360 COXCLUSIOX. 



only to the rights of pasture of a comparatively limited 

 number of persons those owning land within the 

 Manor. 



The result of the movement described in this 

 work has been to reverse this idea of absolute owner- 

 ship of Lords of Manors in the waste lands of their 

 districts, and so far to restore to the Commons some- 

 thing of the attributes of the ancient Saxon Folk- 

 Land, and to establish the principle that they concern 

 the interests of the people of the district, and the public 

 generally, even more than of the Lords of the Manors 

 and their Commoners. Much has still to be done to 

 complete this change, and to carry it to its logical con- 

 clusion. All the remaining Commons should be placed 

 under the protection and management of local authori- 

 ties, and subjected to schemes of regulation. For this 

 purpose the provisions of the Metropolitan Commons Act 

 should be extended throughout the country, and the re- 

 quirement of the assent of two-thirds in value of the Com- 

 moners, and of the Lord of the Manor, to a regulating 

 scheme, should be dispensed with. Although the Statute 

 of Merton has been virtually repealed by the recent 

 Statute, there still remains the danger that a Lord of 

 the Manor may purchase up every single right of com- 

 mon, and by so doing practically extinguish the Manor 

 and convert the Common into private property, in which 

 case inclosure would be effected, not under the Statute of 

 Merton, but by Common Law, on the plea that the land 

 has ceased to be legally a Common and has become 

 private property. So long as a single right of common 



