11
Commoners' rights (same as the City ones), which were
perfectly well-known and understood. All these allega-
tions are utterly false, and as discreditable to the promoters
as the other false testimony denounced by the Master of
the Bolls. It is painful to see a Liberal organisation
like the British Land Company trample on popular
rights' and support their acts by such allegations.
Mr. Fitzjames Stephen, Q.C., next addressed the
Commissioners on behalf of Mr. Shaw Lefevre, the
member for Beading and Chairman of the Commons
Preservation Society, and Mr. Burney, a member of that
Society, who has for many years past taken a warm
interest in the preservation of the Forest. Mr. Shaw
Lefevre and Mr. Burney are both interested in property
within the bounds of the Forest, and, as such, are en-
titled to common rights over the waste lands thereof,
the subject of the Commissioners' proposed Scheme.
Mr. Fitzjames Stephen said the view of those he repre-
sented was shortly this—first, that the decision of the
Master of the Bolls kept the Forest open; secondly,
that, being open, the public had the enjoyment of it;
thirdly, that this being so, if the Scheme gave the
public anything less than they would gain under the
decree, it was an injury rather than a benefit. Now, he
contended that under the Scheme the lords would get
more than they were entitled to, and the public less. It
might be said that the commoners and the public had no
interest in the mere amount of compensation to be paid
to the lords, but it must be remembered that the
arrangements in this case would be a precedent for
others. If the lords got more than they were entitled
to there, it would encourage the taking of open land
elsewhere, and make people think that they committed
no offence of any kind in so doing, though the Master of
the Bolls had described it in words nearly akin to the
definition of robbery. Now, the proposal of the Com-
missioners was that the lords should be paid one-tenth
of the marketable value of all the waste in their hands,
whether open or enclosed, and nothing was said respect-
ing profits they had already made by the sale of illegal
enclosures. This course would work great injustice