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Case relative to the Tothill Fields Bill
is applied, as far it can be applied: and where it cannot, the damage
(which in the present instance cannot surely amount to
much if any thing) is regretted without being compensated. —
It will hardly (it should seem) be contended, that the creation of
a perpetuity, and that too in favor of Waste and desolation, would in
this instance, any more than in any other, be a git object for Parliament
to propose to itself: Yet such would be the Judgement virtually
involved, in any determination which should regard the objection
grounded on the supposed extraordinary value of the Common
Right to the very small proportion of the Commoners, as opposing
a peremptory Bar to the improvement of the Waste, on the Plan
here proposed. If, even with the support of the Plea of public exigency,
the private plea, grounded on the Interests of the vast majority
of Commoners, is not strong enough to outweigh the objection, much
less will it be when standing alone, as it would do in the instance
of any plan of Improvement originating with, and confined
in its object to the sole benefit of the Commoners. If the two Pleas together
are not strong enough, much less can the weaker ever be, when standing alone. —
As to pecuniary compensation for the rights in question, either
they are susceptible of it, or they are not: if they are, they are as susceptible
of it on the present occasion, as they can be on any other; if they are
unsusceptible of it, and the circumstance of their being so is to be considered
as a conclusive Bar to their being given up, then, so long as it is considered
in that light, the Waste must remain a Waste, were it to the end of time.
Were this Waste to be divided, like other Wastes, among all the Commoners
in proportion to their respective quantities of Interest (in the
present instance in equal Shares) the quantity of divisible Land, compared
with the numbers of the shares, would scarce afford to each of
them a Spot big enough to stretch himself upon: and in that case
the very expence of Fencing (to say nothing of Draining) would of itself
be more than sufficient to eat up the whole value of the subject to be
divided(a). But upon a Plan of Division such as that, the particular acci
(a) Number of Acres remaining after allowance made for Roads
and an Allotment of so or 11 Acres clear for the Westminster Scholars say
Identifier: | JB/117/115/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 117.
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