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In Bacon’s History of Henry VII. we find the following
passage:—‘ Inclosures at that time began to be
more frequent, whereby arable land, which could not be manured without
people and families, was turned into pasture, which was easily rid by a
few herdsmen; and tenancies for years, lives, and at will, whereupon
much of the yeomanry lived, were turned into demesnes.
This bred a decay of people, and by consequence a decay of towns,
churches, tythes, and the like. The king likewise knew full well and in
nowise forgot that there ensued withal upon this a decay and
diminution of subsidies and taxes; for the more gentlemen ever the lower
books of subsidies. In remedying of this inconvenience, the king’s wisdom
was admirable, and the parliament’s at that time. Inclosures they would
not forbid, for that had been to forbid the improvement of the patrimony
of the kingdom; nor tillage they would not compel, for that was to strive
with nature and utility; but they took a course to take away depopulating
inclosures and. depopulating pasturage, and yet not by that name, or by
any imperious express prohibition, but by consequence. The ordinance was
"That all houses of husbandry. that were used with twenty acres of ground
or upwards should
be maintained and kept for ever."
In the preambles to several acts of parliament about
that date, we find, references to the same progress,
e.g. 4th Henry VII. c.16.
Forasmuch as it is to the king our sovereign lord great surety and also
to the surety of this realm of England, that the Isle of Wight, in the
county of Southampton, be well inhabited with English people, for the
defence as well of his ancient enemies of the
realm of France as of other parties, the which isle, is lately decayed of
people by reason that many towns and villages have been beaten down, and
the fields ditched and made pastures for beasts and cattles; and
also many dwelling pIaces, farms and farmholds, have of late times been
used to be taken in one man’s hold and hands, that of old time were
wont to be in many persons holds and hands, and many several households
kept in them, and thereby much people multiplied,
and the same isle well inhabited, the which now by the occasion aforesaid
is desolate and not inhabited, but occupied with beasts and cattles, &c.
&c.:’ the enactment is, that none shall take more farms than one
in the Isle of Wight exceeding ten merks rent.
Another preamble not less remarkable is that of
Henry VIII. chap. 13 :—‘. Forasmuch as divers
and sundry persons of the king’s subjects of this realm,
to
whom God of his goodness hath disposed great plenty and abundance of
moveable substance, now of late within few years have daily
studied, practised, and invented ways and means how
they might accumulate and gather together into few hands, as well great
multitude of farms as great plenty of cattle, and in especial sheep,
putting such lands as they can get, to pasture, and not tillage,
whereby they have not only pulled down churches and towns, and enhanced
the old rates of the rents of the possessions of this realm, or else
brought it to such excessive fines that no poor man is able to meddle with
it, but also have raised and enhanced the prices of all manner of corn,
cattle, wool, pigs, geese, hens, chickens, eggs, and such other; almost
double above the prices which have been accustomed; by
reason whereof a marvellous multitude and number of the people of this
realm be not able to
provide meat, drink, and cloaths, necessary for themselves, their wives,
and children, but be so discouraged with
misery and poverty that they fall daily to theft, robbery, and other
inconveniences, or pitifully die for hunger and cold; and as it is thought
by the king’s most humble and loving subjects, that one of the
greatest occasions that moveth and provoketh those greedy and covetous
people so to accumulate and keep in their hands such great portions and
parts of the grounds and lands of this realm from the occupying of
the poor husbandmen, and so to use it in pasture
and not in tillage, is only the great profit that cometh of sheep, which
comes to a few persons hands
of this realm, in respect of the whole number of the king’s subjects, that
some have four-and-twenty thousand, some twenty thousand, some ten
thousand, some six thousand, some five
thousand, and some more and some less; by the which a good sheep for
victual, that was accustomed to be sold for two shillings fourpence, or
three shillings at the most is now sold for six shillings or five
shillings, or four shillings at the least; and a stone of clothing
wool that in some shires in this realm was accustomed to be sold for
eighteen-pence or twenty-pence, is now sold for four shillings, or three
shillings fourpence at the least; and in some Countries where it hath been
sold for two shillings four-pence or two shillings eight-pence, or three
shillings at the most, it is now sold for five shillings, or four
shillings eightpence the least, and so raised in every part of this realm;
which things, thus used, principally to the high displeasure of Almighty
God, to the decay of the hospitality of this realm, to the diminishing of
the king’s people, and to the let of the cloth making, whereby many poor
people have been accustomed, to be set on work; and iii
conclusion, if remedy be not found, it may turn to the utter destruction
and desolation of this realm, which God defend.
Home, in his History of England, remarks that
during a century and a half after this period, there was a continual
renewal of laws against
depopulation, whence
we may infer that none of them were ever
executed. The natural course of improvement at last provided a remedy.
Of the popular clamours on the subject, a curious
specimen occurs in some lines, preserved in Lewis’s history of the Englidh
Translations of the Bible.
Before that sheepe so much dyd rayne,
Where is one plough then was there twayne;
Of corne and victual right greate plentye,
And for one pennye egges twentye.
I truste to God it will be
redressed,
That men by sheepe be not subpressed.
Sheepe have eaten men full many a yere,
Now let men eate sheepe and make good cheere.
Those that have many sheepe in store
They may repente it more and more,
Seynge the greate extreme necessitee,
And yet they shewe no more charitee.
These ideas appear to have had
no less
sanction than that of Sir Thomas More.—In a dialogue on the causes of the
prevalence of crimes in England, which he introduces in the first
book of Utopia, he expresses himself as follows:
Your sheep that were wont to be so meek and tame, and
so small caters, now, as I hear say, he become so great
devourers and so wild, that they eat up and swallow down the very men
themselves. They consume, destroy, and devour whole fields, houses, and
cities.
For look in what part of the realm doth grow the
finest, and therefore dearest wool,
there noblemen and gentlemen, yea and certain abbotts, holy men no doubt,
not contenting themselves with the yearly revenues and profits, that were
wont to grow to their forefathers and predecessors of their lands, not
being content that they live in rest and pleasure nothing profiting, yea
much knowing the weale publique: leave no ground for tilIage they.
enclose all into pastures: they throw down houses: they pluck down towns,
and leave nothing standing, but only the church to be made a sheep house.
And as tho’ you lost no small quantity of ground by forests, chases,
lands, and parks, those good holy men, turn all dwelling places, and all
glebe land into desolation, and wilderness—Therefore, that one covetous
and unsatiable cormorant and very plague of his native country, may
compass about and enclose many thousand acres of ground together within
one pale or hedge, the husbandmen be thrust out of their own, or else
either by corine and fraud, or by violent oppression they be put besides
it, or by wrongs and injuries they be so wearied, that they be compelled
to sell all: by one means therefore or by other, either
by hook or crook they must. needs depart away, poor silly wretched souls,
men, women, husbands, wives, fatherless children. widows, woful mothers,
with their young babes, and their whole household, small in substance, and
much in number, as husbandry requireth‘many hands.
Away they trudge, I say, out of their known and
accustomed houses, finding no place to rest. In all their household stuff,
which is very little worth, tho’ it might well abide the sale: yet being
suddenly thrust out, they be constrained to sell it for a thing of nought.
And when they have wandered abroad till that be spent, what can they then
else do but steal, and then justly perhaps be hanged, or else go about a
begging? And yet then also they be cast in prison as vagabonds, because
they go about and work not: whom no man. will set at work, tho’ they never
so willingly profer themèelves thereto. For one shepherd or herdsman is
enough to eat up that ground with cattle, to the occupying whereof about
husbandry many hands were requisite. And this is also the cause why
victuals be now in many places dearer. Yea besides this the price of wool
is so risen, that poor folks, which were wont to work it, and make cloth
thereof, be now able to buy none at all. And by this means very many be
forced to forsake work and to
give themselves to idleness.
From these observations of so great a man, combined
with the testimony conveyed in the preamble to the act of
Henry VilIth, no doubt can be entertained, that in England the change from
the feudal to the commercial system was accompanied by an unusual
prevalence of crimes: nor is this difficult to be explained. Men educated
amidst the idleness and irregularities of the feudal times, could not at
once acquire the habits of industrious workmen; and nothing is more
probable than that on being deprived of their
accustomed means of support, they should seek relief in criminal
practices. Perhaps this effect might have been alleviated, if such a vent
as emigration affords had then been open to people of this description. |
