EVOLUTION AND DEGENERATION OF INSTITUTIONS 105 



Although it cannot definitely be asserted that 

 each one of these manorial groups was developed 

 from what had formerly been a village community, 

 yet it is evident that such was frequently the case, 

 and that the transformation was accompanied by 

 partial degeneration. For instance : 



1. The assembly of the inhabitants of the town- 



ship, which formerly exercised complete con- 

 trol over all legal and administrative affairs, 

 disappeared, and in its place sprang up the 

 Manorial Court which was comprised of a 

 limited number of tenants and presided over 

 by the Lord of the Manor or his representa- 

 tive. 



2. The collective property became absorbed, or 



was at least considerably reduced by the 

 acquisitions of the Lord of the Manor, or by 

 divisions effected by members of the com- 

 munes. The old system of collective pro- 

 perty held by townships did not, however, 

 wholly disappear. 



(a) The " rights of usage " in regard to waste 

 land, forest and moors (such as the use of unclaimed 

 pasturage, the cutting of timber, etc.), were still 

 enjoyed by the old inhabitants, and even in some 

 instances by other persons upon whom these "rights" 

 had been conferred. 



Emile Laveleye, Les Communautes de famille et de village 

 (Revue d'&onomie politique, 1888, pp. 350 and following). 



Vinogradoff, Villainage in England, Oxford and London, 1892. 



