HISTORY OF COMMONS. 19 
culture, inclosure was expedient and necessary, and was 
desired in the interest of Commoners, as well as of 
the Lord of the Manor, some method should be devised 
under which legal partition might be effected, with due 
regard to the rights of all concerned. 
In the reign of Queen Anne the practice began of 
applying to Parliament for private and local Acts, to 
facilitate the inclosure of commons with its sanction, and 
through the medium of independent commissioners, who 
were to allot the land thus dealt with among the persons 
entitled to share, in such a manner as to secure justice 
to all. From that time, till the contrary doctrine was 
revived a few years ago, it became the well-recognised 
opinion of lawyers that the Statute of Merton was 
practically obsolete, and that it was unsafe and unjust 
to attempt any considerable inclosure of a Common with- 
out the special sanction of Parliament. And although 
here and there small portions of Commons may have 
been filched under the Act, or under customs of certain 
Manors to inclose with the consent of the homage 
of Copyholders, yet in the main no serious attempt 
was made, for many generations, to inclose any sub- 
stantial portions of Commons without obtaining the 
sanction of an Act of Parliament. The enormous 
number of private Acts for this purpose during the 
two hundred years from the commencement of such a 
course is the best testimony to the impossibility of 
proceedings under the Statute of Merton. 
With the growth of population and the extension of 
manufactures, the inducement to make the most out of 
c 2 
