WANDSWORTH-COMMON
TO THE EDITOR OF THE ECHO
Sir, — A poor man is now suffering six months' imprisonment, with hard labour, for breaking down fences on Wandsworth common which obstructed the use of an old-established footpath, I beg to ask your valuable aid in the struggle we are now making against further encroachments, appropriations, and sale of Wandsworth-common.
Altogether 356 acres [?] have been taken away from the copyholders, freeholders, and the public, without any civility or consideration, and the Lord of the Manor contends for his absolute right to do this; these are his exact words: — "I claim to be the absolute owner of so much of the said Common as remain unenclosed, and of all the other waste land: of the said Manor, free from all rights of Common or other customary rights, and to be entitled to enclose the sane, and to authorise the same to be enclosed, and to sell the same for my own benefit as [and] when I shall think fit to do so.”
After the Irish Land Bill, I hope the Government will introduce an English Land Bill, which will restrain the greed for land in this country within reasonable limits. We think this claim of Lord Spencer’s an unreasonable and an unjust one, and we are now engaged in raising £4,000 to resist it.
Mr. W. H. Peek, M.P., has given £1,000, but we need assistance beyond our neighbourhood. Wimbledon-common has been threatened; more than half of Wandsworth-common has disappeared; but Clapham-common has not yet been touched because of its surrounding wealth,
This is in one sense a metropolitan question, affecting the whole of the South of London, If Lord Spencer can establish his claim, then Wimbledon and Clapham commons will share the fate of Wandsworth-common, 'twenty years the land will be covered with villas and wretchedly-built houses, at ground rents which pay better tian furze bushes and turf,
We think other persons have rights as sacred as those of Lord Spencer, and we are resolved to determine these rights and protect them for the use and enjoyment of those who follow us.
I am, Sir, &c.,
J. C. BUCKMASTER,
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