STATUTE OF MERTON. 351 
afforded an opportunity of checking a pernicious 
practice. The Bill was introduced by Lord Hobhouse 
in the House of Lords, and referred to a strong Com- 
mittee, of which the noble Lord was Chairman, and 
on which the late Lord Bramwell, Lord Kimberley, and 
other prominent Peers sat as members. Lord Hobhouse 
had acted as arbitrator in the Epping Forest Case, and 
had seen something of the working of the custom. Mr. 
Hunter suggested to him that provision should be made 
by the Bill to prevent the creation of new Copyholds, 
and was invited to give evidence before the Committee. 
He explained the nature of the custom of granting 
waste as copyhold, the extent to which it prevailed, 
and the abuses which had been grafted upon it; and 
he urged that it was inconsistent to pass a measure 
designed to effect a speedy and general enfranchisement 
of existing Copyholds, without some provision which 
should prevent the creation of new tenures. Mr. 
Hunter also pointed out that all the objections to the 
continuance of existing Copyholds, such as the com- 
plication of titles from the intermixture of freehold 
and copyhold lands, would be perpetuated if it were 
allowed to bring new Copyholds into existence. He 
further urged that a practice which had originated in 
a claim to meet public requirements, had been con- 
verted into a new means of aggrandizing Lords of 
Manors, while at the same time the safeguards which 
had formerly held the practice in check had disappeared. 
He repudiated the suggestion that compensation should 
be paid to the Lord if the custom were abolished, and 
