22 HISTORY OF COMMONS. 



Inclosure Act of 1845 was passed for the purpose 

 mainly of withdrawing the consideration of such 

 schemes from Committees of Parliament, and sub- 

 stituting local inquiries held by independent Com- 

 missioners. It also introduced uniformity in the pro- 

 ceedings of inclosure. It provided that no application 

 for this purpose should be made without the consent 

 of one-third of the Commoners, and that no scheme 

 should be finally sanctioned unless two-thirds of them 

 gave their approval. It directed that all schemes for 

 the inclosure of Commons, as distinguished from com- 

 monable land,* where approved by the Commissioners, 

 were to come under the revision of Parliament in 

 Annual Confirmation Bills. In respect of Commons 

 within fifteen miles of London, or within five miles of 

 towns of 10,000 inhabitants or upwards, it required 

 that special reports should be made as to the expediency 

 of inclosure. It gave power, within certain very narrow 

 limits, to the Commissioners to require that allotments 

 should be made for recreation and for field-gardens for 

 the labouring people. 



This Act was passed in 1845, just before the 

 adoption of Free Trade, and the abandonment of the 

 protective system, and when it was still the general 

 belief that inclosures were beneficial, and even necessary, 

 by adding to the area of cultivated land and giving 

 increased employment to labourers. The Act, though a 

 vast improvement over the previous practice of inclosure 

 under private Acts, was in its practical working almost 



* This provision was afterwards extended to all inclosures. 



