CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Of Rights of Common, and the several Kinds of Com-

mon generally

SECT. II. Of the several Kinds of Commons

CHAPTER II.

Common of Pasture

SECT. I.-Appendant

SECT. II.-Appurtenant

PAGE

1

6

9

9

SECT. III.-In Gross

SECT. IV.-Pur Cause de Vicinage

CHAPTER III.

Of Commons other than Common of Pasture.-Es-

SECT. I.-Common Lands-The Manorial Waste.

Woodlands. Stinted Pastures. Forests

SECT. II.-Commonable Lands-Lammas Lands

40

-Shack

44

b

CHAPTER V.

On the Creation, Alienation, and Extinguishment of

Rights of Common

PAGE

50

CHAPTER VI.

Of the Rights of Lords of the Soil and of Commoners 57

SECT. I.-Rights of the Lord-to Approve-to

Common-to Mines

57

What

63

SECT. II. Rights of the Commoners-Depend-

ent upon Custom or Prescription.

Customs are good

CHAPTER VII.

Of Inclosure

SECT. I.-By the Lord

SECT. II.-By Agreement between the Lord and

the Commoners

SECT. III.-By Act of Parliament

SECT. IV.-By Encroachments

CHAPTER VIII.

Of the Evidence in Claims of Rights of Common

CHAPTER IX.

Of the Jurisdiction of the Inclosure Commissioners in

Matters foreign to the Inclosure of Commons

SECT. I.-Exchanges

. 83

100

. 100

PAGE

The Act of 8 & 9 Vict. c. 118, to facilitate the In-

closure and Improvement of Commons and Lands

held in common, the Exchange of Lands, and the

Division of intermixed Lands; to provide Remedies

for defective or incomplete Executions, and for the

Non-execution of the Powers of General and Local

Inclosure Acts; and to provide for the Revival of

such Powers in certain Cases. [8th August, 1845.] 113

The Act of 9 & 10 Vict. c. 70, to amend the Act to fa-

cilitate the Inclosure and Improvement of Commons.

[26th August, 1846.]

The Act of 10 & 11 Vict. c. 111, to extend the Provisions

of the Act for the Inclosure and Improvement of

Commons. [23rd July, 1847.]

The Act of 11 & 12 Vict. c. 99, to further extend the

Provisions of the Act for the Inclosure and Improve-

ment of Commons. [4th September, 1848.]

The Act of 12 & 13 Vict. further to facilitate the Inclo-

sure of Commons, and the Improvement of Commons

and other Lands. [1st August, 1849.]

319

. 336

344

362

APPENDIX.

The Act of 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 71, for shortening the

Time of Prescription in certain Cases. [1st August,

1832.]

Forms of Application

375

380-391

412

Claim of Common of Pasture under 2 & 3 Will. 4,

Claim of Lord of the Manor

Claim under Amendment Act 11 & 12 Vict. c. 99,

s. 9

413

A TREATISE

ON THE

LAW OF RIGHTS OF COMMON.

CHAPTER I.

OF RIGHTS OF COMMON, AND THE SEVERAL
KINDS OF COMMON GENERALLY.

SEVERAL of the writers upon the Law of Rights of Common have exercised much industry in attempting to trace the origin of their subject; and some think they find it in the Agrarian Law of the Roman republic, and in the Licinian and other laws which were enacted to regulate the right so given. In truth, however, the right of Common is indebted for its origin to no municipal law. It has always been co-existent with the disproportion of land to population; it grows restricted as that disproportion decreases; and it must every where disappear when that disproportion ceases.

*

*

Sixty years ago Archdeacon Paley pointed out three capital measures by which the legislature might encourage

B