right of commonage, as no fum that he is likely to receive can be equivalent to a small allotment of land in property, on which, with care and industry, he might raife crops that would go a great way to maintain a numerous family. When a man fo fituated is turned out of his means of providing for himself and family, although with a few pounds in his pocket, it is a very great chance, especially during the existence of the abfurd law regarding gaining fettlements in parifhes, whether he can ever afterwards be able to fituate himself fo as that his money may prove materially useful to him, or to thofe in whose welfare he is most deeply interested.

An act of parliament for the fale of the crownlands should include a claufe, either exempting the lands to be fold altogether from tithes, by giving the clergyman a proportion of the wafte; or the tithes fhould be fettled by fome rule, whereby any unreasonable exactions on the future industry of the purchasers should be effectually prevented. As the payment of tithes in kind is the greatest obstacle to the improvement of English agriculture, it would be extremely abfurd not to guard against any bad confequen. ces arifing therefrom in the fale of lands, which can be rendered productive only by the expenditure of confiderable fums, and by the unremitting perfeverance and affiduity of the purchafers.

Another

Another clause, as it would go a great way to enfure the speedy improvement of thefe lands, fhould also be added; namely, that for all lands fo fold, that fhall not be improved by cultivation, planting, or fuch other means as fhall have been previously afcertained the best that can be adopted, within a certain time, feven years, for inftance, from the period of the fale, the proprietors fhould pay a quit-rent of five or ten fhillings the acre; and that the lands not improved in the manner previously agreed upon within the limited time fhould be fubject to fuch payments for ever afterwards.

In order ftill more effectually to enfure the improvement of thefe lands, they fhould be erected into freeholds, and fold in lots from three to five or fix hundred acres; and no individual fhould be allowed, under any pretence whatever, to purchase more than one lot. The good confequences of this propofed regulation are, it is prefumed, obvious. Many fpeculators in the funds, as well as in the various branches of commerce and manufactures, would, by fuch a regulation, have it in their power to become independent proprietors, and to expend part of their capitals in the improvement of their native fields, whereby a ftable foundation would be laid for the future profperity of the country. In the allotment of thefe lands, the commiffioners ought to have power to straight and regulate the VOL. IV. marches

G

marches with the neighbouring proprietors previous to the fale; and to give off, or exchange by private agreement, a fpecified number of acres in order to effect this purpose, but in no cafe exceeding thirty or forty acres to any one individual. The remainder ought to be difpofed of by public auction, fo that every person might have an equal chance. Should any other mode of fale be adopted, the whole will turn out a job. A few great proprietors in the neighbourhood will become the purchafers, and the chief object of the fale will never be attained.

Were fuch general regulations as thefe adopted, and all manorial and foreft rights abolished, the crown-lands would produce an immenfe fum, that might be applied to the exigencies of the ftate; and, in place of continuing longer a blot on the map of England, and a reproach to every administration that permits such a great national nuifance to remain unremoved, a general fpirit for improvements would be introduced in that kingdom, which would neceffarily produce in time a very great alteration for the better in the ftate of the country. An increase so great would take place in the agricultural productions as would enfure an abundant fupply of food for the inhabitants, and relieve them from that dependence on foreign nations for bread corn to which they have been fubjected for upwards of twenty years; and which, owing to the increafe

of population, seems to become every year fo much more alarming, as to threaten confequences fo ferious in their nature that the writer does not choose to mention them.

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SEC

SECTION III.

The Waftes and Commons in the more Fertile Parts of the Country.

BESIDES the unimproveable waftes in the mountainous parts of the country, the crownlands, and the common paftures in every open field parish, many of the moft fertile parts of England are deformed with extensive wastes and commons, over which the inhabitants of feveral parishes have right of commonage. In the counties of Middlesex, and Surry alone there are fome hundred thoufand acres of commonable lands highly fufceptible of improvement, and which require nothing but an act of parliament by which they may be converted into private property, and afterwards ordinary cultivation to render them productive. But the most extenfive waste in the island of naturally fertile foil is parts and portions of the counties of Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, and Lincoln, called the Great Bedford-level, containing upwards of 600,000 acres of strong deep fen-land, which, owing to negligence in regard to drainage, is comparatively wafte. As the improvement of this immenfe tract has been declared by many profeffional men highly practicable, and as

the