the majority of parishes where theenclosure only dates from the last fifteen or twenty years, the number of proprietors is but small compared with that whichcultivated the soil when the fields were open. It is not uncommon to see some four or five rich cattle-breeders usurpingrecently enclosed domains, which were previously in the hands of twenty or thirty farmers, and a large number of smallproprietors and rustics. All the latter and their families have been expelled, together with a number of families whom theyemployed and supported." (17) It was not only waste lands, but those also which had been cultivated, either in common, or onpayment of a certain rent to the parish, that neighbouring landowners annexed under pretext of "Enclosure." "I am nowspeaking of the Enclosure of lands and fields already under cultivation. Even the writers who support Enclosures are agreedthat, in this case, they reduce the area of cultivation, raise the price of provisions, and lead to depopulation And, even whenapplied only to uncultivated lands, the operation, as at present practised, deprives the poor of part of their means ofexistence, and encourages the development of farms which are already too large." (18) "When the soil," says Dr Price, "fallsinto the hands of a small number of large farmers, the small farmers" (whom he has elsewhere designated as so many smallproprietors, living themselves and their families on the produce of the soil they cul tivate, and the sheep, poultry, pigs, &c.,which they depasture on the common lands) "the small farmers will be transformed into so many persons compelled to earntheir living by labouring for others, and to go to the market to purchase what they require. More work will, perhaps, bedone, because there will be more restraint... Towns and manufactures will increase, because more persons will be driventhere in search of occupation." "In fine," to quote his summing up of the general effect of Enclosures, "the position of thelower classes of the population has `deteriorated in all respects. The small proprietors and farmers have been reduced to thecondition of day-labourers and hirelings, and at the same time it has become more difficult to earn a living in this condition."This usurpation of the common lands and the agricultural revolution consequent upon it were, in fact, so severely felt by therural labourers, that, according to Eden himself an ardent advocate of Enclosure, between 1765 and 1780 their wages beganto fall below the minimum, and had to be supplemented by government aid. "Their wage," he tells us, "was insufficient forthe first necessaries of life."
In the last years of the seventeenth century the yeomanry, a class of independent cultivators,the "proud peasantry," werestill flourishing. It was this class that constituted the strength of England in the middle ages, and to it she owed hersuperiority over France. At the end of the eighteenth century the yeomanry had disappeared. (19)The dispossession of the old proprietors, transformed by time into mere tenants, was effected on a large scale by the"Clearing of Estates." When a lord of the manor, for his own profit, wanted to turn the small holdings into large farms, orinto pasturage, the small cultivators were of no use. The proprietors adopted a ****** means of getting rid of them; and, bydestroying their dwellings, forced them into exile. The classical land of this system is Ireland, or more particularly theHighlands of Scotland.
It is now clearly established that in Scotland, just as in Ireland, the soil was once the property of the clan, or sept. The chiefsof the clan had certain rights over the communal domain; hut they were even further from being proprietors than was LouisXIV. from being proprietor of the territory of France. By successive encroachments, however, they transformed theirauthority of suzerain into a right of private ownership, without even recognizing in their old co-proprietors a right ofhereditary possession. In a similar way, the Zemindars and Taluqdars in India were, by the act of the British government,transformed into absolute proprietors. Until modern days the chiefs of the clan were interested in retaining a large number ofvassals, as their power and often their security were only guaranteed by their arms. But when order was established, and thechiefs, or lords as they now were, began to reside in the towns and required large revenues rather than numerous retainers,they endeavoured to introduce large farms and pasturage.
