284 BUBAL COMMONS. 



the Committee, by a small majority, approved the 

 scheme for the inclosure of Maltby Common. But on 

 the motion of Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, the following 

 clause was inserted in the Report of the Committee, 

 pointing out the anomalous state of the law in allowing 

 inclosures otherwise than by the sanction of Parliament, 

 and without the securities for the public interest which 

 were in their opinion necessary. 



u It was pointed out to the Committee that if the provisional 

 order for inclosing Maltby Common were not accepted by 

 Parliament, there was a possibility of the parties interested 

 coming to terms and inclosing the whole Common, and that, if 

 that were done, the intentions of Parliament for the protection of 

 the rights of the poorer inhabitants, and the health, comfort, 

 and convenience of the neighbourhood would be thereby frus- 

 trated, and that persons might arbitrarily inclose common land 

 on the chance of nobody interfering. It is evident that this 

 condition of the law might materially impair the free action of 

 the Commissioners, and interfere with the intentions of Parliament, 

 if the Commissioners were informed that, should they not accept 

 the exact terms proposed by the majority of the parties interested, 

 the inclosure would be carried out in another way without any 

 reference to the Acts of Parliament bearing on the subject." 



The opposition to the inclosure of Maltby Common 

 did not end with the Committee. Mr. Mundella gave 

 notice to move the rejection of the Bill in the House, 

 and as the Government gave no assistance for the 

 discussion of the Bill, at a time when it could be taken, 

 it must be presumed that it was hostile to the scheme. 

 In any case the scheme did not receive the sanction of 

 Parliament; the inclosure was abandoned; and Maltby 



