ORIGIN OF COMMONS. 15 



nature ; that such a right can only attach to property ; 

 and that, if conceded, there would be no person 

 or persons in a position to extinguish or release the 

 right. The case was of supreme importance, for it 

 laid down the law for the first time, and has ever since 

 been regarded as decisive. It finally extinguished 

 the right of inhabitants, as such, and independently of 

 any land they might own, to claim, by custom or pre- 

 scription, the user of pasture, or of turbary upon the 

 waste lands of a Manor. It will be seen later in this 

 work how often this legal doctrine of the Courts that 

 the inhabitants of a district are too vague a body to 

 enjoy a custom or user of a profitable nature, or to 

 prescribe for it, turns up to make difficulties and to 

 defeat claims, which otherwise would appear to be just. 



As often happens, however, when the Judges have 

 laid down a broad proposition of a questionable char- 

 acter, their successors endeavour to whittle it down, or 

 to set it aside by some ingenious quibble, so in this case 

 it was later held by other Judges that the rule does not 

 apply where the inhabitants of a district have been 

 incorporated, for in such case there is existing a body, 

 in whom the rights of common enjoyed by the in- 

 habitants generally may be vested, and who can deal 

 with them so as to satisfy the technical objections. 



It was afterwards decided by other Judges, that a 

 grant from the Crown to the inhabitants of a district, is a 

 sufficient incorporation of them to satisfy the technical 

 rule, and to enable them to claim the right so granted. 

 Later still the Judges, in some cases, where the evidence 



