ly add to the means of monopolists? Do they not give where
nothing is wanted, however much may be coveted? Do they not add to the
number of vassals, and diminish the number of freemen? Do they not
abridge the scanty means of the poor in the free use of their
bare-cropt commons? And do they not transfer those means to others who
do not want them, and who, without the aid of new laws could never
have enjoyed them?

Yet does reason afford no alternative? Is benevolence forced to prefer
barren heaths from which cottagers may derive scanty meals, merely
because those who have the power fail to reconcile the rights (C)f
others who want, with the benefit of the whole community? Is our
wisdom confined in so narrow a circle? Has nature provided abundance,
and do we create insuperable bars to its enjoyment? Is such the line
of demarcation between the selfish ordinances of man, and the wise
dispensations of Providence?

Let me recommend our legislators for once to put their greedy,
covetous, and inordinate Selves out of consideration. The poor may not
be qualified to plead their rights, except by acts of rioting; but let
them find clamorous advocates in the consciences of some of their
law-makers. In spite, then, of the fees of parliament, I exhort the
Legislature to pass a #GENERAL ENCLOSURE BILL#, not such a one,
however, as would be recommended by the illustrious Board of
Agriculture, but founded on such principles as might appropriately
confer on it the title of #A BILL FOR THE EXTINCTION OF WANT#!

In discussing and enacting its provisions, let it be borne in mind,
that the surface of the earth, like the atmosphere in which we
breathe, and the light in which we see, is the natural and common
patrimony of man. Let it be considered, that by nature we are tillers
of the soil, and that all the artifices of society, and the
employments of towns, are good and desirable in the degree only in
which they promote the comforts of the country. Let it be felt, that
the 10,000 destitute families in this county of Surrey, and the half
million in England and Wales, are so, merely because servitude or
manufactures have failed to sustain them; and that they require, in
consequence, the free use of the means presented by nature for their
subsistence. In fine, let it be considered, that the unappropriated
wastes are a national stock, fortunately in reserve as a provision for
the increasing numbers of destitute; and that no more is required of