MOTIVES FOR AND RESULTS OF ENCLOSURE 559 
powerless to resist it’. Very clear light on this subject is A.D. 169 
§ : . ~—1776. 
given by a debate in the House of Lords in 1781; the 
Bishop of S. David's? objected to the manner in which the 
claims of the tithe-owner were adjusted when land was 
enclosed ; Lord Thurlow, who was then Chancellor, expressed 
himself in very strong terms as to the injustice to small 
proprietors which frequently occurred in connection with 
such measures®, and the pamphlet literature of the day 
corroborates this statement? 
To those who were unable to conform to the new con- jo the small 
oe . . “ . armers 
ditions of profitable agriculture it was an additional hard- 
ship that the change. was hurried on by inconsiderate 
legislation ; but it may be doubted whether any parliament 
could have seriously attempted to restrain the economic 
forces, which were rendering the continued existence of the 
small farmer increasingly difficult. Corn prices ranged high, 
1 The bill for enclosing Bisley was thrown out in 1733, because of the 
opposition of the weavers, who were also small farmers. R. F. Butler in Victoria 
County History, Gloucestershire, 11. 167. 
$ Parl. Hist. xxu. 47. In enclosing common fields there was great difficulty 
about making a satisfactory allotment of tithes. The Bishop of 8. David's was 
the spokesman of a large number of clergy who disliked a change by which they 
were forced to undertake the management of a glebe, instead of obtaining tithes 
from the occupiers (Parliamentary History, x11. 49). On the other hand, the 
agricultural improvers could not but feel that tithe was a form of tax which had 
a baneful influence upon agriculture. Mr Howlett, the vicar of Great Dunmow, 
calculated that the tithes in his neighbourhood had increased in value twelve 
limes as much as the rent (4nnals of Agriculture, xxxVIIT, 182). While a charge 
of this sort was a real obstacle to improvement, the recent changes made it more 
difficult for the clergy to consent to accept an arrangement, by which they agreed 
for themselves and for their successors, to forego the advantage which might arise 
from any further increase of cultivation, The benefits which had come to the 
Universities from the law which assigned to them corn-rents were well known, 
and it was not obviously politic to accept a change in system. In this way it 
came about that the tithe-owners were inclined to regard the Board of Agriculture 
and their supporters with much suspicion, and this was in all probability one of 
the influences which caused the discontinuance of this department in 1819. 
The existence of tithe had also a curious effect upon the farmers in making 
them prefer the policy by which labourers were maintained out of the rates to 
that of raising their wages. Tithes are levied on the produce after the rates have 
been allowed for, but without taking account of the expenses of cultivation, so 
that the farmer who employed labour would pay a smaller tithe if the rates were 
high and wages low than he would have to do on the same crop if rates were low 
and wages high. This is another of the minor causes which contributed to render 
the pauperising policy of allowances popular with the large farmers, (Annals of 
dgriculture, XXXVIIL 134.) 
3 Parl. Hist. XXII. 59. 
4 Enquiry into the advantages and disadvantages resulting Jrom Bills of 
Enclosure (1780).