CHAPTER IV.

OBSTACLES TO SOCIAL WELL-BEING IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

In a previous chapter we have described the effect which the presence of towns has had upon the emancipation and prosperity of the inhabitants of the country; and we shall endeavour to point out in this and in the following chapter some of the influences which the position of a country as a whole, including the existence and growth of towns within it, has had in defining the kind of the emancipation, and the subsequent results of it.

While the rural population in commercial England was attracted to the towns at an early period in considerable proportions, those who dwelt in the country did not ultimately become, as a whole, the possessors of those rights in the soil which their fellows upon the continent of Europe, and more particularly in France, were fortunate enough to acquire. The facts were really against the masses of the English agricultural population. While, as we have already seen, the serf ultimately became or is now becoming over the length and breadth of the continent the possessor of the land whereon he had lived and which he and his ancestors had for long cultivated, in England he was dissociated from the soil by the laws enacted in the reigns of Henry VII. and his predecessors. These laws though on the one hand curtailing the power of the barons, who turbulently threatened the monarchy, on the other compensated them for the loss at

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the expense of their dependents who were living on and drawing their subsistence from the soil. The retainers who were accustomed only to military and personal service formed a large proportion of these, and, being unacquainted with agricultural labour, they were manifestly unable to occupy a farm or to pay rent for it, and they could scarcely be prepared to descend to menial labours under those whom they had hitherto regarded as their inferiors. But in addition to that class, which the enactment of the new laws rendered useless, there must have been large numbers who, already occupied on the soil, were deprived of employment; for the effect of the laws, when rigidly enforced, was seen in the pulling down of houses, and the throwing of arable land into grass. The lot of the remaining portion of the rural population was somewhat more tolerable-they became tenants under the landlords, or labourers for the tenants. consequence of such an extensive displacement of population was unexpected and unparalleled. The country was filled with sturdy beggars who, necessarily being desperate, preyed upon their more fortunate fellowcountrymen. The consequent evils of this legislation soon became tangible enough, and as early as the fourth year of the reign of Henry VII. it became the earnest object of further legislation to counteract the mischief already created. Numerous enactments were promulgated in his and the succeeding reigns. Nothing, however, could undo the evil that had so easily been accomplished; for the landlords, recognising immediately the immense advantage of a money rent, and the relief which the reduction of the numbers of their retainers afforded them, were strongly affected towards the new order of things. The king had virtually surrendered his lordship over the soil to the lords, who had originally obtained it in gift mediately or immediately, and held it on feudal service.

The land was now freed from the maintenance of a large population which, though oftentimes in the hands of quarrelsome and imperious lords a source of intestine disquiet, had nevertheless acted as the defence of the kingdom. It was now decreed that houses should not be pulled down, that those which had should be rebuilt, and that land thrown out of tillage should be restored thereto. It was enacted in the reign of Henry VIII. that no one should possess more than 2,000 sheep on lands not his own, and that no one should have more than one farm; both of which, it may be noted, are ordinances that would prejudicially affect the large tenant rather than the proprietor.

Notwithstanding, however, all the statutes that were enacted, the country was filled with vagrants who, having been made vagrants by iniquitous laws, wandered about, supporting themselves ruthlessly as necessity compelled them. Other laws, namely those protecting property, being constantly violated, the punishments legally attachable to their infringement became as a consequence gradually more severe; so that we find in England, up till a very recent period, heavier and more disproportionate sentences executed against thieves than probably any other country was ever acquainted with. The result was that during the reign of Henry VIII.-a period of thirty-six years-seventy-two thousand persons were hanged for vagrancy, while in that of his daughter Elizabeth the number of executions still averaged from three to four hundred yearly.

At an early period poor laws were made with the view of relieving the destitute, and a system of taxation for the support of the poor was established; for voluntary charity at the first had been found insufficient, although the special attention of the clergy was directed to encourage the people to almsgiving.

On the one hand, the people, as a whole, were now called upon to maintain a paid army for the defence of the kingdom; on the other, to support the poor dispossessed vagrants who had formerly been the army, supporting themselves from the cultivation of the land that was now in unrestricted possession of the great proprietors; and from that time to this the people, as a whole, have borne the burdens which the land of the country should have continued to support. But from the large numbers of poor to be sustained, and the reduction in the wealth of the country consequent on the subtraction of such a quantity of useful labour from the soil, it is obvious that the inhabitants generally would be ill-prepared for the support of such a tax, and the poor laws would necessarily be directed too much at first with an exclusive view to provide funds to sustain the poor, and the important consideration of means by which their number should be reduced would be lost sight of.

The position attained may be well expressed in the eloquent words of Mr. Joseph Fisher:- The British poor law is a slur upon its boasted civilization. The unequal distribution of land and of wealth leads to great riches and great poverty. Intense light produces deep shade. Nowhere else but in wealthy England do God's creatures die of starvation, wanting food, while others are rich beyond comparison. The soil which affords sustenance for the people is rightly charged with the cost of feeding those who lack the necessaries of life, but the same object would be better achieved in a different way. Poor rates are now a charge upon a man's entire estate, and it would be much better for society if land to an amount equivalent to the charge were taken from the estate and assigned to the poor. If a man is charged 100l. a year poor rate, it would make no real difference to him, while it would make a vast difference to the poor, to take land to that value,

put the poor to work tilling it, allowing them to enjoy the produce. Any expense should be paid direct by the landlord, which should leave the charge upon the land, and exempt the improvements of the tenant which represent his labour, free.

The evil has intensified in magnitude, and a permanent army of paupers numbering at the minimum 829,281 persons, but increasing at some periods to upwards of 1,000,000, has to be provided for. The cost, about 8,000,000l. a year, is paid not by landlords but by tenants, in addition to the various charities founded by benevolent persons.

The owner of land is the people as represented by the Crown, and the charges thereon next in succession to the claims of the State are the Church and the poor."

Large holdings have continued to grow in size, for the transfer of land in this country has always been difficult, tedious, uncertain, and costly, so that whatever small freeholds existed have in course of time been absorbed by the large estates. Additionally to this cause of their growth, the extensive commons which existed have for the most part been divided amongst the landowners; indeed it is reckoned that no less than 7,600,000 acres, equal to one-fifth of the whole area of England and Wales, have been enclosed between the beginning of the eighteenth century and the present time, a very considerable proportion of which was land whereon the poor had the right to graze a cow and keep pigs or poultry.

Indeed before the commencement of this century there was no legislative recognition of the rights of the peasantry to the commons, and during the whole of the eighteenth century a systematic robbery of this property from the

The History of Landholding in England, by Joseph Fisher, F.R.H.S., 1876, pp. 80, 81.