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gardens against them, recommend that all enclosures,
whatever their condition or the use they are put to,
although they are declared to be unlawful, shall
remain enclosed. In short, when the last petition
which could be made to the Commissioners about
these enclosures on behalf of the public, that they
would at least say they were not to be built upon,
was presented, even that was scattered to the winds
by the suggestion that when once the Commissioners
had determined the enclosures should be permitted to
remain, they should be permitted to remain with all
the rights of property. To use such a term as " Rights
of property" indeed, in connection with this subject,
when true regard for rights of property should have
dictated that these enclosures should be thrown open,
shows how infirm was the tribunal called into exist-
ence by the Epping Forest Act of 1871, and how
small is the respect to which its conclusions are
entitled.
The Commissioners feeling the weakness of their
decision again and again give reasons for its adoption,
and finally on page 23 of their Report they say that
" less hardship would arise to the public from per-
" mitting the enclosures to remain than would neces-
" sarily arise to grantees if the strict law were
" enforced and the enclosures thrown open."
Well, if this remarkable reason is valid at all the
Commissioners should have gone on to recommend that
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