your own age, and the pernicious effect of your poor laws as they are now thoroughly understood, and deliberately acted upon by a race who are thinking always of their imaginary rights, and never of their duties. You forget the efficacy of ecclesiastical discipline; and that the old Church was more vigilant and therefore more efficient than that which rose upon its ruins. And you suppose that personal liberty was more valued by persons in a state of servitude, than was actually the case. For if in earlier ages emancipation was an act of piety and benevolence, afterwards when the great crisis of society came on, it proceeded more frequently from avarice than from any worthier motive; and the slave who was set free, sometimes found himself much in the situation of a household dog that is turned into the streets. MONTESINOS. Are you alluding to the progress of inclosures, which from the accession of the Tudors to the age of the Stuarts* were complained of as the great and crying evil of the times? * The evil is thus noticed by a writer of James the First's reign, who is less known than he deserves to be for his oddity and his merit: "This island of ours, within these late days, hath bred a great number of these field-briars, which unnaturally turn their mother into barrenness. Oppressors, In SIR THOMAS MORE. That process originated as soon as rents began to be of more importance than personal closers, Depopulators, Deportators, Depravators, that turn the land to ruin for a private benefit; and work out a particular gain from a public and general loss. Again, said I, where is it? I will speak boldly, I never knew great man grow greater by his depopulations, and I hope no man will say, he hath grown better by them. Corn-fields are turned to sheep-walks; once-inhabited towns feede oxen; and Churches are made shepherds cottages; and yet the doers of all this never the richer. They keep less hospitality, for a few rooms in London serve their turns; they extort sorer rents, and yet they have never the more money. "It cannot bee denyed but the main end of these courses was profit, and enhansing their estates, and lo! in this very end God crosseth them. Speak what you will of their pride, of turning the alms they should give to the poor into feasts for the rich, of their infrugal courses: I say confidently, hic digitus hìc Dei, here is the very hand of God striking them. Man, though he hath authority, will not look to these field-bryars, but let them waste and forage, and play the Abimelechs; but God will. But if wee doe not looke to it, let me say to you, as Jotham to the Shechemites of that aspiring bramble, Judg. 9. If fire come not out of Shechem to devour Abimelech; fire will come from Abimelech to devour Shechem. If you undoe not the oppressions of the field-bryars, their oppressions will undoe us all.”– Adamer's Divine Herball, p. 128. 1635. The Lord Keeper Coventry says in his Charge to the Judges, "I do require you, that you make a strict inquiry after depopulations and inclosures; a crime of a crying nature, that services, and money more convenient to the landlords than payments in kind. MONTESINOS. And this I suppose began to be the case under Edward III. The splendour of his court, and the foreign wars in which he was engaged, must have made money more necessary to the knights and nobles than it had ever been before, except during the Crusades. barreth God of his honour, and the King of his subjects. Churches and Houses go down together. His Majesty knoweth and taketh notice, that according to former directions given to you in this place, you have given it in charge to the grand Inquests to inquire, but to little effect: and without doubt the Freeholders of England do hate and detest them. Depopulation is an oppression of a high nature, and commonly done by the greatest persons, that keep the juries under and in awe; and this is the cause there are no more presented and brought in question. But howsoever your charge and inquiry touching this point hath not taken effect worthy his Majesty's care and your pains, yet his Majesty willeth that you do not cease, but inquire on still. For it is his resolution, against all opposition, to make all men see that he hath a care of this overspreading evil, and of the means of his people, to have Churches and Towns demolished, and his people eaten up like bread, to satisfy the greedy desires of a few, who do waste as profusely as they do gather together unconscionably, and bring unto their posterity that woe which is pronounced to those that lay house to house and field to field, to dwell alone in the midst of the earth."-Rushworth, ii. 295. SIR THOMAS MORE. The wars of York and Lancaster retarded the process; but immediately after the termination of that fierce struggle, it was accelerated by the rapid growth of commerce, and by the great influx of wealth from the new found world. Under a settled and strong and vigilant government, men became of less value as vassals and retainers, because the boldest barons no longer dared contemplate the possibility of trying their strength against the crown, or attempting to disturb the succession. Four-legged animals therefore were wanted for slaughter more than two-legged ones: and moreover, sheep* could be shorn,..whereas the art of fleecing the tenantry was in its infancy, and could not always be practised with the same certain success. A trading spirit thus gradually superseded the rude but kindlier principle of the feudal system: profit and loss became the rule of conduct; in came calculation, and out went feeling. * "If the King's honour, as some men say, standeth in the great multitude of people, then these grasiers, inclosers, and rent-rearers are hinderers of the King's honour. For where as have been a great many householders and inhabitants, there is now but a shepherd and his dog."-Latimer. MONTESINOS. I remember your description* (for indeed who can forget it?) how sheep, more destructive * Oves vestræ, quæ tam mites esse, tamque exiguo solent ali, nunc (uti fertur) tam edaces atque indomita esse cœperunt, ut homines devorent ipsos, agros, domos, oppida vastent ac depopulentur. Nempe quibuscunque regni partibus nascitur lana tenuior, atque ideo pretiosior, ibi nobiles et generosi, atque adeo Abbates aliquot sancti viri, non his contenti reditibus fructibusque annuis, qui majoribus suis solebant ex prædiis crescere, nec habentes satis, quod otiosè ac lautè viventes, nihil in publicum prosint, nisi etiam obsint, arco nihil relinquunt, omnia claudunt pascuis, demoliuntur domos, diruunt oppida, templo duntaxat stabulandis ovibus relicto. Et tanquam parum soli perderent apud vos ferarum saltus ac vivaria, illi boni viri habitationes omnes, et quicquid usquam est culti, vertunt in solitudinem. Ergo ut unus helluo inexplebilis ac dira pestis patriæ, continuatis agris, aliquot millia jugerum uno circundet septo, ejiciuntur coloni quidam; suis etiam aut circumscripti fraude, aut vi oppressi exuuntur, aut futigati injuriis adiguntur ad venditionem. Itaque quoquo pacto emigrant miseri, viri, mulieres, mariti, uxores, orbi, viduæ, parentes cum parcis liberis, et numerosâ magis quàm divite familiâ, ut multis opus habet manibus res rustica; emigrant, inquam, e notis atque assuetis laribus, nec inveniant quò se recipiant; supellectilem omnem haud magno vendibilem, etiam si manere possit emptorem, quum extrudi necesse est, minimo venundant : id quum brevi errando insumpserent, quid restat aliud denique, quam uti furentur, et pendeant juste scilicet, aut ragentur atque mendicent? quanquam tum quoque velut errones conjiciuntur in carcerem, quod otiosi obambulent, quorum operam nemo est qui conducat, quum illi cupidissime offerant. Num rusticæ rei cui assueverunt, nihil est quod agatur, ubi nihil seritur.—Utopia, 1. i. pp. 63–5. Ed. 1629. |