HISTORY OF COMMONS. 19 



culture, inclosure was expedient and necessary, and was 

 desired in the interest of Commoners, as well as of 

 the Lord of the Manor, some method should be devised 

 under which legal partition might be effected, with due 

 regard to the rights of all concerned. 



In the reign of Queen Anne the practice began of 

 applying to Parliament for private and local Acts, to 

 facilitate the inclosure of commons with its sanction, and 

 through the medium of independent commissioners, who 

 were to allot the land thus dealt with among the persons 

 entitled to share, in such a manner as to secure justice 

 to all. From that time, till the contrary doctrine was 

 revived a few years ago, it became the well-recognised 

 opinion of lawyers that the Statute of Merton was 

 practically obsolete, and that it was nnsafe and unjust 

 to attempt any considerable inclosure of a Common with- 

 out the special sanction of Parliament. And although 

 here and there small portions of Commons may have 

 been filched under the Act, or under customs of certain 

 Manors to inclose with the consent of the homage 

 of Copyholders, yet in the main no serious attempt 

 was made, for many generations, to inclose any sub- 

 stantial portions of Commons without obtaining the 

 sanction of an Act of Parliament. The enormous 

 number of private Acts for this purpose during the 

 two hundred years from the commencement of such a 

 course is the best testimony to the impossibility of 

 proceedings under the Statute of Merton. 



With the growth of population and the extension of 

 manufactures, the inducement to make the most out of 

 c 2 



