CONCLUSION. 361 
subsists, this would be impossible. It is most important, 
therefore, that the powers now conferred on Urban 
Authorities, of acquiring rights over Commons within 
their area, should be extended to other Local Authorities 
in rural districts, and should be acted upon. The ac- 
quisition in this way of a single right over a Common, 
will suffice to prevent the extinction of the Manor. 
It is also time that the pedantic and senseless doc- 
trines that the inhabitants of a parish or district are too 
vague a body to enjoy a ‘“‘profit a prendre,” or to pre- 
scribe for such a right, and that a custom to be valid 
must be proved to be enjoyed by the inhabitants of 
a district only, and not by the public generally—doc- 
trines which it has been shown have been used to 
defeat claims and customs of a just and necessary 
character—must be reviewed by the light of modern 
ideas and common sense. ‘These matters, however, are 
easy and certain of accomplishment compared to what 
has been effected during the past thirty years. 
The result achieved during this period has not been 
without prevision. It was deliberately devised and 
steadily pursued through a long course of years. It has 
already been pointed out that at the commencement of 
the movement, when it was found necessary to fight the 
battle of the Commons in the Courts of Law, it was 
determined to use every effort to reverse the current 
of previous decisions, and to bring back the Judges 
to the older view of the relations of the Lords of 
Manors to their Commoners, and to accustom them 
to the idea that public rights and interests might be 
