ROADSIDE WASTES. 291 
such a size and dimension and solidity as to obstruct and 
prevent the passage of carriages and horses or foot passengers 
upon the part of the highway where they stood, the jury ought 
to find the defendants guilty upon this indictment.” * 
The jury, upon this direction of the judge, found the 
defendants guilty of obstructing the highway. The 
summing-up of Baron Martin was subsequently approved 
by the Exchequer Judges. 
The right of the public has been further vindicated 
by the advice of the Commons Society, during the last 
few years, in two cases, where, although there was no 
decision in the Courts of Law, it is certain that if any 
shred of law could have been found to sustain them, 
the inclosers of road-side wastes would have appealed 
to it. 
In the first of these cases the late Marquis of 
Salisbury, in the year 1867, inclosed the roadside 
wastes over a wide district in the neighbourhood 
of Hatfield, where he was Lord of the Manor, and 
claimed as such the ownership of the soil of the wastes. 
For nearly two miles of road, where this was effected, 
the present Karl Cowper was owner of the adjoining 
land. He found the frontages of his land to the 
highways cut off by narrow strips of land thus in- 
closed. It would be difficult, therefore, to conceive 
a more glaring and obnoxious case of inclosure of road- 
side wastes. 
Lord Cowper having in mind the then recent action 
of Mr. Augustus Smith, in removing the fences in the 
* Reg. v. United Kingdom Electric Telegraph Co., 3, F & F, 73. 
T 2 
