Appropriation of Common Lands.

Why prosecute the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common,
But leave the greater felon loose
Who steals the common from the goose?

The abuse of Manorial Lordships indicated in a foregoing paragraph rapidly thinned down the area of commons and commonable lands. The term "Common Lands" generally indicates lands that are in a state of nature in waste, the severalty of which is not in any individuals. Commonable lands are those portions which during a certain time each year are in severalty, viz., "Lammas Lands" (which from seedtime to 12th August are divided among occupiers that each till their own portion); commonable bay-fields (which are thrown open after hay harvest); &c. The village greens are most probably remnants of old unappropriated common field lands. From returns made to Parliament in 1873 the following would appear to be the

Total Estimated Acreage of the Commons and Common Field Lands in each County in England and Wales.

And this was not a complete return, being based upon the tithe documents. As evidence of their imperfection, a Parliamentary report states that on an investigation of some 917 enclosures, it was found that 104 had taken place in parishes where the tithe documents made mention of no common lands at all. A return of 1843 (including only land upon which commutations of tithe had taken effect) specified 1,800,000 acres of common and waste out of 8,600,000 so far commuted. Proportioning this to the whole area of England and Wales, the Tithe Commissioners estimated that there would be altogether 8,000,000 acres of common and waste. This included wastes not subject to common (a very large item), but did not include Lammas lands (a considerable one).

Between the two authorities it seems fair to assume that probably four million acres (or over a tenth of the entire acreage) of England and Wales are still subject to common rights. Prior to 1800 some 1,600 or 1,700 Enclosure Acts had been passed, and from 1800 to 1845, 2,000 more were enacted—altogether 3,600 or 3,700 separate measures for the robbery of the poor by the landed rich. Sir James Caird (who understates the number of enclosures as 2,500) reckons the amount of land thus enclosed as 2,142,000 acres, but adds significantly that "besides this, a very large extent of country has been reclaimed without the intervention of Parliament." We might suggest to Sir James the more Shaksperian word "conveyed," which would be far more expressive and appropriate altogether.

In 1845 the reformed Parliament found time to pass an Act dealing with these private enclosures and with the cognate subject of the reclamation of wastes. On the evidence of a committee almost entirely composed of great landowners, and presided over by Lord Worsley, it was decided to encourage and cheapen enclosures in the interest of the great landlords, who, it appears, had to pay about £1,500 legal charges in getting their filching bills through. The specious plea that these lands were comparatively unproductive was used to blind the public into assent to an Act that validated and perpetuated the ancient frauds upon the people. True that clauses 30 and 31 allowed a proportional quantity of the lands to be appropriated according to population for purposes of recreation and amusement, and of a certain portion for allotments to the labouring poor, moreover clause 15 protected such of the village greens as were left; but the main object of the Whig and Tory magnates in this 1845 Act was made transparent, for it laid no hand upon offenders who had notoriously encroached, and by clause 50 it gave perpetual and unchallenged right of ownership in every case of 20 years' possession.

And undoubtedly such constant attention is still necessary. From 1845 to 1875 the general results of the Inclosure Commission were as follows—

Total Extent and Estimated Value of Land set out for Public Purposes, and Cash Expended thereon, to close of 1875.

	Acres.
For exercise and recreation	1,758
For field gardens	2,195
For public quarries and gravel pits	823
For fuel	1,168
For schools and churches	622
For burial grounds	106
For other miscellaneous purposes	85
For public roads (2,000 miles in extent, independent of occupation roads) covering	7,350
	14,107

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	£
The value of this, at £20 an acre, being all out of the best of the laud	282,140
Cash expended on the construction of public roads and other public works connected with enclosures	473,500
	£755,040

Number of Separate Estates thus created out of Commons; by which it will be seen that an appreciable addition has been made to the number of small Landholders.

Of whom 4,836 were farmers, 3,456 tradesmen, 3,168 working-men, 2,624 esquires, 2,016 widows, 1,984 gentlemen, 1,280 clergymen. 1,067 artisans, 800 spinsters, 704 trustees of charities, 576 peers and baronets, 512 professional men, &c., &c.

In 1871 a further Select Committee reported that the veto invested in Lords of the Manors was being employed to impose terms not consistent with the spirit or sometimes even with the letter of the Inclosure Acts, and that the officials representing the Crown Manors had frequently stipulated that the nomination of valuers should be left absolutely to their discretion, in spite of the provisions of Section S3. The Committee demanded refusal of assent to such conditions and the prevention of a mis-use of the Lords of Manors' veto. Moreover, they recommended the appointment of a Special Committee for the consideration of each annual Inclosnres bill, and laid down emphatically the dictum that "It rests with those who ask the assistance of Parliament and seek its authority, in order to procure for themselves advantages which, without that, they could not obtain, to make out a clear case of public advantage."

Since the Commons Act of 1876, 89 applications for Regulation and Enclosure of Commons have been made to the Land Commission, embracing together some 113,774 acres in all. Of these

All the remaining cases have been refused or withdrawn.