304 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1816. 



the Forest, and could not subsist. 

 He pointed out, that this odious 

 claina, so des^uctive to agricul- 

 ture and the best rights of the 

 community, was made not for the 

 profit of any onej it was admitted 

 to be an expensive honour ; it 

 was a mere feather, of no value 

 to its owner. He was confident 

 that that feather would now be 

 plucked from the wing of Lord 

 Rivers ; and he doubted not that 

 the noble Lord would soon re- 

 nounce the last portion of that 

 which was now claimed for him, 

 and abandon altogether a right 

 which could never be of benefit to 

 him or to his family, and must be 

 always in its exercise most hateful 

 and most oppressive to those who 

 were subject to it. The judicial 

 decisions on which the claim of 

 the plaintiff rested were not the 

 verdicts of juries: but the deci- 

 sions of Courts in the worst times 

 of our history, which had dared 

 to proceed in defiance of the ver- 

 dicts of juries : no proprietor of 

 the Chase had in former times 

 ventured to submit his claim to 

 the decision of a Wiltshire jury. 

 He had no respect for such judg- 

 ments, obtained in earlier times, 

 to establish such odious rights : 

 they were \oid from the begin- 

 ning, as being contrary to the 

 great Charter of the Forest, and 

 the ancient rights of Englishmen. 

 They were among the grievances 

 which had prepaied the way for 

 the glorious revolution of King 

 William. He doubted not that 

 this day the verdict of a jury of 

 Wil( shire would set them all aside. 

 The decision in favour of Lord 

 Salisbury, upon which the plain- 

 tiffs claim mainly depended, was 

 fraudulently obtained ; the verdict 



of a jury had just then overturn- 

 ed the rights ; Lord Sahsbury 

 was then tenant in fee of the 

 Chase ; he was High Treasurer 

 of England, and the minion of 

 the reigning sovereign ; the 

 judges were dependent upon his 

 will J he surrendered his estate 

 in fee, and took back his estate 

 in tail ; the Barons of the Ex- 

 chequer, then pretending to main- 

 tain the rights of the Crown, 

 gave to him that infamous decree 

 without the verdict of a juiy, 

 which, he trusted, the verdict of 

 a jury would this day overturn. 



The evidence for the defend- 

 ants proved, that the decree in 

 question was so obtained, and 

 contrary to a previous verdict of 

 a jury. It proved, that in many 

 very ancient documents, the Chase 

 was uniformly described as locally 

 situate in Dorsetshire ; that in 

 Wiltshire it had very often been 

 resisted with success, and had 

 never been confirmed by a jury. 



At a very late hour, Mr. Ser- 

 geant Lens replied to the defend- ' 

 ants' case, and maintained, that, 

 to be rightly determined by the 

 jui-y, it should be considered 

 merely as a question of boun- 

 dary, and that the feelings excited 

 by Mr. Sergeant Best were only 

 calculated to mislead the judg- 

 ment. 



The learned Judge recapitulat- 

 ed all the evidence, and under his ; 

 direction, at nearly 2 o'clock on i 

 Friday morning, a verdict was 

 found for the defendants. 



Mr. Sergeant Lens was ably 

 assisted by Mr. Gifford and Mr. | 

 Baily, for the plaintiff; and Mr. 

 Sergeant Best, by Mr. Casberd 

 and Mr. Gunning, for the de- 

 fendants. 



Cotirt 



