342 ATTACKS BY RAILWAY COMPANIES. 
importance of preserving such open spaces, and they 
strengthened continually the idea that the Commons 
are in a sense public property. For what end 
should attacks by Railway Companies be resisted, if 
later the Lords of Manors were to be allowed, under 
the Statute of Merton, or otherwise, to inclose and 
appropriate them for purely private purposes? These 
discussions therefore contributed, in no small degree, 
in combination with the great suits, which have been 
described in this work, to lead public opinion to the 
point, when it was possible at last to deal with the 
Statute of Merton in the manner which will be indicated 
in the next and last chapter. 
