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to pay should be increased or diminished; but they took
no such course. However troublesome and wear-
isome such a function might have been it was the
very thing in which the Commissioners could have
been useful, and in dealing with the Forest on this
footing they would have presented a final scheme and
a legal scheme to Parliament for settling the whole
question.* As it is if their scheme should receive the
sanction of Parliament, (which is a contingency not
contemplated) it will be but the commencement of new
litigation.
For let us think of the case of the owner of a house
who is called upon, under the Commissioners' scheme,
to have his title quieted by paying the Conservators
9/10 ths of the yearly agricultural value of the land
upon which his house stands. Upon reference to the
Commissioners' schedule, it will be seen there are many
small houses standing with their gardens upon 5 or 6
poles of land only. This would be the 32nd part of
an acre. The Conservators may allege that the land
is of a value varying from 40s. to £5 per acre, so that
the settlement of the question whether he is to pay the
32nd part of either of these sums or not may lead to
a costly compensation case.
It appears by the Commissioners' scheme that
there are no less than 1,557 different plots of land
* There is no practical difficulty in working out such a scheme ; similar
questions were settled in a short time and at a small cost by the Master of
the Rolls as to the lands the subject of the Chancery Suit.