HISTORY OF COMMONS. 17 
much shrinkage under the Statute of Merton—the 
ordinary form of inclosure—without seriously affecting 
the interests of the yeoman class or labourers. It was 
not till the sixteenth century that such proceedings 
began to cause discontent, and to affect the general 
condition of rural communities. 
Throughout the reigns of Henry VII., Henry VIIL, 
and Elizabeth there were grave complaints of the hard- 
ships inflicted upon the smaller yeomen and labourers 
by the inclosure of Commons. The copyholders, and 
smaller owners of land, were unable to resist the 
powerful and wealthy lords who inclosed, and the 
Judges appear to have lent their aid to those who 
were rich enough to pay for it. Frequent statutes 
were passed with the object of minimising the evil. 
It appears that many of the complaints were directed 
not so much against the inclosure of Commons, in the 
ordinary sense of the term, as against the wrongful 
dealing with the lammas lands and common fields 
already alluded to. The tenants holding their lands 
in severalty during a part of the year were dispos- 
sessed of their holdings, and the land thus freed 
from common rights, affecting it durmg other parts 
of the year, was converted into private property and 
turned into sheep runs. The vast appropriations by 
Henry VIII. of the possessions of monasteries and 
other religious bodies, and the re-grant of them to 
courtiers and Jand speculators, led to the arbitrary 
exercise of power by the new owners, in striking con- 
trast to the old-fashioned and sympathetic methods 
C 
