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in the face of legal proceedings now pending to throw
down the fences around them. No precedent since
there has been settled law and order in this
country can be found for such a step, and there
is difficulty in believing if it be attempted, that the
House of Commons will listen to a bill, the main object
of which will be not to preserve but to keep enclosed
and to destroy l/8th of Epping Forest. It will not
be the first or the second time that the House has
rejected such recommendations.
The Corporation of London on its part has not
been idle. Having acquired, as before stated the
greater portion of the lands belonging to the
Lords of Manors, and desiring very much to drain
and to improve that land for the use of the commoners,
and the public it has brought a very modest bill into
Parliament, giving it the necessary powers to make
bye-laws applying only to the lands it owns, to
restore the Forest Officers, (the Reeves), so that there
may be some control over the commoners' cattle sent
to depasture, and to open the Forest up by making
walks and rides for the use of the commoners and the
public. The Bill also contains powers to enable the
Corporation to purchase by agreement the remaining
1,500 acres belonging to the Lords of Manors, and
any of the enclosures, the owners of which are willing
to sell them without having to go through the costly pro-
cess of obtaining on each occasion a license in mortmain.