332 ATTACKS BY RAILWAY COMPANIES. 
an ascertainment, by legal proofs, of those entitled to 
Common rights, and might give important assistance in 
any schemes for buying up the rights and inclosing 
under the Statute of Merton.* 
The promoters, so far from avoiding Commons, appear 
to have intentionally laid their lines through them, 
because they were certain of finding no opposition, and 
because the purchase money payable for the land would 
be less than for private and inclosed land. This arose 
not only from the fact that the land was waste and 
uncultivated, but from the mode in which compensation 
was (and is still) ascertained and paid. The land in 
such case is not valued as a whole, and the compensation 
subsequently divided amongst the Lords and Commoners. 
The Lords’ interest in the soil is first purchased by 
agreement or assessment ; the Commoners are then called 
upon to appoint a committee, and with this committee 
the Company treats for the acquisition of the Common 
rights. It is obvious that this method enables the 
Company to cheapen the Lords’ rights by reference to 
the Commoners, and the Commoners’ rights by the 
Lords, and in this way to pay considerably less than 
the full value of the land, taken as: a whole, for the 
amount would be less than for private and uninclosed 
land. It was left to chance whether Parliamentary 
* At Banstead, for example, as has been shown, the awards of the 
Inclosure Commission distributing the money paid by the Brighton 
Company for cutting through the downs, suggested to the Lord of the 
Manor the idea of purchasing the rights of common and inclosing 
the Commons. 
