SOME VERDERERS, OLD AND NEW 41 



Point after point was being raised by which it 

 was sought to oust the jurisdiction of the Crown 

 and to thwart its management. At last the 

 doctrine was formulated that, although the Forest 

 was the property of the Crown, and although its 

 management was vested in the Office of Works as 

 servants of the Crown, yet the interests of the 

 commoners were such that nothing might be done 

 by the Crown or any person thereby authorised 

 which could affect even technically one single 

 blade of glass that the animal of a commoner 

 might possibly have eaten if it came that way ! 



This was, of course, a reductio ad absurdum. 

 Under this theory no man might ride a shod 

 horse across the waste, nor carry a stick with a 

 ferule on it. There was no remedy for it was 

 admitted that by no possibility could the ver- 

 derers give a consent to any act which, they 

 sought to contend, was a trespass against the 

 actual rights of the commoners. 



Obviously such an absurdity did not really 

 exist, and the law officers ere long gave a de- 

 cided opinion that, although the Crown or its 

 nominees might not do any serious or even 

 tangible injury to the rights of any commoner as 

 de facto exercised, yet that small or technical 

 damage which did not actually, though techni- 

 cally it might, injure the genuine interest of 



