HISTORY OF COMMONS. 17 



much shrinkage under the Statute of Merton the 

 ordinary form of inclosure without seriously affecting 

 the interests of the yeoman class or labourers. It was 

 not till the sixteenth century that such proceedings 

 began to cause discontent, and to affect the general 

 condition of rural communities. 



Throughout the reigns of Henry VII., Henry VIII. , 

 and Elizabeth there were grave complaints of the hard- 

 ships inflicted upon the smaller yeomen and labourers 

 by the inclosure of Commons. The copyholders, and 

 smaller owners of land, were unable to resist the 

 powerful and wealthy lords who inclosed, and the 

 Judges appear to have lent their aid to those who 

 were rich enough to pay for it. Frequent statutes 

 were passed w T ith the object of minimising the evil. 



It appears that many of the complaints were directed 

 not so much against the inclosure of Commons, in the 

 ordinary sense of the term, as against the wrongful 

 dealing with the lammas lands aud common fields 

 already alluded to. The tenants holding their lands 

 in severalty during a part of the year were dispos- 

 sessed of their holdings, and the land thus freed 

 from common rights, affecting it during other parts 

 of the year, was converted into private property and 

 turned into sheep runs. The vast appropriations by 

 Henry VIII. of the possessions of monasteries and 

 other religious bodies, and the re-grant of them to 

 courtiers and land speculators, led to the arbitrary 

 exercise of power by the new owners, in striking con- 

 trast to the old-fashioned and sympathetic methods 

 c 



