"The third class is that of grazing lands, where the rights of parties are set tled and defined, the ordinary stinted pasture. The commonable lands are sub ject to very great variety and peculiarity; for instance, in some of these lands the right of grazing sheep at all belongs to a man called a flock-master, and he has the power, during certain months of the year, of turning his own sheep exclusively on all the lands of the parish ; or, according to particular circumstances, his right is limited and restricted to turning sheep upon a certain portion of it,with a view to giving parties an opportunity of putting in a wheat crop. In those parishes where there is a flock-master who has a right of depasturing his sheep during a certain portion of the year over all the land of the parish, it is clear that no one can sow any wheat without having made a bar gain with him for shutting up his own particular fields, or some proportion of them." " There is a very large extent of wood land in this kingdom that is commonable, strange to say, where certain individuals have a right during the whole year to turn on stock, the owner of the wood hav ing no means of preserving his property except by shutting out other commoners' stock by custom for some two or three years after felling. There is that right, as also the old right of estover, which is , a very great inconvenience, viz. where parties have the right of cutting house bote, and plough-bote, and fire-bote, and so on in woods belonging, qud wood, to another party. There is a great deal of land subject to that ruinous custom. There are many varieties of these com monable lands, but these are the most prominent and remarkable of them." Under such a system as this, it is ob vious that these common fields must be ill cultivated. The intermixed lands cannot be treated according to the im proved rules of good husbandry. It is stated that the simple re-distribution of intermixed lands, now held in parcels so inconvenient in form and size as to be in capable of good husbandry, would in many instances raise the fee-simple value of the lands from 15s. or 17s. an acre to 808.
It is the opinion of witnesses examined before the parliamentary committee of 1844, on Commons' Inclosures, that ju dicious inclosure would make a large portion of common lands much more pro dnetive. At present open arable lands are so intermixed that effectual drainage is nearly impossible. One witness says: " I have had occasion to go over two small properties, about 150 acres each ; one I found in 301 different pieces, and the other in a little more than a hundred. I mention this to show how the lands are frequently intermixed ; they are therefore farmed at much greater ex pense ; and it is impossible to drain them on the present improved mode of drainage, inasmuch as other parties are occupying the furrow by which the water should pass off." In the Midland counties, where there are these open arable fields, the course is two crops and a fallow, and every third year the flocks run over the whole field. The same witness considers that a fourth of all the open arable land is at present totally unproductive. In cases where common arable fields have been sub divided and allotted, " the great im provement is, that in the first place every man has his allotment, and he deals with it as he pleases ; he drains it, and crops it upon a proper course of cropping ; he puts it in seed and keeps sheep upon it ; he grows turnips and clover, or whatever he thinks proper." The same witness is of opinion that the average improvement in the value of common fields which have been inclosed is not less than 25 per cent. Indeed, the evidence that was produced before the committee establishes to a degree beyond what otherwise would be credible, the immense inconvenience and loss which arise from the system of intermixed lands, and their being also subject to commonage.
As to Common Eights, that is, rights of pasture and so forth on commons or waste lands, they are described gene rally under COMMON, RIGHTS OF. As to the common pasture lands, they also re quire an improved management. It is
stated that commons are generally over stocked, partly in consequence of persons turning out more stock than they have a right to do, and partly by persons putting their stock on the common who have no right. In consequence of commons overstocked, they are profitable to no body ; and a rule for regulating the quantity of stock would therefore be be neficial to all persons who are entitled to this right of common. Violent disputes also frequently arise in consequence of the rights of parties to commonage not being well defined. It is the opinion of competent judges that very great advan tage would result from stinting those parts of commons that are not worth in closure ; and that " it would be in many instances highly desirable to inclose por tions of a common for the purpose of cultivation, and to allot such portions of it, whilst it would be impolitic to do more than stint other portions of it." A stint may be defined to be " the right of pas turage for one animal, or for a certain number of animals, according to age, size, and capability of eating." The commons in fact are not now stinted by the levant and couchant right, a right which cannot be brought into practical operation ; and besides this there are many commons in gross. [COMMON, RIOHTS Or.] Inclosures of land have now been going on for many years. It is stated that since 1800 about 2000 inclosnre acts have passed ; and prior to that time about 1600 or 1700. It seems doubtful from the evi dence whether the 1600 or 1700 com prehend all inclosure acts passed before 1800. These inclosure acts (with the exceptions which will presently be men tioned) are private acts, and the expense of obtaining them and the trouble attend ant on the carrying their provisions into effect have often prevented the inclosure of commons.
In 1836 an act (6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 115) was passed for facilitating the inclosure of open and arable fields in England and Wales. The preamble to the Act is as follows :—" Whereas there are in many parishes, townships, and places in Eng land and Wales divers open and common arable, meadow, and pasture lands and fields, and the lauds of the several pro prietors of the same are frequently verb much intermixed and dispersed, and it would tend to the improved cultivation and occupation of all the aforesaid lands, &c., and be otherwise advantageous to the proprietors thereof, and persons interested therein, if they were enabled by a general law to divide and inclose the same," &c. Inclosures have been made under the pro visions of this act, but the powers which It gives are limited, for the "act applies solely to lands held in severalty during some proportion of the year, with this exception, that slips and balks inter vening between the cultivated lands may be inclosed." The lands which cannot be inclosed under the provisions of this act are "the uncultivated lands, the lands in a state of nature, intervening between these cultivated lands, beyond those that are fairly to be considered as slips and balks." However, it was stated in evidence before the committee of the House of Commons in 1844, that a large extent of common and waste land has been illegally inclosed under the provi sions of the act, and the persons who hold such lands have no legal title, and can only obtain one by lapse of time. The chief motive to this dealing with com mons appears to have been, that they thus got the enclosure done cheaper than by applying to Parliament for a private act In 1844a select committee of the House of Commons was appointed "to inquire into the expediency of facilitating the inclosure and improvement of commons and lands held in common, the exchange of lands, and the division of intermixed lands, and into the best means of provi ding for the same, and to report their opi nion to the House." The committee made their report in favour of a general inclo sure act, after receiving a large amount of evidence from persons who are well acquainted with the subject. The extracts that have been given in this article are from the printed evidence that was taken before the select committee.