§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKEasked the honourable Member for Truro, If it was true that since the Metropolitan Board of Works initiated a scheme under the provisions of "The Metropolitan Commons Act, 1366," for the management of Eel-brook Common and Parsons Green, in the parish of Fulham, more than two acres of the former common have been inclosed; and if so, whether he can state by what authority and under what circumstances the inclosure has been made, and what steps the Board proposed to take to secure the land inclosed to the public?
§ SIR JAMES M'GAREL-HOGGSir, in answer to the question of my hon. Friend, I regret to say it is quite true that since the Metropolitan Board of Works initiated the scheme referred to, and while the memorial for that scheme was under consideration by an assistant Inclosure Commissioner, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, as lords of the manor of Fulham, and the Homage Jury, claiming under an alleged right by custom, have sold or agreed to sell, without any previous intimation to the Commissioner or to the Metropolitan Board, about two acres of land or waste of Eelbrook Common to an adjoining owner for, it is believed, the sum of £3,000; £2,000 of which, it is stated, is to go to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, £500 to the parish of Fulham, and £500 to the parish of Hammersmith. The proceedings under the memorial for the scheme are still pending, and the attention of 636 the Commissioner has been earnestly directed to the inclosure so made, and the Metropolitan Board will, I feel sure, take every step which may be possible to secure the land to the public under the scheme; for, no doubt, to the extent of the land so inclosed, whatever rights of recreation or other rights exist, they would be annihilated. I should perhaps add, as showing the somewhat hasty way in which the attempt to inclose has been carried out, that a certain right of way over the piece in question has or will be practically stopped up by the lords and Homage Jury as the result of the proposed sale and inclosure.