322 REGULATION OF COMMONS. 
had been properly supported. It was also a bad pre- 
cedent for other cases. It followed, when some years 
later, in 1893, it became necessary to deal with 
Hackney Marshes, and to propound a scheme for placing 
this other important space under proper regulation, 
that Lord Amherst again put forward a claim for 
compensation on a scale commensurate with the pre- 
cedent of 1872; and the London County Council, 
hampered doubtless by the bad policy of its predecessor, 
refused to give its support to the scheme, unless an 
arrangement were come to with the Lord of the Manor. 
Negotiations were entered into with him, and the other 
persons interested in the Common, and it was ultimately 
arranged that £75,000 should be paid for all the interests 
in the land, of which £50,000 was to be provided by 
the London Council, £15,000 by the Hackney Local 
Board, £5,000 by a private contribution from Lord 
Amherst, and the remaining £5,000 by public sub- 
scription. 
The scheme thus matured was later confirmed by 
Parliament. It was, however, in the opinion of those 
who had conducted the movement, contrary to the 
spirit and intention of the Act of 1866, in so far as it 
provided for the payment of so great a sum to the 
owners of the soil and the Commoners. Fortunately it 
is the last transaction where the ratepayers’ money in 
London will be drawn upon for such a purchase, as 
no other Common now remains undealt with within the 
district of the London Council. 
Clapham, Plumstead, Streatham, Barnes, and 
