90 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



be remedied by defining, in some 

 degree, the number of hours which 

 ought actually and bona fide to be 

 devoted to each meeting, and re- 

 quiring that it should not be occu- 

 pied by attention to any other busi- 

 ness; and also by regulating, ac- 

 cording to the place of residence of 

 each commissioner, the charges to 

 be allowed for travelling expenses. 

 With a view to ascertain how far 

 the former of these regulations had 

 been complied Avith, it might be 

 desirable that the clerk should be 

 required to keep a register of all 

 the days and times employed in the 

 business of the enclosure ; which, 

 as well as the books of account, 

 should be open to the inspection of 

 all persons concerned. 



On afull consideration of the sub- 

 ject of parliamentary fees, properly 

 so called, which has occupied much 

 of the attention of your committee, 

 they see no ground to recommend 

 to the house any general regulations 

 on that head. As a suitable re- 

 compence for the time, attention, 

 and abilities of the several persons 

 to whom they are payable, they 

 find no reason to object to their 

 usual amount: and fi-om a compa- 

 rison of it to that of the other ex- 

 penses necessarily incidental to this 

 procedure, they are not inclined to 

 think it can in general operate as a 

 discouragement to this mode of im- 

 provement. In particular instances, 

 however, which are notunfrequent, 

 of small wastes and commons, it 

 is obvious that the whole expense 

 of conducting an enclosure, under 

 the authority of parliament, must 

 always bear so large a proportion to 

 the value of the land to be divided, 

 as to preclude the possibility of im- 

 provement in that mode. It seems 



to your committee worthy the con- 

 sideration of the house, how far it 

 might be advisable, in certain cases of 

 such a description, to be ascertained 

 either by the number of acres, or 

 value of the land (in addition to the 

 general regulations above sugges- 

 ted), to remove such part of the 

 impediment as is more immediately 

 under its control, by providing that 

 such biUs should only be considered, 

 in the payment of fees, as single 

 bills, and be entitled to any other 

 indulgence which parliament in its 

 wisdom should see fit. Your com- 

 mittee ground this recommendation 

 on the supposition that such por- 

 tions of land could by no possibility 

 be brought into cultivation in the 

 ordinary mode, and that therefore 

 the reduction proposed is not so 

 much to be considered as a diminu- 

 tion of probable and accustomed 

 perquisites to the officers of the tvi^o 

 liouses, as the means of making 

 that productive of emolument to a 

 certain amount which would other- 

 wise never be at all available to 

 that effect. 



On the whole, your committee 

 have thought thev should best fulfil 

 the intentions of the house in refer- 

 ring to them to consider of the most 

 effectual means of facilitating, un- 

 def the authority of parliament, the 

 enclosure and improvement of the 

 Avaste and other unproductive lands 

 of the kingdom, by confining the 

 regulations they might suggest to 

 such points as appeared to them 

 simple and of easy attainment ; by 

 which the expense attending en- 

 closure, under the present system, 

 would be considerably diminished, 

 and the plan would in other respects 

 be improved. And if the sugges- 

 tions they have ventured to recom- 



