13 HISTORY OP COMMONS. 



of the ecclesiastical bodies. These new owners in 

 many cases pushed their rights to the extreme, declared 

 the rights of copyholders to be forfeited, and compelled 

 them to give up their holdings or to accept leases for 

 short periods. 



Making every allowance for such acts, there still 

 remains abundance of evidence that the inclosure of 

 Commons, as we understand the term, was one of the 

 main causes of discontent of the period. The Protector 

 Somerset, in 1548, appointed a Royal Commission "for 

 the redress of inclosures," and to inquire into the 

 violations of law in ten counties where the main com- 

 plaints had arisen. Among other things, the Commis- 

 sioners were directed to inquire " whether any person 

 hath taken from his tenants their Commons, whereby 

 they be not able to breed and keep their cattle and 

 maintain their husbandry as they were in past times." * 

 The Commission was a total failure. Witnesses were 

 afraid to come before it, or if they came, and gave 

 evidence against their landlords, they were made to 

 suffer for it. Neither the Commission, nor the Courts 

 of Law, were effectual in giving protection to the 

 smaller Commoners. 



The time arrived at last when the powers of inclosing 

 under the Statute of Merton, leaving sufficiency for the 

 Commoners, were practically exhausted, and when the 

 Courts of Law gave greater protection against arbitrary 

 inclosure under the Act, in defiance of existing rights. 

 It was recognised that where, for the benefit of agri- 

 * Strype's Memorials, Vol. 2, p. 359. 



