30 THE COMMITTEE ON COMMONS. 



Member for Lambeth, moved in the House of Commons 

 for a Committee to inquire into the best means of 

 preserving for the use of the public the Forests, 

 Commons, and Open Spaces in the neighbourhood of 

 London. In the discussion which followed, much, was 

 said about the scheme for Wimbledon Common, 

 and it was arranged that the Bill relating to it 

 should be included in the inquiry. The Committee, 

 consisting of twenty-one members, was presided over 

 by Mr. Locke, Member for South vvark. I had 

 myself taken part in the debate on the subject, and 

 was appointed a member of the Committee, my interest 

 having arisen from the fact that I had lived many 

 years with my father at Wimbledon, and was, therefore, 

 well acquainted with the Common. 



Before this Committee, evidence was given by Lord 

 Spencer's legal advisers to the effect that he was practi- 

 cally owner of the Common ; that the rights of the Com- 

 moners were so limited as to be unworthy of considera- 

 tion, and as to offer no substantial check to his power ; 

 that the public had no legal rights whatever to 

 the use or enjoyment of the waste ; that in this 

 view the proposed scheme ought to be accepted by the 

 commoners and inhabitants without cavil. On the 

 other hand, the commoners asserted with equal confi- 

 dence their rights over the Common ; they denied the 

 claims of the Lord of the Manor ; they claimed for 

 themselves rights over it sufficient to prevent all possi- 

 bility of inclosure ; they alleged a decided j)reference 

 for an open stretch of wild uncultivated land, such as 



