34 THE COMMITTEE ON COMMONS. 



in the neighbourhood of Commons, and by able lawyers, 

 that in every instance, there were rights of common sub- 

 sisting at law, sufficient to prevent inclosure, as had 

 been the case from the earliest times, if enforced by the 

 holders in the Courts of Law. 



A scheme was propounded by Sir John Thwaites, 

 then Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works, on 

 behalf of that body, for dealing with all the Commons 

 within their district in a comprehensive manner. He 

 proposed that the Board should be empowered to buy 

 up the interests of the Lords of Manors and of the 

 Commoners, and thus to become owners in fee of the 

 Commons freed from such rights. It was admitted that 

 such a scheme would involve an outlay of not less than 

 6,000,000, and that it would be impossible to provide 

 for it by an increase of the rates. It was proposed, 

 therefore, to meet the outlay by selling portions of the 

 Commons for building purposes. In some respects the 

 scheme was not dissimilar to that which had been pro- 

 pounded for Wimbledon Common. 



The Report, agreed to by a majority of the Com- 

 mittee, was drawn up, in consultation with myself, by 

 Mr. Philip Henry Lawrence, a solicitor of eminence in 

 London, who, as a resident at Wimbledon, was greatly 

 interested in the subject, and whose subsequent services 

 to the cause of Commons cannot be over-estimated. 

 This Report condemned the scheme of the Metropolitan 

 Board as unwise and unnecessary, and as certain to 

 result in a most serious diminution of the area of the 

 London Commons. " There is no open space," it said, 



