15
Court as the advocate and Solicitor of the en-
closers, and in the result, as the action of the Court
of Attachments was completely paralysed, the farce
of holding the Courts at all came to an end, and they
accordingly ceased to be held. The other Lords gaining
courage by the success of Lord Mornington's pro-
ceedings, the Forest as before stated had, by the year
1871, dwindled down to 3,000 instead of 6,000 acres,
and this once magnificent recreation ground appeared
to be threatened with early and complete destruction.
The Metropolitan Board of Works, stirred up by
the Report of the Committee of 18G3, had it is true
been dallying with the subject since 1864. Mr. F.
Peel the then Secretary to the Treasury, by letter of
the 14th June in that year, invited the Metropolitan
Board of Works to take the question into considera-
tion, and offered to cede to that Board the rights
of the Crown then remaining in Epping Forest; and
although Mr. George Burney, long a labourer in the
field for the preservation of Epping Forest, had
earnestly begged that Board to accept so important a
trust it resolved on the 18th October, 1864, that
it could not advantageously intervene, being disinclined
to do so, for the reason that the area to be dealt with
was wholly beyond its jurisdiction.
In the year 1865, the Commons Preservation
Society was founded by Members of Parliament and
other gentlemen taking an interest in the health and