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that can be put upon it. Then Mr. Borwick, with regard to his enclosures,
did not put up fences calculated to last even twenty years, for they were the
most rubbishing things that ever were ; and for a good many years past he
used to take some money of people who were weak enough to pay to graze
upon that land; but he could not keep the cattle in; and they could not
keep the cattle out, of the persons who had a right to it, and the inhabitants
went in and played cricket and enjoyed themselves on this ground. I have
seen them playing hundreds of times upon it. Mr. Borwick also has to
refund, not to so large an amount as Mr. Gellatly, but you will have to
put it in the same way. It is a mere sum of figures. Mr. Gellatly has a
large sum to refund, but he has kept the commoners out of the use of it.
I mentioned it before—I will just remind you of it, in case it has escaped
your memory—I mean the observation I made in Paul's case. I do not
wish to repeat myself or say the same thing over again; but I do say that
it was in contemplation to establish a suit for the restitution of that money,
and the restitution of that money for these 750 acres of which we, the
commoners, have been deprived so long. That money now amounts to a
very large sum, certainly to something like £40,000 or £50,000; and when
you consider certain gentlemen holding money which the law says belongs
to other persons to a large extent like that, it is a serious matter, and is not
to be lost sight of, and I believe will not be lost sight of in your judgment
upon these matters—that these people, besides the harm they have done
in devastating the land and the fields by putting up fences on ground that
did not belong to them, have also to refund in some sort of settlement that
amount of money which, as I said before, I may choose to give to the fund
for the preservation of the forest, or may choose to hand it over to our
friends, the City Corporation. The City and myself are friendly antago-
nists ; we fought in different lines at first, but now we fight in the same
line; and if I have to fight them again, I shall do so, if they need it.
Sir, there was one very important thing I wish to bring before your
mind, and that is that this very land of Mr. Borwick's the public can reach
by tramway from densely populated districts for 2d., and children, I believe,
for half-price ; and it is not only within walking distance, which is a much
more important fact regarding the habits of recreators, than it is whether
it is a good site for building or any consideration of that sort, which I
think is an indecent thing even to introduce into argument—that this or
that land should be valued for building, when they never had any right to
look upon it with the eyes of a builder; and we know very well that
builders and surveyors—very worthy, nice men, I dare say, in the ordinary
way—but we do know that they would drive a road through the garden of
Eden, and that they would build a row of houses on the outskirts of it, if
they saw any profit in it. Now, I am going to ask you to depart for a moment
out of the land of eloquence, of which you have had an enormous quantity
showered upon you ; I do not pretend to it myself; I only pretend to a
common sense view of the matter; but a respectable-looking person
accosted me in Court upon the last day we were here—I suppose he took
me to be a person of more benevolent aspect than is usually met with; and
he asked me to inform him why counsel were making all these terrifically
long speeches, because he did not see that there was much in it, I said to
him, " My friend, as you have asked me, it is to confuse and mislead
attention from the issue. The issue is very plain. It is only some gentle-
men who have got what they ought not to have, and what does not belong