88 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



mittee> that the clause in the act 

 above-mentioned, is usually con- 

 strued so literally, that a fresh sur- 

 vey and map are often ordered, 

 though there may have been one of 

 each in existence fully or nearly 

 adequate to the purpose ; and that 

 in some counties a practice has pre- 

 vailed of employing two surveyors, 

 one to take a general, the other a 

 particular survey. In some in- 

 stances another description of per- 

 sons is appointed by the act, called 

 quality men, whose business it is 

 to value the land. 



Other expenses incidental to an 

 enclosure are the setting out, form- 

 ing, and putting in repair the ne- 

 cessary roads, and fencing the seve- 

 ral allotments, according to the 

 direction of the commissioners. The 

 former being kept for a certain time 

 under their particular control, are 

 often in consequence, the occasion 

 of delaying the execution of the 

 award to a much later period than 

 would otherwise be necessaiy. The 

 expenses of the latter, particularly 

 the public fencing, have in some 

 instances been very considerable. 



The last procedure of the com- 

 missioners is the making and enrol- 

 ling their award, which is required 

 by the several acts to be written on 

 parchment, and of which one copy 

 is sometimes required to be depo- 

 sited in the parish church. This be- 

 ing subject to considerable stamp- 

 duties, and often of great length, is 

 consequently attended with a pro- 

 portionate expense. Your commit- 

 tee find, however, that it has be n 

 the practice of late years to reduce 

 the size of the award as much as 

 possible, by omitting the recital of 

 the principle clauses of the act, and 

 the proceedings of the commis- 



sioners, formerly inserted, and by 

 referring to schedules annexed. Yet, 

 even under these restrictions, it has 

 been stated to your committee, that 

 they have sometimes extended to 

 the length of sixty-seven skins of 

 parchment. 



The last possible proceeding pro- 

 vided by the act, is the appeal given 

 to the quarter sessions against such 

 acts of the commissioners as are not 

 thereby declared to be final and 

 conclusive, and particularly against 

 the rates they are empowered to 

 make for the payment of the ex- 

 penses. The delay and expenses 

 attending this part of the proceed- 

 ing must of course be casual and 

 uncertain. 



Your committee having thus laid 

 before the house the several charges 

 incidental to the present mode of 

 procuring and carrying into effect 

 bills of enclosure, proceed, in the 

 next place, to state such observa- 

 tions as have occunred to them in 

 the course of the inquiry ; and to 

 suggest such alterations as may, in 

 their opinion, by diminishing those 

 charges, tend to facilitate the en- 

 closure and improvement of the 

 wastes, commons, common fields, 

 and other unproductive lands of 

 the kingdom. 



The first head of expenses which 

 appears to them capable of retrench- 

 ment, is that which arises from the 

 practice of proving by parole evi- 

 dence the requisite notices, the con- 

 sents to the bill, and the allega- 

 tions of the preamble. If the wis- 

 dom of parliament should see fit, 

 for the sake of facilitating the means 

 of general improvement, to depart 

 in this respect from their accustom- 

 ed usages, your committee conceive 

 that it might be provided by an act, 



