352 STATUTE OF MERTON. 



proposed that, if it was thought necessary to provide 

 any substitute, it should take the form of the grant of 

 small farms as freehold, with the consent of the Vestry 

 of the Parish, after due public notice. 



The Committee, in the result, substantially accepted 

 the views thus placed before them, substituting the con- 

 sent of the Land Commission for that of the Vestry, and 

 inserted in the Bill (which afterwards became law under 

 the title of the Copyhold Act, 1887) a clause in the 

 following words : 



"After the passing of this Act, it shall not be lawful for 

 the Lord of any Manor to make grants of land not previously 

 of Copyhold tenure to any person to hold by copy of Court 

 Roll, or by any tenure of a customary nature, without the 

 previous consent of the Land Commissioners, who, in giving or 

 withholding their consent, shall have regard to the same con- 

 siderations as are to be taken into account by them on giving 

 or withholding their consent to any inclosure of Common lands ; 

 and whenever any such grant has been lawfully made, the land 

 therein comprised shall cease to be of Copyhold tenure, and shall 

 be vested in the grantee thereof to hold for the interest granted 

 as in free and common socage." * 



The exact legal effect of this clause may in some 

 respects be open to doubt. While it absolutely nega- 

 tives the creation of new Copyholders, it assumes that the 

 power of grant previously used will be maintained, and 

 it does not in terms release any land, which a Lord may 

 grant with the consent required by the Act, from the 

 common rights previously existing over the land. But 

 the important point in the interests of open spaces is, 

 that no grant of any part of a Common, under any 

 * 50 and 51 Vic. c. 73, sec. 6. 



