THE COMMONS BILL.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR"] SIR,—In your notice of the debate on the Commons Bill in the Spectator of last week, you refer to Clause 22 as "making en- croachment on a common a public nuisance." The clause, unfortunately, does not do this. It extends only to encroach- ments on town-greens, village-greens, and recreation-grounds with defined boundaries. As a recent case before the Master of the Rolls proved, it is extremely difficult to distinguish a village. green from a common,—in fact, the former expression is a some- what loose one, which appears to have no exact, legal meaning.
It is probable, therefore, that Mr. Cross's clause will be held to apply only to cases where an inclosure of a common has taken place, and a small green or recreation-ground has been excepted from the inclosure, and to the few cases in which greens are vested in Corporate bodies. Great part of the debate of Monday last turned upon the extension of the principle of the clause to all commons, but such a step was hotly opposed by the Home
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