13 HISTORY OF COMMONS. 
of the ecclesiastical bodies. These new owners in 
many cases pushed their rights to the extreme, declared 
the rights of copyholders to be forfeited, and compelled 
them to give up their holdings or to accept leases for 
short periods. 
Making every allowance for such acts, there still 
remains abundance of evidence that the inclosure of 
Commons, as we understand the term, was one of the 
main causes of discontent of the period. The Protector 
Somerset, in 1548, appointed a Royal Commission “for 
the redress of inclosures,” and to inquire into the 
violations of law in ten counties where the main com- 
plaints had arisen. Among other things, the Commis- 
sioners were directed to inquire “whether any person 
hath taken from his tenants their Commons, whereby 
they be not able to breed and keep their cattle and 
maintain their husbandry as they were in past times.” * 
The Commission was a total failure. Witnesses were 
afraid to come before it, or if they came, and gave 
evidence against their landlords, they were made to 
suffer for it. Neither the Commission, nor the Courts 
of Law, were effectual in giving protection to the 
smaller Commoners. 
The time arrived at last when the powers of inclosing 
under the Statute of Merton, leaving sufficiency for the 
Commoners, were practically exhausted, and when the 
Courts of Law gave greater protection against arbitrary 
inclosure under the Act, in defiance of existing rights. 
It was recognised that where, for the benefit of agri- 
* Strype’s Memorials, Vol. 2, p. 359. 
