ENCLOSURE AND THE LABOURERS 713 
In accordance with these views a General Enclosure Act! AD Lm 
was passed in 1801; the work of breaking up the common 
fields and utilising the common waste for tillage went on 
rapidly in all parts of the country, but the anticipations of the but this 
expert as to the boon which would be conferred were not hope 
realised. The social effects of the change, in practically ex- mistuiath, 
ringuishing the class of small farmers and introducing a body 
of tenants who worked large holdings, have been already 
considered?; it is necessary, however, to look at the results of 
the movement as it affected the cottagers and labourers. 
As one consequence of the change the labourer became re 
more entirely dependent on the wages he earned from his a tho old 
employer than had formerly been the case. In some cases, opporiun, 
cottagers, who had no legal rights, had encroached upon the Lanting 
waste, and the owners had connived at the practice, and 
allowed them to keep a cow? and to take a little fuel. 
But when the common waste and common fields were alike 
enclosed, there was no longer any opportunity for the labourer 
to exercise such privileges and add to the family resources. 
Even those labourers who had legal rights of this kind, of 
which the commissioners could take account, were seriously 
injured by enclosure®. The capitalised value of pasture rights 
was exceedingly small, and the scrap of land, allotted to and was 
2 4 3 ‘ not often 
a cottager, might be of little use to him, either as garden promded 
ground or for keeping a cow®. When judiciously assigned’, a 
allotments were most beneficial, as was shown by the evidence tment 
sollected in 18438; but those who urged that distress in rural 
districts should be systematically dealt with on this plan? 
failed to get a hearing®, 
i 41 Geo. III. ¢. 109. 2 See above, p. 558. 
8 (General Report on Enclosures drawn up by order of the Board of Agri- 
sulture (1808), p. 12. Brit. Mus. 988. g. 14. 4 Ib. p. 160. 
5 A summary of the facts will be found in the General Report of Enclosures 
drawn up by order of the Board of Agriculture (1808), App. 1v. p. 150. 
8 A commissioner of enclosures, in looking back on the effects of twenty 
enclosures in which he had taken part, ‘lamented that he had been accessory 
‘0 injuring two thousand poor people at the rate of twenty families per parish.” 
Annals, xxxv1. 516. 
I For some unsuccessful experiments see p. 667, n. 2, above. 
8 For the experience of the Labourers Friend Society compare 3 Hansard 
LX VII. 191, also Reports 1848, vir. 
9? The practical difficulties, both administrative and technical, were considerable. 
See pp. 714 n. and 744 n. below. 
0 38 Hansard, LXVIIL, 857.