41
Corporation. As supplemental suits cannot according
to the practice of the Court of Chancery be com-
menced after the Decree in the original suit, it was
thought that no new legal proceedings question-
ing the keeping enclosed these 740 acres of land
could be commenced until the end of the present
Session of Parliament. The Corporation have thus
only been able to enforce the Decree against the
Lords of Manors and the two representative defendants
who were made parties to the suit.
Here again the recommendation of the Commission-
ers is open te grave remark, one of the Defendants
held about 40 acres of land, the greater part of which
is in its wild Forest state, and by the decree the fences
are thrown down and the land is restored to the Forest.
Under the Commissioners scheme if confirmed by Par-
liament, the owner will be entitled in defiance; of the
decision of the Court of Chancery, to enclose these
lands again. Is this really the purpose for which
Parliament appointed the Commission ?
Within this year, a strange state of things
has come about by which the right to keep the
740 acres of land enclosed is unexpectedly chal-
lenged by legal proceedings. Mr. Burney, who for
many years has taken a great interest in the Epping
Forest question, and who was examined as a witness
on behalf of the public on the 7th May, 1863, before
the Committee of the House of Commons on this