304 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
whole tone of the debate that the division would go against 
them. They had, in fact, hardly any case. When Mr. 
Cowper-Temple had told over again the story which Mr. 
Fawcett told the House last year, Mr. Lowe could only stand 
up and offer to go on with the Bill which was practically 
rejected by public opinion, though by accident it escaped con- 
demnation by the House. Mr. Gladstone himself was not more 
fortunate. Though he threw himself on the indulgence of the 
House, and spoke twice, he failed to show reason against the 
motion. Even the promise that the Government would do 
what it could was ineffectual against the impatience of the 
majority. They are as anxious as the House of Commons to 
preserve the Forest, but do not wish for the responsibility or 
the trouble of its preservation. 'The House has once more 
imposed on the Government the duty of preserving the 
Forest, by a majority of 197 against 96. There are about 
3500 acres of Forest still remaining out of the 7000 acres on 
which all former generations of Londoners have wandered at 
will. The Bill in question gave up 2500 acres to the land- 
lords, and kept 1000 acres for the public. This 1000 acres 
was, however, to be subject to the value of the rights of the 
commoners over the whole area, and it was reckoned that 
about 400 acres must be sold to pay the commoners for their 
rights. Out of the 7000 acres of which the Forest originally 
consisted, 600 would, therefore, have been reserved for the 
public, and all the rest would have gone, as 3500 acres have 
already gone, into private hands. The difficulty is that 
neither the rights of the Lords of the Manors, nor those of the 
Commoners, nor those of the Crown, are at all clearly defined. 
One thing, however, is obvious. Whatever the rights of the 
Crown are, they have kept open those 7000 acres of land 
during the whole course of English history down to our own 
day. Neither the greedy barons of the Middle Ages, nor the 
mercenary courtiers of later times, ever filched the land from 
the enjoyment of the people. As lately as 1854 seven thou- 
sand acres remained, and were still dedicated, as they were 
at first, to the public recreation. About that time some 
Commissioner of Woods and Forests conceived the splendid 
idea of turning the Crown rights into cash. The neighbour- 
ing landlords were very willing to buy, and the rights over 
about 4000 acres were sold. ‘They produced the miserable 
