Negative Lords
The places that suffer most are the Commons. Now of recent days there have come into existence bodies known as Conservators, a word taken perhaps from Theodore Roosevelt's great campaign for national " conservation." These conser- vators, however, are merely advisory. They are country wardens, without authority. Their attempts in Mr. Churchill's idiom—to ginger local authorities or Lords of the Manor generally fail altogether. It seems to many people that the Lords of the Manor, of whom the Ecclesiastical Commis- sioners are the most important, totally and consciously omit to take any steps, except the affixing of an occasional notice, to preserve the amenities of the Commons. A dry and cold non voiumus (not a non possumus) is, in my experience, the stereotyped answer. Does a Lordship of the Manor (which has alligh and sounding feudal sound) entail no obligations ? My own experience as chairman of a body of conservators suggests that the answer to the question is held to be in the negative.
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