22 HISTORY OF COMMONS. 
Inclosure Act of 1845 was passed for the purpose 
mainly of withdrawing the consideration of such 
schemes from Committees of Parliament, and sub- 
stituting local inquiries held by independent Com- 
missioners. It also introduced uniformity in the pro- 
ceedings of inclosure. It provided that no application 
for this purpose should be made without the consent 
of one-third of the Commoners, and that no scheme 
should be finally sanctioned unless two-thirds of them 
gave their approval. It directed that all schemes for 
the inclosure of Commons, as distinguished from com- 
monable land,* where approved by the Commissioners, 
were to come under the revision of Parliament in 
Annual Confirmation Bills. In respect of Commons 
within fifteen miles of London, or within five miles of 
towns of 10,000 inhabitants or upwards, it required 
that special reports should be made as to the expediency 
of inclosure. It gave power, within certain very narrow 
limits, to the Commissioners to require that allotments 
should be made for recreation and for field-gardens for 
the labouring people. 
This Act was passed in 1845, just before the 
adoption of Free Trade, and the abandonment of the 
protective system, and when it was still the general 
belief that inclosures were beneficial, and even necessary, 
by adding to the area of cultivated land and giving 
increased employment to labourers. The Act, though a 
vast improvement over the previous practice of inclosure 
under private Acts, was in its practical working almost 
* This provision was afterwards extended to all inclosures. 
