STATE OP ENGLAND IN 1685.

415

or a less serious social evil during the last quarter of theseventeenth century than it is in our own time. *

In one respect it must be admitted that the progress ofcivilisation has diminished the physical comforts of a portionof the poorest class. It has already been mentioned that,before the Revolution, many thousands of square miles, nowinclosed and cultivated, were marsh, forest, and heath. Ofthis wild land much was, by law, common, and much of whatwas not common by law was worth so little that the proprietorssuffered it to be common in fact. In such a tract, squattersand trespassers were tolerated to an extent now unknown.The peasant who dwelt there could, at little or no charge,procure occasionally some palatable addition to his hard fare,and provide himself with fuel for the winter. He kept a flockof geese on what is now an orchard rich with apple blossoms.He snared wild fowl on the fen which has long since beendrained and divided into corn fields and turnip fields. Hecut turf among the furze bushes on the moor which is now ameadow bright with clover and renowned for butter andcheese. The progress of agriculture and the increase of po-pulation necessarily deprived him of these privileges. Butagainst this disadvantage a long list of advantages is to be setoff. Of the blessings which civilisation and philosophy bringwith them a large proportion is common to all ranks, and

* Fourteenth Report of the Poor Law Commissioners, Appendix B.No. 2. Appendix C. No. 1. 1848. Of the two estimates of the peor ratementioned in the text one was formed by Arthur Moore, the other, someyears later, by Richard Dunning. Moore’s estimate will be found inDavenant's Essay on Ways and Means; Dunning’s in Sir Frederic Eden’svaluable work on the poor. King and Davenant estimate the paupersand beggars in 1690, at the incredible number of 1,330,000 out of a popu-lation of 5,500,000. In 1846 the number of persons who received reliefappears from the official returns to have been only 1,332,089 out of apopulation of about 11,000,000. It ought also to be observed that, in theofficial returns, a pauper is very likely to be reckoned more than once.

I would advise the reader to consult De Foe’s pamphlet entitled“Giving Alms no Charity," and the Greenwich tables which will be foundin Mr. M‘Culloch’s Commercial Dictionary under the head Prices.

CHAP.

hi.

Benefitsderivedby thecommonpeoplefrom theprogressof civili-sation.