resort to parliament for power to effect inclosure. The legislation
which ensued was based on two principles. One was that all persons
interested in the open land to be dealt with should receive a
proportionate equivalent in inclosed land; the other, that inclosure
should not be prevented by the opposition, or the inability to act, of a
small minority. Assuming that inclosure was desirable, no more equitable
course could have been adopted, though in details particular acts may
have been objectionable. The first act was passed in 1709; but the
precedent was followed but slowly, and not till the middle of the 18th
century did the annual number of acts attain double figures. The
high-water mark was reached in the period from 1765 to 1785, when on an
average forty-seven acts were passed every year. From some cause,
possibly the very considerable expense attending upon the obtaining of
an act, the numbers then began slightly to fall off. In the year 1793 a
board of agriculture, apparently similar in character to the chambers of
commerce of our own day, was established. Sir John Sinclair was its
president, and Arthur Young, the well-known agricultural reformer, was
its secretary. Owing to the efforts of this body, and of a select
committee appointed by the House of Commons on Sinclair's motion, the
first General Inclosure Act was passed in 1801. This act would at the
present day be called an Inclosure Clauses Act. It contained a number of
provisions applicable to inclosures, which could be incorporated by
reference, in a private bill. By this means, it was hoped, the length
and complexity, and consequently the expense, of inclosure bills would
be greatly diminished. Under the stimulus thus applied inclosure
proceeded apace. In the year 1801 no less than 119 acts were passed, and
the total area inclosed probably exceeded 300,000 acres. Three
inclosures in the Lincolnshire Fens account for over 53,000 acres. As
before, the movement after a time spent its force, the annual average of
acts falling to about twelve in the decade 1830-1840. Another
parliamentary committee then sat to consider how inclosure might be
promoted; and the result was the Inclosure Act 1845, which, though much
amended by subsequent legislation, still stands on the statute-book. The
chief feature of that act was the appointment of a permanent commission
to make in each case all the inquiries previously made (no doubt
capriciously and imperfectly) by committee