There lie some popular objections against this undertaking; and the
first is (the great controverted point of England) enclosure of the
common, which tends to depopulation, and injures the poor.

2. Who shall be judges or surveyors of the work, to oblige the
undertakers to perform to a certain limited degree?

For the first, "the enclosure of the common"--a clause that runs as
far as to an encroachment upon Magna Charta, and a most considerable
branch of the property of the poor--I answer it thus:-

1. The lands we enclose are not such as from which the poor do
indeed reap any benefit--or, at least, any that is considerable.

2. The bank and public stock, who are to manage this great
undertaking, will have so many little labours to perform and offices
to bestow, that are fit only for labouring poor persons to do, as
will put them in a condition to provide for the poor who are so
injured, that can work; and to those who cannot, may allow pensions
for overseeing, supervising, and the like, which will be more than
equivalent.

3. For depopulations, the contrary should be secured, by obliging
the undertakers, at such and such certain distances, to erect
cottages, two at least in a place (which would be useful to the work
and safety of the traveller), to which should be an allotment of
land, always sufficient to invite the poor inhabitant, in which the
poor should be tenant for life gratis, doing duty upon the highway
as should be appointed, by which, and many other methods, the poor
should be great gainers by the proposal, instead of being injured.