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or adjoining the Forest, and consequently exhibit a
similar conflict between private interests and public
duties; as also that all the Master-keepers are
appointed by the Lord Warden, who is Lord of several
Manors as above-mentioned.
" In the sixth place, it appears that the Master-
keepers have the right of appointing their own Under-
keepers, and that this right is not unfrequently
exercised in the appointment of their own private
servants to that office; and it was distinctly stated by
one witness that ' the Forest law has latterly fallen
almost into abeyance ; and that the Forest-keepers not
knowing what to do, have rather obeyed their masters,
to whom they were private gamekeepers, than done
their duty to the Crown.
" Now if these allegations be true, or anything
like true, it seems almost superfluous to observe that
a legal and judicial system, in which one and the
same person is or ought to be offender, prosecutor,
judge and witness all in one, in which the Courts for
the administration of that justice are not held, and
the constables intended to see to the keeping of
the law are either not appointed or incapable, is little
else than what the Stewards of the Court in question
stated them to be, viz:—'a pack of moonshine,' and
' a sort of tom-foolery concern.' Practically speaking
enclosures and encroachments and other breaches of
the supposed law are committed with impunity; the