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One moment's reflection will manifest that this
must he so. By the operations of the Corporation of
London, its legal proceedings, and its purchases,
5,000 acres of Epping Forest are kept open for ever,
never to be built upon, and it is clear that a site within
these 5,000 acres must be a favorite one for houses.
Nowhere else around this Metropolis can such a place
be found, and so soon as the scheme of the
Epping Forest Commissioners becomes law, there is
not a yard of that land which will not rapidly sell at
prices varying from £200 to £1,000 an acre, according
as it is near to, or distant from London. Briefly, the
effect of the Commissioners scheme may be said to be to
transfer about two hundred thousand pounds into the
pockets of the fortunate occupiers of lands, to which
money at this moment they have not a shadow of
title or claim, for the legal rights over those lands
are incompatible with any beneficial or profitable use
of them by their owners.
The mere statement of the proposition of the Com-
missioners should be sufficient to ensure its condemna-
tion, and it may well be asked how they could possibly
come to make such a recommendation. The answer
is not far to seek. They have laboured at
the reasons in their Report. First they state that
there was a prevalent belief that those enclosures
could take place according to the custom of the Manor,
and that the right of common was limited to the