DEARTH AND DISCONTENT
The Waste Land Bill will turn the tide of our affairs and enable
us to bear without difficulty the increased burdens of the
war.--SINCLAIR TO PITT, _13th March 1796_.
On 29th October 1795 occurred an event unparalleled within the memory of
Englishmen then living. An immense crowd, filling the Mall, broke into
loud hissing and hooting when George III left Buckingham House in the
state carriage to proceed to Westminster for the opening of Parliament.
The tumult reached its climax as the procession approached the Ordnance
Office, when a small pebble, or marble, or shot from an air-gun, pierced
the carriage window. The King immediately said to Westmorland, who sat
opposite, "That's a shot," and, with the courage of his family, coolly
leaned forward to examine the round hole in the glass. Similar scenes
occurred on his return to St. James's Palace. The mob pressed forward
with an eagerness which the Guards could scarcely restrain, calling out
"Peace, Peace; Bread, Bread; No Pitt; No Famine." With some difficulty
the gates of the Horse Guards were shut against them. Opposite Spring
Gardens a stone struck the woodwork of the carriage; and the intrepid
monarch alighted at St. James's amidst a commotion so wild that one of
the horses took fright and flung down a groom, breaking his thigh.
Thereafter the rabble set upon the state carriage, greatly damaging it;
and when George later on proceeded in his private carriage to Buckingham
House, he again ploughed his way through a din of curses. Pitt kept
discreetly in the background, or he would have been roughly handled.
A loyalist caricature of the period gives an imaginative version of the
incident. In it Pitt figures as the coachman whipping on the horses of
the royal carriage amidst a shower of stones, eggs, and cats. The King
sits inside absolutely passive, with large protruding eyes; Lansdowne,
Bedford, Whitbread, and others strive to stop the wheels; Fox and
Sheridan, armed with bludgeons, seek to force open the door; while
Norfolk fires a blunderbuss at the King. The sketch illustrates the
fierce partisanship of the time, which stooped to incredibly coarse
charges. But scarcely less strange was the insinuation of Lansdowne,
immediately after the affair, that Ministers had themselves planned it
in order to alarm the public and perpetuate their despotic rule. The
same insinuation found favour with Francis Place, a rabid tailor of
Holborn, and a prominent member of the London Corresponding Society, who
charged Pitt with imperilling the life of George III in order to keep
office. "It is a curious circumstance," he wrote, "that Pitt carried all
his obnoxious measures, silenced or kept down his opponents and raised
vast sums of money by means of the alarms which he and his coadjutors
had created. The war was commenced after an alarm had been created, and
it was kept up by the same means."[420] Fox and his followers often
uttered similar taunts.
The insults to the King were but the climax of an agitation which had
previously gone to strange lengths. On 27th October 1795 the London
Corresponding Society convened a monster meeting in the fields near
Copenhagen House, Islington, in order to protest against the war and to
press for annual Parliaments and universal suffrage. A crowd said to
number nearly 150,000 persons assembled under the chairmanship of John
Binns, and passed an "Address to the Nation," which concluded as
follows: "If ever the British nation should loudly demand strong and
decisive measures, we boldly answer, 'We have lives and are ready to
devote them either separately or collectively for the salvation of our
country.'" Outwardly the meeting was orderly, if that epithet can be
applied to a monster meeting which advocated civil war. But probably
less than one tenth of the assemblage heard the resolution. Equally
threatening was a hand-bill circulated in London on the practice of
"King-killing." Place says nothing about this, and ridicules the
"Address to the Nation" as a foolish production, which he had opposed no
less strongly than the convocation of the meeting. This was the usual
attitude of Place. He sought to figure as the apostle of reasonableness,
deprecating all unwise acts and frothy talk on the part of his
associates, but minimizing the follies of British democrats, which he
usually ascribed to the insidious advice of the emissaries of Pitt.
Let us enlarge our survey. From the Home Office Records it is clear that
dear food and uncertain work had aggravated the political discontent of
the years 1792-4, until the autumn of 1795 witnessed almost an epidemic
of sedition. To take one significant episode. An inflammatory placard,
dated Norwich, 16th October 1795, was widely circulated. That city, as
we have seen, was a hotbed of Radicalism. There it was that the
democratic clubs sought to federate with the view of forming a National
Convention. One of their members, named Besey, now posted up the
following placard. After stating that the prevailing misery is due to
the present unjust and unnecessary war, the number of abuses and
sinecures, and "the monopoly of farms which disgraces this country," it
continues thus: "The Minister would gladly instigate you to riot and
plunder that he might send against you those _valiant_ heroes who
compose his devoted Volunteer corps.... This would accelerate his
darling object of governing us by a military aristocracy. The countries
which supplied us with quantities of corn now groan under the iron yoke
of the Tigress of the North or lie desolate from this infernal war. We
send immense stores to the emigrants and the _Chouans_. Those rebels,
not satisfied with traitorously resisting the constituted authorities of
their country, have desolated the face of it. These honourable Allies
must be fed, as others of the kind are paid, by us." He then urges them
to form popular Societies and demand redress of grievances. He concludes
thus: "You may as well look for chastity and mercy in the Empress of
Russia, honour and consistency from the King of Prussia, wisdom and
plain dealing from the Emperor of Germany, as a single speck of virtue
from our HELL-BORN MINISTER."[421]
In view of these facts, is it surprising that Ministers decided to issue
a royal proclamation against seditious assemblies and the circulation of
treasonable papers? Sheriffs, magistrates, and all law-abiding men were
charged to apprehend those who distributed such papers and to help in
the suppression of seditious meetings (4th November). Six days later
Grenville introduced the Treasonable Practices Bill, while Pitt in the
Commons moved the Seditious Meetings Bill. The Prime Minister stated
that, as soon as the Habeas Corpus Act came again into operation, the
political clubs renewed their propaganda and brought about the present
dangerous situation. In order to suppress gatherings of a definitely
seditious character, he proposed that, before a meeting of more than
fifty persons which was not convened by the local authorities, notice
must be given by seven householders and sent to the magistrates. The
Bill also required the presence of a magistrate, and invested him with
power to stop any speech, disperse the meeting, and order the arrest of
the speaker. But this was not all. The authorities had been alarmed by
the popularity of Thelwall's racy discourses, resumed early in 1795,
which represented Government as the source of all the country's ills.
Whether his sprightly sallies were dangerous may be doubted; but Pitt,
with characteristic lack of humour, paid Thelwall the compliment of
ordaining that lecture-halls must be licensed by two magistrates; and a
magistrate might enter at any time. The Bill was passed for three years.
Equally drastic was the Treasonable Practices Bill. Declaring the
planning or levying war within the kingdom to be an act of substantive
treason, it imposed dire penalties on those who devised evil against the
King, who sought to coerce Parliament or help the invaders. Even those
who spoke or wrote against the constitution came under the penalties for
treason and might be transported for seven years. As Fox indignantly
exclaimed, if he criticized a system which allotted two members to Old
Sarum and none to Manchester, he might be sent to Botany Bay. The alarm
of Pitt at the state of affairs appears in a request which he and
Portland sent to the Duke of York, on 14th November, for reinforcements
of cavalry. They asked him to despatch three troops of the 1st Dragoon
Guards from Romford to Hackney, replacing the Pembroke Fencible Cavalry,
which was utterly useless; to order up two troops of the Cornish
Fencible Cavalry from Barnet to Hampstead and Highgate; to despatch the
11th Light Dragoons from Guildford to Ewell or Kingston, and the 1st
Fencibles from Reading to Uxbridge. These, along with the Lancashire
Militia at Lewisham and Greenwich, and the Guards in London, would
suffice for the crisis.[422]
Such were the conditions under which the debates on the two Bills
proceeded. They turned largely on the connection between the Islington
meeting and the outrage on the King. Canning stoutly affirmed that
connection, which Sheridan and Fox no less vehemently denied.
Wilberforce on this occasion supported the Government. Pitt showed
little zeal in defending his Bill, promising to safeguard the right of
public meeting when lawfully exercised. The debate in the Lords elicited
from the Bishop of Rochester the significant statement that he did not
know what the great mass of the people had to do with the laws except to
obey them. The Earl of Lauderdale pilloried this utterance, thereby
consoling himself for being in a minority of 5. In the Commons Fox
mustered 22, as against 167 for the Government (6th November-14th
December 1795). Meanwhile monster meetings of protest were held on 12th
November and 2nd and 7th December, the two last in Marylebone Fields,
which now form the greater portion of Regent's Park. The orderliness of
these vast throngs, comprising perhaps a quarter of a million of men,
affords a strong argument against the two Acts. Lord Malmesbury much
regretted that there was no rioting, now that all was ready for its
repression. After the passing of those "barbarous bloodthirsty" measures
(as Place called them) the country settled down into a sullen silence.
Reformers limited their assemblies to forty-five members; but even so
they did not escape the close meshes of the law. Binns and Jones,
delegates of the London Corresponding Society who went to Birmingham,
were arrested there; and the Society soon gave up its propaganda. All
but the most resolute members fell away, and by the end of 1796 it was
£185 in debt.[423]
Undoubtedly these measures mark the nadir of Pitt's political career.
Nevertheless, the coincidence between the London Corresponding Society's
meeting at Islington and the attempted outrage on George III was
suspiciously close in point of time; and a dangerous feeling prevailed
throughout the country. Pitt, as we shall see, took steps to alleviate
the distress which was its chief cause; but after the insult to the King
he could not but take precautionary measures against sedition. After
such an incident, a Minister who did nothing at all would be held
responsible if the monarch were assassinated. Some coercive measures
were inevitable; and it is clear that they cowed the more restive
spirits. Among other persons who wrote to Pitt on this topic, Wilson,
formerly his tutor at Burton Pynsent and Cambridge, sent him a letter
from Binfield, in which occur these sentences: "The Sedition Bills also
have had so good an effect. Our farmers can now go to market without
being exposed to the danger of having republican principles instilled
into them while they are dining." Apparently, then, the loyal efforts of
Berkshire magistrates extended to the interiors of inns. Whether the two
Acts were not needlessly prolonged is open to grave question. Certainly,
while driving the discontent underground, they increased its explosive
force. General David Dundas, in his Report on National Defence of
November 1796, states that at no time were there so many people disposed
to help the invaders. Perhaps we may sum up by declaring the two Acts a
disagreeable but necessary expedient during the time of alarm, and
mischievous when it passed away.[424]
The insult to the King was but one symptom of a distemper widely
prevalent. Its causes were manifold. Chief among them was a feeling of
disgust at the many failures of the war. The defection of Prussia and
Spain, the fruitless waste of British troops in the West Indies, the
insane follies of the French _émigrés_, the ghastly scenes at Quiberon,
and the tragi-comedy of Vendémiaire in the streets of Paris, sufficed to
daunt the stoutest hearts. By the middle of the month of October 1795,
Pitt decided to come to terms with France, if the Directory, newly
installed in power, should found a stable Government and exhibit
peaceful tendencies. His position in this autumn is pathetic. Reproached
by the _émigrés_ for recalling the Comte d'Artois from Yeu, taunted by
Fox for not having sought peace from the Terrorists, and reviled by the
populace as the cause of the dearth, he held firmly on his way, shelving
the _émigrés_, maintaining that this was the first opportunity of
gaining a lasting peace, and adjuring the people to behave manfully in
order the more speedily to win it.
This advice seemed but cold comfort to men and women whose hardships
were severe. Political discontent was greatly increased by dear food and
uncertainty of employment. The symptoms had long been threatening. At
midsummer of the year 1795 the men of Birmingham assembled in hundreds
opposite a mill and bakehouse on Snow Hill, crying out: "A large loaf.
Are we to be starved to death?" They were dispersed by armed force, but
not without bloodshed. At that time insubordination in the troops was
met by summary executions or repression at Horsham, Brighton, and
Dumfries. In July a drunken brawl at Charing Cross led to a riot, in the
course of which the mob smashed Pitt's windows in Downing Street, and
demolished a recruiting station in St. George's Fields, Lambeth. The
country districts were deeply agitated by the shortage of corn resulting
from the bad harvest of 1794. A report from Beaminster in Dorset stated
that for six weeks before the harvest of 1795 no wheat remained; and the
poor of that county would have starved, had not a sum of money been
raised sufficient to buy cargoes of wheat which then reached Plymouth.
The suffering was increased by the extraordinary cold of that midsummer
which destroyed hundreds of newly-shorn sheep and blighted the corn.
Driving storms of rain in August laid the crops. On heavy land they were
utterly spoilt, so that even by October the poor felt the pinch. From
all parts there came the gloomiest reports. In Oxfordshire there was no
old wheat left, and the insatiable demands from the large towns of the
north sent up prices alarmingly. In November Lord Bateman wrote from
Leominster that the wheat crop was but two thirds of the average, and,
if Government did not import wheat directly, not through fraudulent
contractors, riots must ensue. Reports from Petworth, East Grinstead,
and Battle told of the havoc wrought by blight and rains. At Plymouth
the price of wheat exceeded all records. Lord Salisbury reported a
shortage of one third in the wheat crop of mid-Hertfordshire. Kensington
sent a better estimate for its corn lands. But the magistrates of
Enfield and Edmonton deemed the outlook so threatening that they urged
Pitt and his colleagues (1) to encourage the free importation of wheat,
(2) to facilitate the enclosure of all common fields and the conversion
of common and waste lands into tillage; (3) to pass an Act legalizing
relief of the poor in every parish by the weekly distribution of bread
and meat at reduced prices in proportion to the size of the family and
of its earnings.[425]
The protests against the Corn Laws are significant. In 1773 the bounty
system of the reign of William III was revised, the average price of
wheat being reckoned at forty-four shillings the quarter. If it fell
below that figure, a bounty of five shillings a quarter was granted on
export, so as to encourage farmers to give a wide acreage to wheat, in
the assurance that in bountiful seasons they could profitably dispose of
their surplus. But when the price rose to forty-four shillings
exportation was forbidden, and at forty-eight shillings foreign corn was
admitted on easy terms so as to safeguard the consumer; for, as Burke
said: "he who separates the interest of the consumer from the interest
of the grower starves the country." Unfortunately, in 1791, Government
raised the price at which importation was allowed to fifty-four
shillings the quarter. The upward trend of prices may have called for
some change; but it was too drastic. In view of the increase of the
manufacturing townships, Pitt should have favoured the import of foreign
corn, though not in such a way as unduly to discourage agriculturists.
England, in fact, was then reaching the stage at which she needed
foreign corn when nature withheld her bounties at home, and it is well
to remember that 1792 was the last year in which England exported any
appreciable amount of wheat. During the Great War she became an
importing country, and at no time was the crisis worse than in the
winter of 1795-6. Early in the year 1796 the best wheat sold at six
guineas the quarter, or four times its present price; the inferior kinds
were very dear, and many poor people perished from want if not from
actual starvation. So grave was the crisis as to evoke a widespread
demand for Free Trade in corn. This feeling pervaded even the rural
districts, a report by John Shepherd of Faversham being specially
significant. In the towns there was an outcry against corn merchants,
who were guilty of forestalling and regrating. Possibly but for these
tricks of trade the supply of home wheat might almost have sufficed.
Pitt seems to have thought so; for he wrote to the Marquis of Stafford,
stating his desire to have powers for compelling exhaustive returns of
the wheat supply to be sent in. On the whole, however, he deemed such an
expedient high-handed and likely to cause alarm. He therefore decided to
call for a special committee to inquire into the high price of corn, and
explained his reasons to the House of Commons on 3rd November 1795. He
urged the need of modifying the old and nearly obsolete law relating to
the assize of bread, and he suggested the advisability of mixing wheat
with barley, or other corn, which, while lessening the price of bread,
would not render it unpalatable. As to prohibiting the distillation of
whiskey, he proposed to discontinue that device after February 1796, so
that the revenue might not unduly suffer. The committee was equally
cautious. In presenting its report eight days later, Ryder moved that
the members should pledge themselves to lessen the consumption of wheat
in their households by one third. These proposals appeared wholly
inadequate to Bankes and Sheridan, who urged that all classes should be
compelled to eat the same kind of bread. Francis, however, asserted that
the poor in his district now refused to eat any but the best wheaten
bread. There was therefore every need for a law compelling bakers to
make bread only two thirds of wheat. Nevertheless, the House agreed to
the proposals of the committee. Members also bound themselves to
forswear pastry, and by all possible means to endeavour to lessen the
consumption of fine wheaten flour. History does not record how far these
resolves held good, and with what hygienic results. An external sign of
the patriotic mania for economy in wheat was the disuse of hair-powder,
which resulted from the tax now imposed on that article. Thus Rousseau,
Pitt, and Nature are largely responsible for a change which in its turn
hastened the disappearance of wigs.
Pitt and his colleagues sought to check the practice of forestalling.
But, as usually happens in a struggle with human selfishness, success
was doubtful. More fruitful was the expedient of attracting foreign corn
by granting large bounties on imports. As if this were not enough,
British warships sometimes compelled neutral corn-vessels, bound for
France, to put in at our harbours and sell their cargoes at the high
prices then prevailing, a high-handed practice which prepared the way
for the Armed Neutrality League of 1800. These exceptional expedients
seem to have been due to what Sheffield called "a sure little
junto,"--Pitt, Ryder, and Jenkinson. He further accused them of taking
the corn trade out of the hands of the merchants and then dropping State
management prematurely. Over against this captious comment may be placed
the undoubted fact that, early in the year 1796, wheat sold at six
guineas the quarter, and by the month of May was down nearly to normal
prices. In that month Pitt deemed the crisis past; for the King's Speech
of 19th May, at the end of the last session of that Parliament,
congratulated members on the success of their efforts to afford relief
to the people. The harvest of 1796 was more abundant; but confidence
was not restored until late in the year. As Whitbread pointed out, the
increase of large farms at the expense of the little men led to the
holding back of the new corn. The small farmer perforce had to sell his
corn at once. The wealthy farmer could bide his time.[426]
In these years of dearth, when the troubles in Poland restricted the
supply of corn from that natural granary, the importance of the United
States became increasingly obvious. Pitt had consistently sought to
improve the relations with our kinsmen, and in 1791 sent out the first
official envoy, George Hammond. The disputes resulting from the War of
Independence and those arising out of the British Maritime Code during
the Great War, brought about acute friction; but the good sense of Pitt,
Washington, and John Jay, his special envoy to London, led to the
conclusion of an Anglo-American Treaty (7th October 1794). Though hotly
opposed by the Gallophil party at Washington, it was finally ratified in
September 1796, and thus postponed for sixteen years the hostilities
which had at times seemed imminent. For the present the United States
sent us an increased quantity of cotton wool, but mere driblets of corn
except in seasons of scarcity. Lancashire benefited from the enhanced
trade, while the British farmer did not yet discern the approach of
times of ruinous competition.[427]
* * * * *
Agriculture had long been an occupation equally fashionable and
profitable. No part of the career of George III deserves more
commendation than his patronage of high farming. That he felt keen
interest in the subject appears from the letters which he sent to "The
Annals of Agriculture" over the signature of "Ralph Robinson," one of
his shepherds at Windsor. A present of a ram from the King's fine flock
of merinos was a sign of high favour. Thanks to this encouragement and
the efforts of that prince of agricultural reformers, Arthur Young, the
staple industry of the land was in a highly flourishing condition. The
rise in the price of wheat now stimulated the demand for the enclosure
of waste lands and of the open or common-fields which then adjoined the
great majority of English villages. The reclamation of wastes and fens
was an advantage to all but the very poor, who, as graziers,
wood-cutters, or fishermen, dragged along a life of poverty but
independence. Though they might suffer by the change to tillage, the
parish and the nation at large reaped golden harvests.
The enclosure of common fields was a different matter. Though on them
the traditional rotation of crops was stupid and the husbandry slipshod,
yet the semi-communal tillage of the three open strips enabled Hodge to
jog along in the easy ways dear to him. In such cases a change to more
costly methods involves hardship to the poor, who cannot, or will not,
adopt the requirements of a more scientific age. Recent research has
also shown that villagers depended mainly on their grazing rights. Now,
a small grazier does not readily become a corn-grower. Even if he can
buy a plough and a team, he lacks the experience needful for success in
corn-growing. Accordingly, the small yeomen could neither compete with
the large farmers nor imitate their methods. While the few who succeeded
became prosperous, the many sank into poverty. These results may also be
ascribed to the expense and injustice too often attending the enclosures
of this period. Far from striking off at one blow the fetters of the old
system, as happened in France in 1789, English law required each parish
to procure its own Enclosure Act. Thus, when the parishioners at the
village meeting had decided to enclose the common fields and waste,
there occurred a long and costly delay until the parochial charter was
gained.
Then again, the difficult task of re-allotting the wastes and open
fields in proportion to the rights of the lord of the manor, the
tithe-owner, and the parishioners, sometimes furnished an occasion for
downright robbery of the poor. That staunch champion of high-farming and
enclosures, Arthur Young, names many instances of shameful extortion on
the part of landlord and attorneys. Where the village carried out its
enclosure fairly and cheaply, the benefits were undoubtedly great. The
wastes then became good pasture or tolerable tillage; and the common
fields, previously cut up into small plots, and worked on a wasteful
rotation, soon testified to the magic of individual ownership. A case in
point was Snettisham, near Sandringham, where, as the result of the new
wealth, the population increased by one fifth, while the poor-rate
diminished by one half. Young also declared that large parts of
Norfolk, owing to judicious enclosures, produced glorious crops of grain
and healthy flocks fed on turnips and mangolds, where formerly there had
been dreary wastes, miserable stock, and underfed shepherds.
The dearth of the year 1795 brought to the front the question of a
General Enclosure Act, for enabling parishes to adopt this reform
without the expense of separately applying to Parliament. To devise a
measure suitable to the wide diversities of tenure prevalent in English
villages was a difficult task; but it had been carried out successfully
in Scotland by the Act of 1695; and now, a century later, a similar boon
was proposed for England by one of the most enterprising of Scotsmen.
Sir John Sinclair was born in 1754 at Thurso Castle. Inheriting large
estates in the county of Caithness, he determined to enter political
life, and became member for Lostwithiel, in Cornwall. Differing sharply
from Pitt over the Warren Hastings affair, he adopted the independent
line of conduct natural to his tastes, and during the Regency dispute
joined the intermediate party known as the Armed Neutrality.
Above all he devoted himself to the development of Scottish agriculture,
and began in 1790 a work entitled "A Statistical Account of Scotland."
He also founded a society for improving the quality of British wool, and
in May 1793 he urged the Prime Minister to incorporate a Board of
Agriculture. Young bet that Pitt would refuse; for, while favouring
commerce and manufactures, he had hitherto done nothing for the plough.
He lost his bet. Pitt gave a conditional offer of support, provided that
the House of Commons approved. The proposal won general assent, despite
the insinuations of Fox and Sheridan that its purpose was merely to
increase the patronage at the disposal of the Cabinet. Sinclair became
president, with Young as secretary.[428] The Englishman complained that
Sinclair's habit of playing with large schemes wasted the scanty funds
at their disposal. But the Board did good work, for instance, in setting
on foot experiments as to the admixture of barley, beans, and rice in
the partly wheaten bread ordained by Parliament in 1795.
With the view of framing a General Enclosure Act, Sinclair sought to
extract from parochial Enclosure Acts a medicine suitable to the myriad
needs and ailments of English rural life. His survey of typical
enactments is of high interest. He summarizes the treatment accorded to
the lord of the manor, the rector or other tithe owner, and the
parishioners. Thus, in the case of three parishes near Hull, namely,
Hessle, Anlaby, and Tranley, the wastes and open fields, comprising
3,640 acres, were divided by an act of the year 1792 in a way which
seems to have given satisfaction. Commissioners appointed by the local
authorities divided the soil among the lords of the manors, the
tithe-owners, and the parishioners, the landlords retaining half of
their portions in trust for the poor. Other instances, however, reveal
the difficulty of the question of tithes. Young and Sinclair felt
bitterly on this subject, as their recent proposal to give a detailed
description of the lands of every parish in England was successfully
opposed by Dr. Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Pointing out the need of a General Enclosure Act, Sinclair claimed that
of the 22,107,000 acres of waste in England and Wales, a large portion
could be afforested, while only one million acres were quite useless--a
very hopeful estimate.[429] In order to investigate this question, a
Select Committee was appointed, comprising among others Lord William
Russell, Ryder, Carew, Coke of Norfolk, Plumer, and Whitbread. The
outcome of its research was the General Enclosure Bill introduced early
in the session of 1796, which elicited the sanguine prophecy of its
author quoted at the head of this chapter.
The measure aroused keen interest. On 15th March the London Court of
Aldermen urged its members to assist in passing some such measure with a
view to increasing the food supply, and providing work for the poor, as
well as for soldiers and sailors discharged at the peace. The proposals
were as follows: The present method of enclosure would be extended so as
to enable the parties concerned to frame an inexpensive and friendly
agreement. In case of disagreement the Bill would enable the majority of
the parishioners, voting, not by head, but according to the value of
their rights, to decide on the question of enclosure. But, in order to
safeguard the rights of the poor, the choice of commissioners charged
with the duty of re-allotting the soil would rest with the majority,
reckoned both according to heads and value. The lord of the manor could
not veto enclosure; but his convenience was specially to be consulted in
the re-apportionment of the land. Sinclair also pointed out to Pitt
that, as tithe-owners were now "much run at," their interests must be
carefully guarded. As for the cottagers, they would find compensation
for the lapse of their fuel rights by the acquisition of small
allotments near to their cottages. The poor also would not be charged
with the expenses of enclosure, and might raise money on loan to fence
the plots awarded to them in lieu of their share in the waste and the
open fields. To insist, said Sinclair, on four acres being annexed to
every cottage was really harmful. Finally he expressed the hope that,
under his plan, the legal expenses of enclosure would on an average be
£5 per parish as against the present burden of £500.[430]
Pitt's treatment of the General Enclosure Bill is somewhat obscure.
Again and again Sinclair urged him to greater activity. In April 1796 he
begged him to consult with the judges so as to meet the objections of
tithe-owners. In May he warned him of the general disappointment that
must ensue if no measure of that kind passed in that session. He asked
him whether the Bill, as now amended by the committee, would not answer
its purpose. Pitt gave no encouraging sign. On the contrary, he
gratified the country gentlemen by opposing a Bill for the Reform of the
Game Laws. The proposer, Curwen, sought merely to legalize the killing
of game started on ground farmed by the occupier. But the squires took
alarm, asserting that every small farmer could then pursue hares and
rabbits from his ground into their preserves, and that country life, on
those terms, would be intolerable. Pitt took their side, averring that
sport was a relaxation well suited to the higher Orders of State, but
likely to entice farmers away "from more serious and useful
occupations." Much may be forgiven to a Prime Minister shortly before a
General Election, which, in fact, gave to Pitt a new lease of power.
To Sinclair the election brought defeat and chagrin. He travelled
northward to the Orkneys to seek a seat there, and, writing from
Edinburgh on 6th July, tartly informed Pitt of his rejection after a
journey of nearly a thousand miles. He must (he adds) either obtain a
seat elsewhere, or take no further interest in the Board of
Agriculture. If Pitt approves of his labour at the Board, will he show
it in some way? "If, on the other hand," he continues, "you feel the
least hesitation about giving it support, your candour, I am persuaded,
will induce you to inform me at once, that I may no longer be tempted to
waste so much time and labour in such pursuits.... I still flatter
myself, however, that you will see the object in such a light that you
will give the President of the Board of Agriculture a seat either in the
Upper or the Lower House, that he may be encouraged to carry on the
concerns of that useful institution with redoubled energy." Pitt's
comment on the back of the letter is suggestive: "That he has lost his
election, but flatters himself that a seat will be given him either in
the _Lower_ or Upper House, or he must decline taking further concern in
the proceedings of the Board of Agriculture." A little later Sinclair
renewed his appeal for a seat either at Midhurst, or in Scotland.
Failing that, he hinted that the President of the Board of Agriculture
ought to be a Peer. Is it surprising that Pitt fulfilled the suggestion
by giving his influence in favour of Lord Somerville, who displaced
Sinclair at the Board in 1798? Loughborough it was who suggested the
change;[431] but Pitt must have approved it; and thereafter the Board
deteriorated.
In truth the thane of Thurso had become a bore. His letters to Pitt teem
with advice on foreign politics and the distillation of whisky, on new
taxes and high farming, on increasing the silver coinage and checking
smuggling, on manning the navy and raising corps of Fencibles. Wisdom
flashing forth in these diverse forms begets distrust. Sinclair the
omniscient correspondent injured Sinclair the agrarian reformer. Young
treated the Prime Minister with more tact. His letters were fewer, and
his help was practical. A pleasing instance of this was his presence at
Holwood in April 1798, when Pitt was draining the hillside near his
house, so as to preserve it from damp and provide water for the farm and
garden below. Young drew up the scheme, went down more than once to
superintend the boring and trenching, and then added these words: "I beg
you will permit me to give such attention merely and solely as a mark of
gratitude for the goodness I have already experienced at your
hands."[432]
Sinclair, now member for Petersfield, brought his General Enclosure Bill
before Parliament in 1797. In order to meet the objections of
tithe-owners and lawyers, he divided it into two parts, the former
applying to parishes where all the persons concerned were unanimous, the
latter where this was not the case. Even so the measure met with
opposition from the legal profession; and on 13th May he wrote to Pitt
expressing deep concern at the opposition of the Solicitor-General. In
July he besought Pitt to make the Bill a Cabinet measure in order to
"prevent either legal or ecclesiastical prejudices operating against
it." Nevertheless Pitt remained neutral, and the Bill was lost in the
Lords, mainly owing to the opposition of the Lord Chancellor.[433] In
December Sinclair announced his intention of bringing in a Bill for the
improvement of waste land; but, he added significantly, "I should be
glad previously to know whether it is your intention to support that
measure or not." Pitt gave no sign, and the proposal did not come
forward.
Pitt's treatment of one of the most important questions of that time
deserves censure. We may grant that the fussiness of Sinclair told
against his proposals. It is also true that the drafting of a Bill
applicable to every English parish was beset with difficulties, and that
enclosures, while adding greatly to the food supply of the nation, had
for the most part told against the independence of the poorer villagers.
But this was largely due to the expense and chicanery consequent on the
passing of parochial Acts of Parliament; and what objections were there
to facilitating the enclosure of wastes and open fields by parishes
where everyone desired it? In such a case it was the bounden duty of
Parliament to end the law's delays and cheapen the procedure.
That Pitt did little or nothing to avert the hostility of bishops and
lawyers in the Upper House convicts him either of apathy or of covert
opposition. He is largely responsible for the continuance of the old
customs, under which a parish faced the expense of procuring a separate
Act of Parliament only under stress of severe dearth; and, as a rule,
the crisis ended long before the cumbrous machinery of the law enabled
the new lands to come under the plough. It is, however, possible that he
hoped to inaugurate a system of enclosures of waste lands by a clause
which appeared in his abortive proposals of the year 1797 for the relief
of the poor. His Bill on that subject comprised not only very generous
plans of relief, but also the grant of cows to the deserving poor, the
erection of Schools of Industry in every parish or group of parishes,
and facilities for reclaiming waste land. His treatment of the question
of poor relief is too extensive a subject to admit of adequate
description here; but I propose to return to it and to notice somewhat
fully the criticisms of Bentham and others.[434] It must suffice to say
that the draft of that measure bespeaks a keen interest in the welfare
of the poor, and indeed errs on the side of generosity. Abbot,
afterwards Lord Colchester, was asked by Pitt to help in drafting the
Poor Bill; and he pronounced it "as bad in the mode as the principles
were good in substance."[435]
After the withdrawal of Pitt's Poor Bill, nothing was done to facilitate
enclosures until the accession of Addington to power. His General
Enclosure Act of the year 1801 afforded timely relief in the matter of
food-supply, a fact which shows that the difficulties in the way of such
a measure were far from serious. The passing of that Bill, it is true,
was helped on by the terrible dearth of that year, when the average
price of wheat was close on 116 shillings the quarter. But Pitt was
content to meet the almost equally acute crisis of 1795-6 by temporary
shifts, one of which exasperated the neutral States of the North and
prepared the way for the renewal of the hostile League of the Baltic.
FOOTNOTES:
[420] B.M. Add. MSS., 27808.
[421] "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 36.
[422] "H. O.," (Departmental), Secs. of State.
[423] B.M. Add. MSS., 27808; "Hist. of the Two Acts," 330 _et seq._
[424] Pitt MSS., 190; "W. O.," 113.
[425] "H. O.," Geo. III (Domestic), 36.
[426] "Parl. Hist.," xxxii, 235-42, 687-700, 1156; Tooke, "Hist. of
Prices," i, 185 _et seq._; Porter, "Progress of the Nation," 147, 452.
[427] "Dropmore P.," iii, 87, 243, 526-30; "Report of the American Hist.
Assoc." (1903), ii, 67-9, 354, 375, 440 _et seq._, 552-8; E. Channing,
"United States," 148-50; Cunningham, 512, 694.
[428] "Mems. of Sir John Sinclair," i, ch. iv; ii, ch. i.
[429] "Mems. of Sir John Sinclair," ii, 60-4, 104; Sinclair,
"Address ... on the Cultivation of Waste Lands (1795)"; "Observations
on ... a Bill for facilitating the Division of Commons." He first urged
this on Pitt on 10th January 1795 (Pitt MSS., 175).
[430] Pitt MSS., 178.
[431] "Corresp. of Sir John Sinclair," i, 124.
[432] Pitt MSS., 193. Sinclair raised two corps of Fencibles. The list
of his works, pamphlets, etc., fills thirty-two pages at the end of his
Memoirs.
[433] "Mems. of Sir John Sinclair," ii, 106-9.
[434] "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies."
[435] "Lord Colchester's Diary," i, 82.