THE COMMITTEE ON COMMONS. 35 



" within fifteen miles of London which can be spared, 

 or which should be reduced in area." 



On the question of the existence of rights of com- 

 mon over the London Commons as against the rights 

 of the Lords of Manors, the Report adopted the views 

 of those who contended that the non-user of such 

 rights of late years, had not operated as a legal 

 abandonment of them ; it expressed the confident 

 opinion that rights of common subsisted over all the 

 Commons sufficient, if enforced at law, to abate any 

 attempted inclosure under the Statute of Merton ; but 

 it pointed out the very great hardship that the owners 

 of such rights should be called to contest the arbitrary 

 inclosures of Lords of Manors, in the expensive legal 

 proceedings necessary for the vindication of their rights. 



On the subject of the legal position of the public 

 of London in respect of the use and enjoyment of their 

 Commons, it said : 



" The rights of the public at large are vague and unsatisfac- 

 tory, for while it is generally acknowledged that a right 

 may exist to traverse any of these spaces at will in all directions, 

 and that no action for trespass would lie for such traversing, 

 and even that a ' servitus spaciandi ' over open ground which 

 has in some measure been devoted to public use is also 

 intelligible and known to the law, yet the legal authorities 

 appear most unwilling to admit any general public right 

 to exercise and recreation upon any of these spaces, although 

 such right may from time immemorial have been enjoyed, 

 contending that it must be limited to some certain defined 

 body of persons, as the inhabitants of a particular parish or the 

 tenants of a particular manor. 

 D 2 



