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ALLOTMENTS

AND

Parliament, as a matter of fact, had from a very early period recognized the wisdom of contenting the peasant. In the 14th century England was a land of small farms wherein the tenant lived in rude abundance. Next century a rural exodus began, owing to the practice of enclosing the holdings and turning them into sheep walks. In 1487 an Act was passed enjoining landlords to “ keep up houses of husbandry,” and attach convenient land to them. Within the next hundred years a number of similar attempts were made to control what we may call the sheep fever of the time. Then we arrive at the reign of Elizabeth and the famous Small Holdings Act passed in 1597—an anticipation of the three-acres-and-acow policy advocated towards the end of the 19th century. Il required that no person shall “ build, convert, or ordain any cottage for habitation or dwelling for persons engaged in husbandry ” unless the owner “do assign or lay to the same cottage or building four acres of ground at the least.” It also provided against any “ inmate or under-sitter ” being admitted to what was sacred to one family. This measure was not conceived in the spirit of modern political economy, but it had the effect of staying the rural exodus. It was repealed in 1775 on the ground that it restricted the building of cottages. By that time the modern feeling in favour of allotments had begun to ripen, and it was contended that some compensation should be made to the labourers for depriving them of the advantages of the waste. Up to then the English labouring rustic had been very well off. Food was abundant and cheap, so were clothes and boots ; he could graze his cow or pig on the common, and also obtain fuel from it. Now he fell on evil days. Prices rose, wages fell, privileges were lost, and in many cases he had to sell the patch of land the possession of which made all the difference between hardship and comfort. All this was seen plainly enough both by statesmen and private philanthropists. One of the first experiments was described by Sir John Sinclair in a note to the report of a select committee of the House of Commons on waste lands in 1795. About 1772 the lord of the manor of some commonable lands near Tewkesbury had with great success set out 25 acres in allotments for the use of some of the poor. Sir John was very much struck with the result, and so heartily applauded the idea that the committee recommended that any general Enclosure Bill should have a clause in it providing for “ the accommodation of land.” Sir Thomas Bernard and Mr Wilberforce took an active part in advocating the principle of allotments, on the ground, to summarize their argument in language employed later by a witness before the House of Commons, that “it keeps the cottagers buoyant and makes them industrious.” In 1806, at the suggestion of the rector, a clause assigning an allotment of half an acre to every cottage was inserted in an Enclosure Bill then under consideration for the parish of Broad Somerford in Wiltshire. This was done, “and the example was followed by nearly every adjoining parish in that part of Wiltshire.” Passing over several praiseworthy establishments of allotments by private persons, we come to 1819, when Parliament passed an Act akin in spirit to several that came into existence during the later portion of the Victorian era. It empowered the churchwardens and overseers of any parish, with the consent of the vestry, to purchase or hire land not exceeding 25 acres, and to let it in portions to “any poor and industrious inhabitant of the parish.” This was amended in 1831 by an Act extending the quantity of land to 50 acres, and also conveying an important new power to enable the same authorities to enclose from any waste or common land not exceeding 50 acres to be devoted to the same purpose. This was followed next year by an Act relating to fuel, and in 1834 the Poor Law Commissioners reported favour-

SMALL

HOLDINGS

ably on the principle of granting allotments. In 1843 an important inquiry into the subject was made by a committee of the House of Commons, which produced a number of valuable suggestions. One consequence was the Bill of 1845, brought into Parliament by Mr Cowper. It passed the House of Commons; and there Mr Bright made a remark that probably summarized a general opinion, since it never came to a third reading in the House of Lords. He said that “the voluntary system of arrangement would do all the good that was expected to accrue from the allotment system.” At this point in the history of the movement it may be as well to pause and ask what was the net result of so much legislation and benevolent action. Messrs Tremenheere and Tufnall, who prefixed an admirable epitome of what had been done to the report of the Commission “ appointed to inquire into the employment of women, young persons, and children in agriculture” (1867), expressed considerable disappointment. Between 1710 and 1867, 7,660,413 statute acres were added to the cultivated area of England and Wales, or about one-third of the area in cultivation at the latter date; and of this total, 484,893 acres were enclosed between 1845 and 1867. Of the latter, only 2119 acres were assigned as public allotments for gardens to the labouring poor. It was found to be the case, as it is now, that land was taken up more readily when offered privately and voluntarily than when it came through official sources. Meanwhile competent and thoughtful men saw well that the sullen discontent of the peasantry continued, in Lord Bacon’s phrase, to threaten “the might and manhood of the kingdom.” It had existed since the beginning of the Napoleonic wars, and had become more articulate with the spread of education. We shall see a consciousness of its presence reflected in the minds of statesmen and politicians as we briefly examine the later phase of the movement. This found expression in the clauses against enclosure introduced by Lord Beaconsfield in 1876, and gave force to the threeacres-and-a-cow agitation, of which the more prominent leaders were Mr Joseph Arch and Mr Jesse Collings. In 1882 the Allotments Extension Act was passed, the object of which was to let the parishioners have charity land in allotments, provided it or the revenue from it was not used for apprenticeship, ecclesiastical, or educational purposes. A committee of the House of Commons, appointed in 1885 to inquire into the housing of the working classes, reported strongly in favour of allotments, and this was followed in 1887 by the Allotments Act—the first measure in which the principle of compulsory acquisition was admitted in regard to other than charity lands. Its administration was first given to the Sanitary Authority, but passed to the District Councils when these bodies were established in 1894. The local body is empowered to hire or purchase suitable land, and if they do not find any in the market they are to petition the County Council, which after due inquiry may issue a provisional order compelling owners to sell land, and the Local Government Board may introduce a Bill into Parliament to confirm the order. It was found that the Sanitary Authority did not carry out the scheme, and in 1890 another Act was passed for the purpose of allowing applicants for allotments, when the Sanitary Authority failed to provide land, to appeal to the County Council. Judging from the evidence laid before the commission on agricultural depression (1894), the Act of 1887 has not been a conspicuous success. Most of the witnesses reported in such terms as these —1 “ the Allotments Act has been quite inoperative in Cornwall ” ; “the Act has been a dead letter in the district (Wigtownshire) ”; “ the Allotments Act has not been in operation in Flintshire”; “nothing has been done in the district of