PROCEDURE IN ENCLOSURES 249 



was inferior. Every advance in science made by agriculture, and 

 every new resource which is adopted, only served to accentuate 

 the relative disadvantages of open-field farming. Change was, in 

 the circumstances, necessary. It was generally effected by obtain- 

 ing Parliamentary sanction for an enclosure. 



The ordinary procedure, 1 by which open-fields or commons were 

 enclosed under Parliamentary authority, opened with a Petition 

 presented to Parliament by persons locally interested. The Petition 

 was signed by the owner of the land or lord of the manor, by the 

 owner of the tithes, and by a majority of the persons interested. 

 No fixed rule seems to have been followed, as to the proportion of 

 consents and dissents. But Parliamentary Committees looked to 

 the values as well as to the numbers which were represented. On 

 this Petition, by leave of the House, a Bill was introduced, read a 

 first and second time, and then referred to a Committee, which 

 might consist of the whole House or of selected members. The 

 Committee, after receiving counter-petitions and hearing evidence, 

 reported to the House, that the standing orders had, or had not, 

 been complied with ; that the allegations were, or were not, true ; 

 that they were, or were not, satisfied that the parties concerned 

 had consented to the Bill. On the Committee's Report, the Bill 

 either was rejected, or was read a third tune, passed, sent to the 

 Lords, and received the Royal Assent. If the Bill passed, the 

 Commissioners, or Commissioner, named in the Act, arrived at the 

 village. There they heard the claims of the persons interested, 

 and made their award, distributing the property in separate owner- 

 ship among those who had succeeded in establishing their claims, 

 with due regard to the " quality, quantity, and contiguity " of the 

 land. 



The procedure was open to abuses. Even if it is assumed that 

 a Parliamentary Committee, largely composed of landed pro- 

 prietors, was always disinterested on questions affecting land, 

 little trouble seems to have been taken to elicit the opinions of 

 small claimants. Schemes of enclosure rarely began with a public 

 meeting of the parish. The principal owners generally met in 

 secret, arranged the points in which their own interests conflicted, 

 selected the solicitor and surveyor, nominated the Commissioners, 



1 An Essay upon the nature and method of ascertaining the specific shares of 

 proprietors upon the inclosure of common fields, by the Rev. Henry Sacheverell 

 Homer (1766). 



