13
subjects. Under these circumstances your lord-
ships will, perhaps, think fit to institute an inquiry
into the rights and privileges claimed by many
persons in these Forests in the same manner, as
your lordships have thought proper to do in
regard to His Majesty's Forest of Dean.
In the Petition which I have the honour to
present to your lordships, I beg leave to submit
to you the number and respectability of the Peti-
tioners, and to claim your lordships' attention to
one of the causes of their complaint, vis.: that the
country is greatly injured by the encouragement
and opportunity given to the lower classes to be
idle and to thieve ; many of whom live chiefly by
stealing deer, wood, and carrying on other bad
practices, in the concealment afforded by these
Forests. These vicious practices have of late
years so much increased, that many of the clergy
and ladies resident in the Forest are anxious for
the removal of this profligate nuisance.
I submit to your lordships my reasons for
thinking, that at this time it would be as politic
as benevolent to grant to the labouring poor this
boon of assistance and encouragement. I beg
leave to say, that I do not mean to confine my
remarks to the waste lands in Essex, but to ex-
tend them to every County in His Majesty's