§ SIR J. JARDINE (Roxburghshire)I beg to ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether any endeavour has ever been made to procure the restoration of any of the commons or wastes referred to by the witnesses before the Select Committee of this House, appointed in 1844, to report on the enclosure of commons, as having been illegally enclosed, as if they were common fields or intermixed fields for which the Common Fields Land Act, 6 and 7 Will. IV., c. 115, made provision.
§ The TREASURER of the HOUSEHOLD (Sir Edward Strachey, Somersetshire, S.)I presume the evidence to which my hon. friend refers is that of Mr. Blamire, at that time one of the Tithe Commissioners, who stated that under 6 and 7 Will. IV., c. 115 (the Common Fields 875 Inclosure Act), which applied solely to lands held in severalty during some part of the year, a very large extent of common and waste land had been dealt with. Section 157 of the General Inclosure Act, 1845, empowered the Inclosure Commissioners to consider applications from persons interested in awards under the Common Fields Inclosure Act, in which lands not properly within the scope of that Act had been included, and to confirm or amend such awards. There are, however, no records in the possession of the Board to show that any such applications were made to the Commissioners.