STATUTE OF MERTON. 351 



afforded an opportunity of checking a pernicious 

 practice. The Bill was introduced hy Lord Hobhouse 

 in the House of Lords, and referred to a strong Com- 

 mittee, of which the noble Lord was Chairman, and 

 on which the late Lord Bramwell, Lord Kimberley, and 

 other prominent Peers sat as members. Lord Hobhouse 

 had acted as arbitrator in the Epping Forest Case, and 

 had seen something of the working of the custom. Mr. 

 Hunter suggested to him that provision should be made 

 by the Bill to prevent the creation of new Copyholds, 

 and was invited to give evidence before the Committee. 

 He explained the nature of the custom of granting 

 waste as copyhold, the extent to which it prevailed, 

 and the abuses which had been grafted upon it ; and 

 he urged that it was inconsistent to pass a measure 

 designed to effect a speedy and general enfranchisement 

 of existing Copyholds, without some provision which 

 should prevent the creation of new tenures. Mr. 

 Hunter also pointed out that all the objections to the 

 continuance of existing Copyholds, such as the com- 

 plication of titles from the intermixture of freehold 

 and copyhold lands, would be perpetuated if it were 

 allowed to bring new Copyholds into existence. He 

 further urged that a practice which had originated in 

 a claim to meet public requirements, had been con- 

 verted into a new means of aggrandizing Lords of 

 Manors, while at the same time the safeguards which 

 had form erly held the practice in check had disappeared. 

 He repudiated the suggestion that compensation should 

 be paid to the Lord if the custom were abolished, and 



