APPENDIX to the CHRONICLE. 



89 



to be passed for that purpose, that 

 affidavits of the truth of these facts 

 might be taken, under the penal- 

 ties of perjury, before one or more 

 neighbouring justices of the peace; 

 which being properly authenticated 

 bv them, miaiht be admitted as suf- 

 ficient prima-fucic evidence before 

 both houses, without precluding 

 either, if circumstances should ap- 

 pear to require it, from adopting 

 the present mode of investigation by 

 viva voce testimony. Your commit- 

 tee apprehend that forms of such 

 affidavits, adapted to the several 

 objects which they may be designed 

 to prove, might be annexed to the 

 act, so as to enable not only the 

 agents to substantiate the facts 

 within their knowledge, but distant 

 proprietors, at the same time that 

 they signify their assent, to authen- 

 ticate their having done so. 



The form of the bill itself neces- 

 sarily comprising, as before stated, 

 many provisions of a general nature, 

 has next attracted the attention of 

 your committee; and they are of 

 opinion that it would tend much to 

 reduce the expense both of draw- 

 ing and copying the bill, and of 

 printing and engrossing it, if all 

 such clauses as should appear from 

 the general practice to be necessary 

 and usual in all bills of enclosure 

 were to be incorporated in one ge- 

 neral act, and be thereby declared 

 to be applicable ( vintutis mutandis ) 

 to all future enclosures to be made 

 under the authority of parliament, 

 as to all such matters as should not 

 be otherwise specially provided for 

 by the particuFar bill. 



The next general object that has 

 occurred to your committee is the 

 charges of the solicitor, whether 

 Wting as such, in the necessary 



conduct of the bill through parlia- 

 ment, or, after it has passed, in the 

 additional capacity of clerk to the 

 commissioners. Should the altera- 

 tions before suggested, as to the 

 mode of proof before the two 

 houses, be adopted, your committee 

 are led to hope that these charges 

 would necessarily be considerably 

 reduced; and, that in many cases 

 where the measure met with no 

 opposition, the attendance of the 

 solicitor or any other person from 

 the countrymight be dispensed with : 

 but while the existing charges, 

 whatever they may be, are unde- 

 fined in their nature, and subject to 

 no control but through the medium 

 of an expensive litigation, abuses 

 will in many instances exist. Your 

 committee see no remedy for these, 

 unless it should be found practica- 

 ble to ascertain the nature of such 

 charges with some degree of pre- 

 cision, and then to subject them to 

 taxation in the same manner as costs 

 in the courts below, either by some 

 officer of those courts, or by officers 

 of the two houses of parliament, or 

 others specially appointed for that 

 pui'pose. The particular duty and 

 charges of the clerk to the commis- 

 sioners might, as appears to your 

 committee, be prescribed by the 

 general or particular act, and like 

 that of the commissioners and sur- 

 veyor, controlled by the sanction of 

 an oath of office. 



With respect to the commissioners 

 themselves, upon whose ability and 

 integrity so much depends, it might 

 not perhaps be expedient to subject 

 them to similar control, lest men 

 of respectability should be deterred 

 from engaging in so laborious and 

 useful an employment; but the 

 abuses above noticed might perhaps 



