LEAVE. FIRST READING. (Hansard, 22 February 1870)

§ MR. COWPER-TEMPLE

, in moving for leave to bring in a Bill to provide for the improvement, protection, and management of Commons and Waste Lands near Cities and Towns in England, said, the object of the measure was to secure to the inhabitants of towns a fuller enjoyment than they at present possessed of the commons and open spaces near those towns, and to give increased efficiency to a clause in the General Enclosure Act of 1845, and the preceding Act of 1835. The General Enclosure Act had for its object the promotion of agriculture, and the production of a larger quantity of food in the country, by enabling the lords of the manor and the commoners to divide the commons to which they had joint claims. This purpose of promoting agriculture was felt by the framers of the Act of 1845 to be one which would probably not be attained in regard to commons in the immediate vicinity of towns, because the land was so valuable that it would not be used for ordinary tillage. A provision was consequently made that the enclosure of commons within a certain radius of towns varying with the population should be specially brought under the notice of Parliament, a distinction being thus made between them and other commons. This distinction was, however, obliterated by an Act passed in 1853, which brought all enclosures under the supervision of Parliament. His object was to withdraw all commons within a definite radius of large towns 708 from the operation of the Enclosure Act of 1845, and in doing so he did not propose to take away any of the rights which any lords of manors or commoners might possess at present, but withdraw from them the facilities obtainable through the Enclosure Commissioners of converting joint property into private property. The Enclosure Commissioners would have to devise a Board of Management to improve the surface of the commons, and carry into effect by-laws and regulations for preventing nuisances, depredations, and disorder, and to give the police jurisdiction over those commons. It might be objected that this measure was too small, considered in relation to so extensive a subject. His reply to that was, it would doubtless be very desirable, if it could be carried out, for the Legislature to provide for every town adequate pleasure grounds and places of recreation for the people. No one could fail to perceive that they were calculated to have a most beneficial effect on the health, the morals, and the happiness of the people, and that they indirectly operated to do away with the temptation to visit the public-house. The House, therefore, would, he felt sure, not object to the introduction of a measure the object of which was to place such grounds upon a more satisfactory footing.