THE COMMONS SOCIETY. 43 
to lead to successful results. It was found, on looking 
carefully at the legal decisions of the Judges for some 
time preceding, that their general tendency had been 
rather to favour inclosure than the reverse. It was 
determined to reverse this tendency by presenting the 
cases in the order best calculated to bring the Courts 
gradually to a different view of the subject, and to 
revive the older presumptions of the Law in favour 
of the Commoners, and against inclosure. We were 
assisted in this process through Mr. Lawrence finding 
it possible to revive an old and long disused form of suit, 
by a single Commoner, on behalf of the other tenants of a 
Manor, claiming a declaration of their common rights, 
and asking for an injunction to restrain the Lord of 
the Manor from inclosing the waste lands. This process 
enabled us to resort to the Equity Courts, whose Judges 
have taken a much broader and less technical view of 
the subject than the Common Law Judges. It was also 
possible at that time, within certain limits, to choose 
the Courts in which to proceed, and therefore the Judges 
by whom the suits should be tried and determined. 
We had the benefit, therefore, of the enlightened 
views of such Judges as Lord Romilly and Sir 
George Jessel, to whose strong judgments the cause of 
Commons owes so much. It will be seen that this 
policy was eminently successful, and that a series of 
decisions were given ‘by the Judges which completely 
justified the contention of the Report of the Committee 
of 1865, and established the fact that practically in- 
closures could no longer take place under the Statute 
