My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

8oMY LIFEwas simple robbery, as they had no compensationwhatever, and were left wholly dependent on farmersfor employment. And this was all done—as similarinclosures are almost always done—under falsepretences.The " General Inclosure Act " states in itspreamble, " Whereas it is expedient to facilitate theinclosure and improvement of commons and otherlands now subject to the rights of property whichobstruct cultivation and the productive employmentof labour, be it enacted," etc. But in hundreds ofcases, when the commons, heaths, and mountainshave been partitioned out among the landowners, theland remains as little cultivated as before. It is eitherthrown into adjacent farms as rough pasture at anominal rent, or is used for game-coverts, and oftencontinues in this waste and unproductive state forhalf a century or more, till any portions of it arerequired for railroads, or for building upon, when aprice equal to that of the best land in the districtoften demanded and obtained.isI know of thousandsof acres in many parts of the south of England towhich these remarks will apply, and if this is notobtaining land under false pretences—a legalizedrobbery of the poor for the aggrandizement of therich, who were the law-makers — words have nomeaning.In this particular case the same course has beenpursued. While I was writing these pages a friendwas staying at Llandrindod, and I took the opportunityof asking him what was the present conditionof the land more than sixty years after itsHe informs me that, by inquiries among oldinclosure.inhabitants,he finds that at the time nothing was doneexcept to inclose the portions allotted to each landlordwith turf banks or other rough fencing ; and that