[8] Boys’ “Kent,” 2nd edition, 8vo. (1786), p. 53. They are based on the tithe maps, the Commissioners remarking that “the common field lands are generally distinguishable by the particular manner in which they are marked on the Tithe maps, and their area has been estimated from those maps.” The Tithe Commission was appointed in 1836 (6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 71), and the tithe maps and apportionments were made mostly before 1850; we are told “the total area embraced by the Tithe Documents is 28,195,903 acres. The total area of the remaining parishes is 8,961,270 acres.” In order, therefore, for the Commission to have obtained a correct result, it was necessary-- (_a_) that the common field lands should have been _rightly_ distinguished from other lands; (_b_) that their area should have been _rightly_ estimated; (_c_) that due allowance should have been made for enclosures between the date of the tithe apportionment and the date of the return; (_d_) that the area of common field in the parishes for which there are no tithe maps should have been estimated on correct principles. Not one of these conditions was satisfied. (_d_) Taking these in reverse order, it is assumed in calculating the area of common fields in parishes that have no tithe maps, that they have the same ratio of common field to other land as those which have tithe maps. This principle is entirely wrong for two reasons: (1) because Private Enclosure Acts usually arranged for tithe commutation, so that parishes enclosed by such Acts before 1830 are ordinarily among those without tithe maps--and equally among those without common fields; and (2) the existence of unenclosed common fields would be a reason for demanding a commutation of tithe. The importance of this may be shown by taking Bedfordshire as a test case. For sixty-eight Bedfordshire parishes there are no tithe maps, and the Commission estimates that these sixty-eight parishes have 12,925 acres of common fields. But sixty-six out of these sixty-eight parishes were enclosed by Private Acts, leaving two parishes only, of a combined area of 3578 acres, in which a survival of common field might reasonably be deemed possible, though even in these extremely improbable. Instead of 12,925 acres of common field for this part of the county, the only reasonable estimate would be 0.