The Project Gutenberg EBook of Landholding In England, by Joseph Fisher

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Title: Landholding In England

Author: Joseph Fisher

Release Date: February, 2003 [Etext #3799]
Posting Date: January 8, 2010

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE HISTORY OF LANDHOLDING IN ENGLAND.

By Joseph Fisher, F.R.H.S.

"Much food is in the tillage of the poor, but there is that
is destroyed for want of Judgment."--PROV. 13: 23.

"Of all arts, tillage or agriculture is doubtless the most
useful and necessary, as being the source whence the nation
derives its subsistence. The cultivation of the soil causes
it to produce an infinite increase. It forms the surest
resource and the most solid fund of riches and commerce for
a nation that enjoys a happy climate.... The cultivation of
the soil deserves the attention of the Government, not only
on account of the invaluable advantages that flow from it,
but from its being an obligation imposed by nature on
mankind."--VATTEL.

INTRODUCTION.

This work is an expansion of a paper read at the meeting of the Royal
Historical Society in May, 1875, and will be published in the volume of
the Transactions of that body. But as it is an expensive work, and only
accessible to the Fellows of that Society, and as the subject is one
which is now engaging a good deal of public consideration, I have
thought it desirable to place it within the reach of those who may not
have access to the larger and more expensive work.

I am aware that much might be added to the information it contains, and
I possess materials which would have more than doubled its size, but
I have endeavored to seize upon the salient points, and to express my
views as concisely as possible.

I have also preferred giving the exact words of important Acts of
Parliament to any description of their objects.

If this little essay adds any information upon a subject of much public
interest, and contributes to the just settle