The Select Committee appointed to inquire into the best means
of preserving for the public use the public spaces round the metropolis have issued a very excellent report, in which they recommend the appointment of a Board of Trustees, for the pre- servation of commons and open spaces within a radius of fifteen miles from the metropolis,—the trustees to be empowered to accept grants of all rights of the Crown, lords of manors, &c., and to take all legal measures in their power to resist enclosures. It was a question whether the Metropolitan Board of Works, the En- closure Commissioners, the Trustees of Charities, and other bodies, should be entrusted with this duty, but the Committee wisely re- commend the appointment of a new and special body, impressed with a specific trust. The Metropolitan Board of Works admit that they would enclose one-third or so, in order to get money for improvements, the imaginations of the Enclosure Commissioners are affected by their name, and it was clear that their bias would be for enclosure, and even the Charity Commissioners have too keen a view to revenue. The trust is one sui generis, and should be entrusted to a special body.
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