RURAL COMMONS. 283 
approval or rejection by the Committee. In several 
cases the Committee has insisted upon an increase of 
the appropriations of land for recreation or allotments. 
In others it has refused inclosure of parts of Commons, 
on the ground that no public benefit would result. 
The case of Maltby Common, which came before this 
Committee in 1879, is a good illustration. This Common, 
of seventy-eight acres, is situate six miles from Rotherham 
and twelve from Sheffield. It is much frequented by 
visitors from both these towns, and there are no other 
Commons within the same distances. It was originally 
included in the list of thirty-eight schemes approved by 
the Inclosure Commissioners, under the Act of 1*45, and 
it was then proposed to assign three acres for a recreation 
ground and three for allotments. The Commission now 
again sanctioned a scheme for its inclosure, but with the 
requirement that twenty-four acres should be set apart 
for recreation, and five for garden allotments. There 
was strong opposition to the inclosure from the people 
of Shefheld and Rotherham. There was no evidence 
that any public benefit whatever would result from it. 
It was represented indeed that part of the Common was 
damp; but this might have been remedied by a regulation 
scheme. It was threatened by the promoters of the 
scheme, that if Parliamentary sanction to the inclosure 
were refused, they would, by agreement with the 
Commoners, effect the desired object without such 
authority, and that in such case the public would lose 
the benefit even of the twenty-nine acres, proposed to 
be allotted to them. Under the influence of this fear 
