342 ATTACKS BY RAILWAY COMPANIES. 



importance of preserving such open spaces, and they 

 strengthened continually the idea that the Commons 

 are in a sense public property. For what end 

 should attacks by Railway Companies be resisted, if 

 later the Lords of Manors were to be allowed, under 

 the Statute of Merton, or otherwise, to inclose and 

 appropriate them for purely private purposes ? These 

 discussions therefore contributed, in no small degree, 

 in combination with the great suits, which have been 

 described in this work, to lead public opinion to the 

 point, when it was possible at last to deal with the 

 Statute of Merton in the manner which will be indicated 

 in the next and last chapter. 



