HEALTH AND MORALS OF THE PEOPLE : ENCLO-
SURE OF WASTE LANDS.
TefeRE are many proofs of improvement in the physical condition of the people of this country. As in France, the mass of the population enjoy a considerable degree of " material prosperity." Exciseuble articles are consumed in greater abundance than at any former period, and wages are high. Placards, pasted on the %rails in different parts of the Metropolis, state the suffer- ings of the "operative engineers," who can only earn 33s. a week fur ten hours daily labour, except when they obtain " piece- work,- and then they can make from 40s. to 70s. a week. They consider themselves grievously oppressed and ground down by their selfish and cruel masters ; aud have combined to force from them a reasonable compensation fiw their work. In the provinces, but essecially in large towns and their vicinity, the wages of labour are higher, compared with the cost of the necessaries of bre. than they were ever known to be before ; and, whatever may be the condition or landowners and farmers, it is agreed on all bands that the rural labourers are comfortable and prosperous be- yond precedent.
Such being the case, the time is favourable for an attempt to se- duce the lower classes in this country from low guzzling in pot- Louses to healthy and rational modes of enjoyment. When men are miserable and want flied, it is a cruel mockery to talk to them of mechanics' institutions and green fields. But advantage should be taken of their (eerhaps fleeting) prosperity, to wean them from the sottish habits and merely bestial pleasures, which high wage!: give them the means of indulging in more freely than ever. Without improvement in the habits of the bulk of the popula- tion, there will always be something rotten in the social state.
To attempt such an improvement would not be unworthy of the Legislature; it is indeed one of the primary duties of lesisla- lion and government. But the session of 1836, like its prede- cessors, i (hawing to a close, and little indeed will have been done in this direction; The Miscellaneous Estimates have been before the House of Ci•inroons this week, awl large sums were voted for various pur- poses,—ter instance, 34,000/. for that disgraceful job the Record Commission, and 73,000/. for salaries and other expenditure con- nected with the two Houses of Pal liament; whereupon a long debate arose on the subject of reporting : but only 1,500/. was voted for a School of Design ; 10,00d. -for the education of the Scottish Poor, and 20,000/. for the English. These three votes— less together than the -cost of the Commission for damaging and confusing the Records—passed almost in silence. The grand and important subject of National Education has scarcely received any attention flout Government or the Legislature during the session of 1836 ; and this we consider by no means the least discreditable rnaik which will be affixed to this session of almost universal dis- appointment.
Our attention has been called to another matter connected with the improvement of popular health and morals, by an intelligent correspondent from Bristol. Few of our readers are aware that " a Bill for facilitating the Enclosure of Open and Arable Fields in England and Wales," has reached almost its last stage in the House of Peers; having been hurried through the House of Com- mons with little or no discussion. Under this bill, Hampstead and Putney Heaths, Blackheath, Wimbledon, Roehampton, Wands- worth, and Clapham Commons, in the neighbourhood of London— the beautiful commons near Southampton—Clifton Down and Durd- ham Down, near Bristol—Bath Common, and many open spaces close to large towns in varisus parts of England—may be enclosed. Had the measure been avowedly for the enclosure of heaths, the alarm would have been sounded, and the bill would have been arrested in its earlier stages : but the contrivers artfully describe it as a measure for facilitating the enclosure of "open and arable fieHs;" and Lord ELLENBOROUGH said in the House of Peers on Tuesday, that it "did not at all apply to wastelands, but to those now in a state or cultivation." bad HOLLAND, however, ob- served," that he should consider it expedient to provide by this bill tha t some large space should be secured near all large towns, or those containing the thousand inhabitants or upwards, for the purpcee ssef affording recreation. "To which the " hereditary Tribune of the Poor" replied, that " under the bill as it at present stood, no vaste could be enclosed without the consent of the lord of the manor." Excellent protection for the rights of the poor, truly, is to be found in such a provision! Why, " the lord of -the manor" is frequently the most anxious of all the owners of a common to enclose it. If we remember rightly, the lord of Hampstead in-a nor was thechief promoter of the bill to enclose the Heath ; and it consists with our own knowledge, that io various part soft he country, the same course is generally pursued by their manorial lordships. TIlore is therefore in this bill no sufficient obstruction to the enclosure of waste lands—the lungs of great cities, such as Lon- don, Manchester, Sheffield, and Bristol. It gives the general power of effecting the division or enclosure of all open amid coin- non meadows and pastures occupied "according to any kilown or legal rights ;" and it allows the enclosure of waste lands with the consent of the lord of the manor. This bill never should receive the consent of the House of Commons, in its present shape. It may be useful in many respects; but it is difficult to imagine any measure more injurious to the health and distasteful to the feel- ings of the mass of the population, than a provision under which the waste lands in the neighbourhood of large towns may be en- closed. We trust therefore that it will be rejected, or rendered innocuous, when it is returned (as it must be) to the House of Com-
mons. It is an unmeaning cant to talk about the " rel:gious and moral improvement" oldie people, if you drive them into gin-shops. by depriving them of easy access to fresh air and pleasant walks.
Previous page
