The foremost of these objections carries with it the appearance of a humane attention to the comfort of the poor; but a brief investigation will lessen its influence, if not totally refute it.
There are but two modes of enclosing commons. First, by unanimous consent of the parties claiming rights, who delegate power to commissioners, chosen by themselves, to ascertain their validity, and divide them accordingly, under covenants and agreements properly drawn and executed for the purpose. Or secondly, by act of parliament obtained by the petition of a certain proportion of the commoners, both in number and value, whereby a minority, sanctioned only by ignorance, prejudice, or selfishness, is precluded from defeating the ends of private advantage and public utility.
In point of economy, the first of these methods is most eligible, as it saves the expense of an act of parliament, with an equal security to the proprietors. But it is seldom practised unless in commons on a small scale, from the difficulty of procuring the consent of every individual claimant, without which it cannot be accomplished.
In either of these methods, it is manifest that the right of the cottager cannot be invaded; since with respect to legal or equitable construction, he stands precisely on the same ground with his more opulent neighbours; and as to his interest, I can truly declare that, in all cases which have fallen within my observation, inclosures have meliorated his condition, by exciting a spirit of activity and industry, whereby habits of sloth have been by degrees overcome, and supineness and inactivity have been exchanged for vigour and exertion.
Besides, moral effects of an injurious tendency accrue to the cottager from a reliance on the imaginary benefits of stocking a common. The possession of a cow or two, with a hog, and a few geese, naturally exalts the peasant, in his own conception, above his brothers in the same rank of society. It inspires some degree of confidence in a property, inadequate to his support. In sauntering after his cattle, he acquires a habit of indolence. Quarter, half, and occasionally whole days are imperceptibly lost. Day labour becomes disgusting; the aversion increases by indulgence; and at length the sale of a half-fed calf, or hog, furnishes the means of adding intemperance to idleness. The sale of the cow frequently succeeds, and its wretched and disappointed possessor, unwilling to resume the daily and regular course of labour, from whence he drew his former subsistence, by various modes of artifice and imposition, exacts from the poor's rate the relief to which he is in no degree entitled.
Lincolnshire [Arthur Young, Lincoln, 1799, pp. 85-6].
[Evidence of Elmhurst, a Commissioner under Enclosure Act.]
Another observation I at the first made, and ever after put in practice, was this, always to begin to line out and allot for the smallest proprietors first (whether rich or poor) in every parish, so as to make such allotment as proper and convenient for the occupation of such, or their tenant (as that might be) to occupy; and so on, from the smallest to the greatest: for it is for the advantage of the greatest and most opulent proprietors that a bill is presented and act passed; and at their requests, and not the small ones; and, as the little ones would have no weight by opposition, they must submit, was it ever so disadvantageous to them; as it very often happens; and, therefore, there can be no partiality in defending those who cannot help or defend themselves; and a little man may as well have nothing allotted to him, as to have it so far off, or so inconvenient for him, that it is not worth his having, as it would prevent his going to his daily labour; and, therefore, he must sell his property to his rich and opulent adjoining neighbours; and that, in some measure, decreases population.