ORIGIN OF COMMONS. 11 



the time of Edward the Confessor. But as the result 

 of that event the feudal system was universally estab- 

 lished. A vast proportion of the land was confiscated, 

 and was granted anew to the followers of the Conqueror, 

 to be held on military service ; and they, on their part, 

 introduced the feudal system into the districts or 

 Manors so granted to them. 



From this change, caused by the introduction of 

 the feudal system and the subordination of the rights 

 and customs of local communities to feudal lords, most 

 important results followed, which have made themselves 

 felt down to the present time, by creating a difference 

 between popular traditions and conceptions, and legal 

 theories. 



An early result of the new position of the feudal 

 Chiefs or Lords of the Manors was their claim to treat 

 the common lands as their own property, subject only to 

 the admitted rights of the free tenants of their Manors, 

 and without regard to the users of their villeins and 

 serfs. There followed on this the further claim to 

 inclose portions of the waste for their own use, or 

 for the creation of small holdings, to be farmed by their 

 villeins. This claim was vigorously resisted by the 

 freehold tenants of the Manors who had rights of 

 pasture over the Commons. Ultimately it was decided 

 by Parliament (which then consisted only of Barons, 

 no popular representatives having yet been summoned) 

 in the well-known Statute of Merton (20 Henry III., 

 c. 4, a.d. 1235) that the Lords of Manors should be al- 

 lowed to inclose, or approve, as it was called, parts of 



