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illegally enclosed and subject to these provisions.
They have however often used the same number
more than once, distinguishing it by A B, &c.,
if these duplicate numbers, which amount to 255,
be added there is a total of 1,812 plots, but from
this must be deducted 293 owned by and thrown
open by the City, leaving no less than 1,519 cases,
about which there may be an arbitration or a jury
to settle the annual rent to be paid to the Conservators
for quieting the title. Can any one contemplate the
cost of such a process without coming to the con-
clusion, that, such proposals for quieting titles are
too absurd and impracticable ever to receive count-
enance any where when their working comes to be
examined ?
In justice to every one, the Commissioners should
themselves have fixed at least the standard price per
acre, and have appointed a surveyor to apportion it
to each plot.
It may be asked, how is it that the Corporation
having succeeded in getting a Decree declaring all
these enclosures illegal, has not enforced it as to the
740 acres ? The answer is easy. By the Epping
Forest Act of 1872 all new legal proceedings are
prohibited until the end of the next Session after the
Commissioners have made their final report. The only
proceeding excepted from this enactment was the suit
then pending, or supplemental suits instituted by the