TOOTING COMMON. 87 



freeholders of all rights, would have made a very 

 handsome profit; and he seemed to have considered 

 that being the Lord of the Manor his title could 

 not, without difficulty, be displaced. In that speculation 

 he has been disappointed."* In spite of these observa- 

 tions, the Court, in consequence of some inchoate 

 negotiations for a compromise, refused to award costs to 

 the Plaintiff, who, consequently, had to bear the heavy 

 charge of proving his title, and of obtaining an in- 

 junction against an inclosure of a most arbitrary 

 character, and one which was proved to be utterly illegal. 



The decisions of the Court of Appeal in the Plum- 

 stead and Tooting cases were pronounced about the 

 same time. The clear and unmistakable judgments 

 of so learned and sober a judge as Lord Hatherley, 

 satisfied the legal world, as well as the outside public, 

 that the views advocated by the Commons Society were 

 not the wild dream they had at one time been considered. 

 These decisions, following upon that of Berkhamsted, 

 mark the first stage in the work of the Society. All 

 the suits advised by Mr. P. II . Lawrence, including those 

 respecting Wimbledon and Wandsworth, referred to in 

 the next chapter, had now been brought to a successful 

 issue, except those relating to Loughton and Epping 

 to which reference will later be made which were 

 still pending, and were not destined to be tried out. 



In all these early and critical cases the leading 

 counsel employed was Sir Roundell Palmer (now Lord 

 Selborne), aud their success was due in no small 

 * Bettd v. Thompson, L.U., 7 Ch., 732. 



