360 CONCLUSION. 
only to the rights of pasture of a comparatively limited 
number of persons—those owning land within the 
Manor. 
The result of the movement described in_ this 
work has been to reverse this idea of absolute owner- 
ship of Lords of Manors in the waste lands of their 
districts, and so far to restore to the Commons some- 
thing of the attributes of the ancient Saxon Folk- 
Land, and to establish the principle that they concern 
the interests. of the people of the district, and the public 
generally, even more than of the Lords of the Manors 
and their Commoners. Much has still to be done to 
complete this change, and to carry it to its logical con- 
clusion. All the remaining Commons should be placed 
under the protection and management of local authori- 
ties, and subjected to schemes of regulation. For this 
purpose the provisions of the Metropolitan Commons Act 
should be extended throughout the country, and the re- 
quirement of the assent of two-thirds in value of the Com- 
moners, and of the Lord of the Manor, to a regulating 
scheme, should be dispensed with. Although the Statute 
of Merton has been virtually repealed by the recent 
Statute, there still remains the danger that a Lord of 
the Manor may purchase up every single right of com- 
mon, and by so doing practically extinguish the Manor 
and convert the Common into private property, in which 
case inclosure would be effected, not under the Statute of 
Merton, but by Common Law, on the plea that the land 
has ceased to be legally a Common and has become 
private property. So long as a single right of common 
