10
moners as settled by the Conservators and such register as settled for
the year in which each septennial election of verderers takes place
shall be conclusive evidence of the persons entitled to vote as com-
moners thereat.
"Section 4—(1) Section 29 of the Act of 1878 is hereby repealed,
and from and after the passing of this Act the reeves and assistant
reeves (if any) shall be appointed by the Conservators."
Thus Section 3 would literally have placed the cottagers at the mercy of
the Conservators, with an alternative of indulging in the luxury of a legal
fight with a rich Corporation, who have wilfully deprived them of their
rights under the Act of 1878; and Section 4 would have abrogated the
advantage they now have of participating in the election of the reeves.
Section 29 of the Act of 1878 which would have been repealed by the
Conservators' Bill, is as follows :—
"Section 29.—The rights of the several parishes lying wholly or
partly within Epping Forest, namely, the parishes of Epping,
Theydon Bois, Loughton, Waltham Holy Cross (including Waltham
Abbey and Sewardstone) Chingford, Chigwell, Woodford,Walthamstow,
Leyton (including Low Leyton), Wanstead, Little Ilford, and West
Ham, all in the county of Essex (in this Act at times referred to as the
Forest parishes), to nominate proper persons to act as reeves and
assistant reeves for those parishes shall continue."
These facts finally dispose of the claim of the Conservators to be con-
sidered the friends of the cottagers, and he would be a daring man indeed,
who could sustain such a claim in the face of evidence which proves as
clearly as anything can, that they are their consistent enemies.
Mr. E. N. Buxton and the Poor Members of Society.
Notwithstanding these facts, Mr. Edward North Buxton, one of the
verderers, as recently as the 21st of December, 1892, expressed himself at
a meeting of commoners to this effect:—
"he and his brother verderers were most anxious to do the best
they could for those who were least able to help themselves, viz., the
poorer members of society, not only in that parish, but other parishes
as well. He would much rather that the privileges of commoners were
used by poor people instead of by the well-to-do ; they needed those
privileges the more, and it gave him sincere pleasure when he knew
that they gave little people an advantage."—(Extract from speech
reported in Woodford Times, dated December 23rd, 1892.)
Those were generous words, but it does seem a curious piece of incon-
sistency when it is remembered that three of the verderers, viz., Mr. E. N.
Buxton, Mr. A. J. Frost, and Mr. P. Gellatly, signed a report recommending
that application should be made to Parliament for leave to bring in the
very Bill (1884), which, as we have already pointed out, would have been
destructive to the best interests of the cottagers had it passed into law.
Thus far it has been obviously shown that the Conservators have desired
to alter the law, and that the cottagers are satisfied with the law as it
stands, but object to the illegal interpretation of the Conservators.
The City Conservators.
Section 3 of the Act of 1878 created the Conservators thus :—
"Section 3.—Epping Forest shall be regulated and managed under
and in accordance with this Act, by the Corporation of London,