282 RURAL COMMONS. 
thirty-eight cases, inasmuch as it was not proved to 
their satisfaction that such a course was for the benefit 
of the neighbourhood—a striking commentary on the 
previous proceedings, and on the new principle asserted 
by Parliament. 
On the other hand, we failed altogether in Committee 
on the Bill to make the clauses with respect to the 
regulation of Commons more elastic and workable, either 
by reducing the required proportion of assents of Com- 
moners, or by removing the veto of the Lord of the 
Manor. We failed also in numerous attempts to put 
an end to arbitrary inclosures of Commons otherwise 
than by the sanction of Parliament. The utmost we 
succeeded in obtaining was a clause directing persons, 
intending to inclose portions of Commons, to give three 
months’ notice in a local newspaper of their intention to 
do so; and a further clause taken from the Bill of 1871, 
enabling local authorities to purchase land with rights 
of common attached to it, with the object of giving 
them a voice in the management of Commons and the 
right of objecting to inclosure. 
After the passing of the Act, a Standing Commitee 
of the House of Commons was appointed, to which all 
schemes for the inclosure or regulation of Commons 
under the Act were referred. On this Committee two 
members of the Commons Society have always sat. 
Mr. Fawcett and Sir William Harcourt were on the 
first Committee, and, later, were replaced by Mr. 
Bryce and myself. By their efforts, every scheme 
has been subjected to the strictest examination, before 
