ment District, having a population of not less than 5,000 inhabitants. A form of directions issued by the Board of Agriculture as to the mode in which applications for the regulation or inclosure of commons under the Inclosure Acts, 1845 to 1882, are to be made, with explanations respecting the law as to the regulation and inclosure of Metropolitan commons, will be found in the Appendix. There can, commons. Common Fields Inclosures Acts. however, be no inclosure under this Act of any common land such as is described in the Inclosure Act, 1845, which is situate either wholly or partly within the Metropolitan police district, as defined at the passing of the Metropolitan Commons Act, 1866 (a). A scheme for the establishment of local management with a view to the expenditure of money on the drainage, levelling, and improvement of any such land and to the making of byelaws and regulations for the prevention of nuisances and the preservation of order thereon, may be made under the provisions of the Metropolitan Commons Act, 1866, and the Metropolitan Commons Amendment Act, 1869, on a memorial presented to the Board of Agriculture by the lord of the manor, or by any commoners, or by the local authority of the district in which such land is situate (b), or by any twelve or more ratepayers, inhabitants of the parish or parishes within which the land lies (c). It may be mentioned here that in order to provide for the better cultivation, improvement, and regulation of common arable fields and pastures an Act was passed in 1773 (d) which was of great use in causing the gradual abandonment of the unprofitable system of agriculture in large open fields. The principal provisions of the Act were that three-fourths in number and value of the occupiers of such open and common field lands in each parish or place cultivating and taking the crops of the same and having the consent of the owners in manner therein men (a) 29 & 30 Vict. c. 122, s. 5. (c) 32 & 33 Vict. c. 107, s. 3. (d) 13 Geo. III. c. 81. tioned might at a meeting to be held and summoned as therein directed determine the course of husbandry to be observed during the next six years (e); that cottagers having rights of common but no lands in common fields should not be debarred from exercising their rights, but might accept a compensation in lieu thereof, either by an annual payment or other annual advantage, and that if the occupiers of the common fields agreed not to depasture the lands, they might make allotments of them to the cottagers in lieu of their rights of common (f); but that nothing in the Act contained should prevent, or extend to prevent, any person from inclosing all or any part of his land to or for his own use or benefit, if he had full power or right so to do, thus preserving the right of a severalty owner in a common field to inclose his portion where such a right exists by custom (g). These provisions were amended in several respects by an Act passed in 1836 to facilitate the inclosure of common fields, and commonly known as Lord Worsley's Act (). This latter Act provided that whereas it would tend to the improved cultivation of open and common arable, meadow, and pasture lands and fields, which were intermixed, if the proprietors of such lands were enabled by a general law to divide and inclose the same it should be lawful for the proprietors, with the consent of two-thirds in number and value of the persons interested therein, to inclose all such open fields and meadows, and all untilled slips or balks formerly serving as boundaries between the severalty portions (i). The Act did not apply to manorial wastes, or to common fields in the immediate neighbourhood of London and some other large towns (k), which are now (e) Ibid. ss. 1, 2. (f) Ibid. ss. 8, 9. (g) Ibid. s. 27; see Cheesman v. Hardham, 1 B. & Ald. 706, 712. (h) 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 115. (i) Sect. 1. See 3 & 4 Vict. c. 31, s. 4, extending the provisions of this Act to open and common arable Lease of portion of waste for purpose of improving residue. Lands Clauses dealt with under the Inclosure Acts and the Metropolitan Commons Acts already mentioned; and in other respects the provisions of Lord Worsley's Act are but seldom used. The Act 13 Geo. III. c. 81, also authorises lords of manors, with the consent of three-fourths of the commoners, to lease not more than one-twelfth part of the waste for four years, and to employ the rent received in draining, fencing, and improving the residue (7). Under the provisions of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, waste and other lands subject to rights of common, or lands in the nature of common lands the right to the soil of which belongs to the commoners, may be taken for the purposes of any railway company or other public body, subject to the payment of compensation to the commoners for their rights (m). The Act provides that, failing agreement between the promoters of the undertaking and a committee of the commoners appointed in accordance with the terms of the Act, the amount of compensation payable is to be determined as in other cases. of disputed compensation under the Act (n), and when received by the committee is to be apportioned by them among the several persons interested in it (o). If no committee is appointed, the compensation is to be paid into Court, and upon petition the Court will order the amount to be paid either to a committee to be afterwards appointed, or in such manner for the benefit of the persons interested as it thinks fit (p). Under these provisions the apportionment will depend upon the nature of the commoners' rights. Thus, where all the resident freemen of a borough were entitled yearly during their residence within the borough to turn on to a common, which had been allotted under a local Inclosure Act to the corporation of the borough as trustees, one head of stock for a period and subject to a payment which were annually fixed by the corporation, it was held that, until re-investment of the compensation money in land subject to the same trusts as the common, the dividends should be apportioned among the resident freemen at the same time in each year as they had been accustomed to enjoy their rights of common (2). Again, where the freehold and copyhold tenants of a manor had rights of common over certain wastes and lammas lands, subject to bye-laws made by the homage, it was held that the compensation for portions of the lands taken compulsorily was divisible among the freeholders and copyholders according to the stint fixed by the byelaws, it having been found impossible to purchase other land in the neighbourhood (); but although the same byelaws declared that the occupiers of land under the copyholders were entitled to rights of common over the wastes, it was held that these occupiers were not entitled to share in the compensation money, as their claims to a right of common could not be supported (s). The Inclosure Acts of 1852 and 1854 provided that where money had been paid to a committee of commoners under the provisions of the Lands Clauses Act of 1845, and the majority of the committee were of opinion that the provisions of the Act of 1845 for the apportionment of the money could not satisfactorily be carried out, the committee might apply to the Inclosure Commissioners to determine whether the money should be apportioned. Upon receipt of the application, the Commissioners were empowered to call a meeting of the persons interested in the compensation money, and the resolution of the majority in number and interest of these persons was to determine the question whether there should be apportionment or not; but if no resolution was arrived at, or if the Commissioners thought the resolutions unjust or unreasonable, they were empowered to (a) Nash v. Coombs, L. R. 6 Eq. 51. (r) Fox v. Amhurst, L. R. 20 Eq. 403. (s) Austin v. Amhurst, 7 Ch. Div. 689. order the investment and application of the compensation money as they thought fit (t). But these powers were found in practice to be insufficient; and it is now provided by the Commonable Rights Compensation Act, 1882, that when any money is paid by a railway or other public company or corporate body or otherwise under the provisions of the Lands Clauses Act and any Act incorporated therewith, or of any other Act of Parliament, to a committee of commoners as compensation for the extinguishment of commonable or other rights, or for lands being common lands or in the nature thereof the right to the soil of which may belong to the commoners, the committee or a majority in number of them or, after the expiration of twelve months from the payment of the money to the committee, any three persons claiming to be interested in the money may make application to the Commissioners (u) to call a meeting of the persons interested in the money to consider as to its application, and the Commissioners are to call a meeting accordingly: and at such meeting the majority in number and the majority in respect of interest of the persons present may decide by resolution that the money shall be applied and laid out in one or more of the following ways, viz. :-in the improvement of the remainder of the common land, in respect of a portion of which the money has been paid; in defraying the expense of any proceedings under the Metropolitan Commons Acts or under the Inclosure Acts with reference to a scheme for the local management, or a Provisional Order for the regulation, of such common land, or of any application to Parliament for a Private Bill or otherwise for the preservation and management of such common land as an open space; in defraying the expense of any legal proceedings for the protection of such common land, or the commoners' rights over the same; in the purchase of addi (t) 15 & 16 Vict. c. 79, s. 22; 17 & 18 Vict. c. 97, ss. 15-20. (u) Now the Board of Agricul ture: 52 & 53 Vict. c. 30. |