arguing with each other as to whether there was or was not plenty of work waiting somewhere or other for everybody willing to work, the landlords were preparing to take away still more of the lands which once belonged to the people.
The first Enclosure Act was in 1709. There was a second Act in Queen Anne's reign. In the thirteen years of George I. there were sixteen more Enclosure Acts. In the thirty-three years of George II. there were 226. In the sixty years of George III. there were 3446. Queen Anne's Acts only enclosed 1439 acres. Those of George I. enclosed 17,660. Those of George II., 318,784, Those of George III., 3,500,000. So between 1709 and 1820, 3,837,883 acres were withdrawn from the people, and made private property.[1]
These Enclosure Acts appear as petitions; they are usually in the names of the lord of the manor, the parson of the parish, and a greater or less number of the holders of the lands. For now enclosure concerns the "open fields." It is represented that the "strip system" is very inconvenient—the land being so "scattered." It would be for the benefit of all if the lands were enclosed and divided among the holders—that is, if each holder got his share in one piece. This, it is added, will do away with "the half-year's close, and the rights of common and sheep-walks." It was no doubt inconvenient to have the land in these non-contiguous strips—a man had a strip here and another there. And the six months' "close," or rather throwing open of the land to pasture, though it manured the land, was too long, and prevented the raising of any winter crop, such as turnips. And common pasture was always involved in these enclosures. So we often find counter-petitions, from other holders, who represent that if the lands are enclosed they will lose "the right of pasture."
Where this was the case the "enclosing and dividing" of the open field must have greatly facilitated the buying-out
- ↑ One hundred and twenty-six Enclosure Acts were passed for lands in the four counties of Oxon., Bucks., Northampton, and part of Leicestershire, from 1762 to 1772. This probably meant the sending adrift of 1800 families, about 9000 individuals.—Slater, "The English Peasantry and the Enclosure of Common Fields." (Mr Slater takes the number of families and persons from a calculation made by "A Country Gentleman" in a tract published in 1772—"The Advantages and Disadvantages of enclosing Waste Land and Common Fields,")
