30 THE COMMITTEE ON COMMONS. 
Member for Lambeth, moved in the House of Commons 
for a Committee to inquire into the best means of 
preserving for the use of the public the Forests, 
Commons, and Open Spaces in the neighbourhood of 
London. In the discussion which followed, much was 
said -about the scheme for Wimbledon Common, 
and it was arranged that the Bull relating to it 
should be included in the inquiry. The Committee, 
consisting of twenty-one members, was presided over 
by Mr. Locke, Member for Southwark. I had 
myself taken part in the debate on the subject, and 
was appointed a member of the Committee, my interest 
having arisen from the fact that I had lived many 
years with my father at Wimbledon, and was, therefore, 
well acquainted with the Common. 
Before this Committee, evidence was given by Lord 
Spencer’s legal advisers to the effect that he was practi- 
cally owner of the Common; that the rights of the Com- 
moners were so limited as to be unworthy of considera- 
tion, and as to offer no substantial check to his power ; 
that the public had no legal rights whatever to 
the use or enjoyment of the waste; that in this 
view the proposed scheme ought to be accepted by the 
commoners and inhabitants without cavil. On the 
other hand, the commoners asserted with equal confi- 
dence their rights over the Common; they denied the 
claims of the Lord of the Manor; they claimed for 
themselves rights over it sufficient to prevent all possi- 
bility of inclosure; they alleged a decided preference 
for an open stretch of wild uncultivated land, such as 
