26 HISTORY OF COMMONS. 



great value of their Commons ; and they maintained 

 that the disuser of rights by the Commoners had 

 operated as an abandonment of such rights, enabling 

 them to put in force their powers under the Statute. 

 In the succeeding chapters the development of the two 

 movements, thus alluded to, will be described, and it will 

 be shown how the new contentions of Lords of Manors 

 and their attempts to appropriate the Commons have 

 been met, and finally defeated, both in the Law Courts 

 and in the Legislature. 



