332 ATTACKS BY RAILWAY COMPANIES. 



an ascertainment, by legal proofs, of those entitled to 

 Common rights, and might give important assistance in 

 any schemes for buying up the rights and inclosing 

 under the Statute of Merton.* 



The promoters, so far from avoiding Commons, appear 

 to have intentionally laid their lines through them, 

 because they were certain of finding no opposition, and 

 because the purchase money payable for the land would 

 be less than for private and inclosed land. This arose 

 not only from the fact that the la*nd was waste and 

 uncultivated, but from the mode in which compensation 

 was (and is still) ascertained and paid. The land in 

 such case is not valued as a whole, and -the compensation 

 subsequently divided amongst the Lords and Commoners. 

 The Lords' interest in the soil is first purchased by 

 agreement or assessment ; the Commoners are then called 

 upon to appoint a committee, and with this committee 

 the Company treats for the acquisition of the Common 

 rights. It is obvious that this method enables the 

 Company to cheapen the Lords' rights by reference to 

 the Commoners, and the Commoners' rights by the 

 Lords, and in this way to pay considerably less than 

 the full value of the land, taken as a whole, for the 

 amount would be less than for private and uninclosed 

 land. It was left to chance whether Parliamentary 



* At Banstead, for example, as has been shown, the awards of the 

 Inclosure Commission distributing the money paid by the Brighton 

 Company for cutting through the downs, suggested to the Lord of the 

 Manor the idea of purchasing the rights of common and inclosing 

 the Commons. 



