carry it.'

Why has this sturdy class so dwindled in numbers, and left England
infinitely the weaker for their decrease? The causes are several;
social, economic, and political. The chief, perhaps, is the peculiar
form of Government which came in with the Revolution. The landed
gentry by that event became supreme, the national and local
administration was entirely in their hands, and land being the
foundation of social and political influence was eagerly sought by
them where it was not already in their hands.[580] At the same time
the successful business men, whose numbers now increased rapidly from
the development of trade, bought land to 'make themselves gentlemen'.
Both these classes bought out the yeomen, who do not seem to have been
very loath to part with their land. The recently devised system of
strict family settlements enabled the old and the new gentlemen to
keep this land in their families. The complicated title to land made
its transfer difficult and costly, so that there was little breaking
up of estates to correspond with the constant buying up of small
owners. To the smaller freeholder, as has been noticed, the enclosure
of waste land did much harm, for it was necessary to his holding.
Again, smaller arable farms did not pay as well as large ones, so they
tended to disappear. The decay of home industries was also a heavy
blow to the smaller yeoman and the peasant proprietor.

Under this combination of circumstances many of the yeomen left the
land. Yet though Young, less than a century after King and Davenant,
said that the small freeholder had practically disappeared, there were
at the end of the eighteenth century many left all over England, who
however largely disappeared during the war and in the bad times after
the war.[581] But a contrary tendency was at work which helped to
replenish the class. The desire of the Englishman for land is not
confined to the wealthy classes. At the end of the eighteenth century
men who had made small fortunes in trade were buying small properties
and taking the place of the yeomen.[582] In the great French War of
1793-1815, many yeomen, attracted by the high prices of land, sold
their properties, but at the same time many farmers, attracted by the
high prices of produce, which had often enriched them, bought
land.[583] During the 'good times' of 1853-75 many small holders, like
those of Axholme, noticed in the _Report_ of the Agricultural
Commission of 1893, bought