BUBAL COMMONS. 279 



missioners. It did not extend the Metropolitan 

 Commons Act to other Commons near to towns. It 

 proposed, however, an alternative for inclosures of Rural 

 Commons, in schemes for their regulation ; but it pro- 

 vided that such schemes could only be adopted with the 

 same consents as those for inclosure, namely on the 

 approval of two-thirds, in value, of the Commoners, and 

 also of the Lord of the Manor while the essential feature 

 of the Metropolitan Commons Act was that a scheme 

 could be applied for by any one or more Commoners, 

 and could be carried, not only without the approval of 

 the Lord of the Manor, but in spite of his opposition. 



Mr. Cross, in introducing the Bill, pointed out that 

 the circumstances had greatly altered since the Inclosure 

 Acts of 1801 and 1845. 



" The feeling of the country/' he said, " had changed, and 

 the reason for it was not difficult to find. In the first place, the 

 necessity for increasing the food supply of the people by the 

 cultivation of Commons was not by any means so pressing 

 as formerly. . . . Then the general increase of the popula- 

 tion was so large that in discussing the expediency of inclosing 

 lands, they had to consider not merely how to increase the food 

 supply, but what was really best calculated to promote the health 

 and material prosperity of the people. Whatever could be done 

 in this way without interfering with private rights, it was their 

 duty to do, and the question of Commons, viewed in this light, 

 was perhaps of even greater importance now than it was in 1801 

 and 1845/' * 



The Commons Society did not consider that the 

 Bill, as introduced, fulfilled these expectations or the 



* Parliamentary Debates, vol. 227, p. 189. 



