24 HISTORY OF COMMONS. 



in favour of in closure. So late as 1851 Parliament 

 approved the disafforesting and inclosure of Hainault 

 Forest, one of the most beautiful sylvan districts within 

 reach of London. A Committee of the House of 

 Commons recommended a similar scheme for Epping 

 Forest, and its inclosure subject to a small allotment 

 in favour of the public. The same utilitarian spirit 

 threatened the New Forest and the Forest of Dean. 



Between the years 18G0 and 1870, however, there 

 arose two very distinct movements with respect to 

 Commons : the one of opposition altogether to their 

 inclosure, when within reach of large towns, and 

 especially of London, on the ground that they are of 

 infinitely greater value to the public as open spaces for 

 health and recreation than as cultivated land or for 

 building sites : the other, from the point of view of the 

 agricultural labourer, whose interests had been so 

 shamefully neglected in past inclosures, claiming that in 

 the future no inclosures should take place, even in rural 

 districts, unless they should be distinctly proved to be for 

 the public interest of the district, by adding to the pro- 

 duction of the soil ; and insisting that where inclosures 

 might be thought advisable, there should be far greater 

 regard for the interests of the labouring people and for 

 the public interests of the district. 



These movements were both promoted b} 7 the altered 

 conditions brought about by Free Trade in corn. 

 When so large a proportion of the food of the country 

 was imported, it became a matter of little account 

 whether a few more acres of indifferent land were added, 



