36 THE COMMITTEE ON COMMONS. 



"The opinions so expressed (as to the soundness of which, 

 however, your Committee give no opinion) have proceeded from 

 judicial decisions of ancient date; your Committee cannot 

 help observing- that, even if binding on legal tribunals, they 

 appear to rest upon no very intelligible principle. Your Com- 

 mittee are at a loss to conceive why, upon general principles, 

 a right of enjoyment which may be acquired by the inhabit- 

 ants of a small hamlet should be denied to the inhabitants of 

 the metropolis, or even to the general public. ... It may 

 deserve consideration whether some declaratory law should 

 not be passed to remedy what appears to us to be a somewhat 

 narrow doctrine of the Courts, hardly in accordance with the 

 general principles of the law, having regard to the increased 

 population of large towns in later times. 



" The policy which dictated the earlier legislation in 

 respect to Commons seems to have proceeded without regard 

 to those particular interests of the public which we are now 

 considering; but nevertheless, there is nothing to show that 

 that legislation proceeded upon other than grounds of general 

 public advantage. 



" In early times the great extent of Commons and waste 

 lands in England was regarded as prejudicial to the public, on 

 whose behalf it may be fairly assumed that the Legislature 

 acted in facilitating their inclosure, in order that agriculture 

 might be promoted and the whole country benefited by an 

 increase in the produce of the land/' 



The report then proceeded to discuss the Statute of 

 Merton, and to show that it was passed in the interest of 

 agriculture, and that in more modern times it had been 

 superseded by Private and Public Inclosure Acts. 



" It appears," the report added, " that even in agricultural 

 districts any attempt at inclosure of lands under the alleged 



