274 RURAL COMMONS. 
for cultivation. It was very near to Fox Warren, 
the residence of the late Mr. Charles Buxton, and 
through him the inexpediency of the inclosure of this 
Common became generally known. Mr. Knatchbull- 
Hugessen, later Lord Brabourne, the Minister in 
charge of the Bill, agreed to treat Wisley separately, 
and to refer the question of the expediency of inclosing 
it to a Select Committee, but he pressed on the measure 
so far as it concerned the other Commons. 
It was at this stage that Fawcett’s attention was 
directed to the matter. He had already, in writing a 
few years before on the subject of the agricultural 
labourers, pointed out the injurious effect on their con- 
dition, of the inclosures of the past 200 years. He was 
now to deal with the subject in his quality of a 
practical statesman. The measure for confirming the 
inclosure of the Commons referred to had already 
reached its last stage. It was treated, as had been the 
custom since the Inclosure Act of 1845, as a mere 
matter of routine, not involving the responsibility of the 
Minister in charge of it. Fawcett gave notice of a 
motion for the recommittal of the Bill, upon the third 
reading, in order to extend the provisions in the schemes 
as to the allotments for labouring men. This was 
opposed by the Government, and night after night, 
until the early hours of the morning, Fawcett was in 
his place, with a dogged persistency, to prevent the 
measure being taken at a time when there would be no 
opportunity of discussing the matter, with any prospect 
of engaging public interest. At last, on April 9th, 1869, 
