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the last address to the Crown having been carried
against and in spite of Ministers. In this crisis of
its fate the Corporation of London stepped into the
arena and determined to use its best endeavours
and all its resources to preserve Epping Forest for
the people.
On the 21st May, 1871, or within a month after
Mr. Cowper-Temple's motion for the address to the
Crown had been carried, the Court of Common Council
of the City of London unanimously resolved that it
would take such steps as were in its power to save Ep-
ping Forest.* It required, of course, some time to see
how this could be done effectively. The subject was
new to it and to its officers, and it dealt with a vast
tract of land, and with intricate and obscure legal
questions. But the Common Council was not long in
making up its mind. In the cases of Berkhampstead
Common, Plumstead Common, and Tooting Common,
an appeal to courts of law had been successful in
preserving these open spaces against enclosures, and
the facts having been carefully ascertained, and the
whole question as carefully studied, with the aid of
the experience of the Commons Preservation Society,
a Bill in Chancery was filed on the 14th August, 1871,
by the Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London,
(the nominees of the Corporation), against every
*The notice of motion which resulted in this resolution, was given by
Mr. Bedford, as early as the 3rd of May, or within a week of the resolution
of the House of Commons.
b2