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CHAPTER XIX. 



Attacks by Eailway Companies. 



Chief among the dangers to which Commons were 

 exposed before 1865, were the invasions of them by 

 Railway Companies. Already several Commons had been 

 seriously disfigured, if not irreparably injured, by railway 

 companies having, in a very needless way as it appeared, 

 intersected them with their lines, severing one part com- 

 pletely from another, interfering with their prospects, 

 and destroying that charm, which results from rural 

 solitude, and which constitutes, in the case of Commons 

 near to towns, so much of their value. This was notably 

 the case with Wandsworth, Banstead, Tooting, Mitcham, 

 and Barnes Commons. It seemed that neither the local 

 authorities of the district, if any, nor the inhabitants 

 generally, nor even individual Commoners, were allowed 

 a locus standi to appear before Select Committees of 

 either House of Parliament for the purpose of objecting, 

 in the interest of the public, to private Bills promoted 

 by companies, or even of pointing out how the objection- 

 able features of the schemes might be avoided or minim- 

 ised. TheLords of Manors were generally not concerned 

 in protecting their Commons from such invasions ; it was 

 rather their interest to invite them ; for they realised 

 their interest in the portions of Commons taken, 

 and the award of the purchase money might necessitate 



