Forest of Rossendale. 



327 



extensive scale, would be to rob the country of the flower of its 

 population of both sexes, leaving behind the aged, the infirm, and 

 the lazy, to be a still greater burden on labour at home. 



Time, with healing on its wings, gradually brought relief to the 

 sufferers; and a few years later (in 1846) the Corn Laws, which 

 had been the cause of unspeakable evils for a space of thirty years, 

 were swept away. 



Such is the story of the changes, the vicissitudes, and the 

 progress of the Forest of Rossendale ; and on a review of all the 

 facts, we must be ready to commend the foresight of those who 

 nearly four hundred years ago, entertained the belief, that, " If the 

 Deer were taken out of and from the said Forest, that then the 

 same was likely to come and be brought and applied to some good 

 purpose, so as that the commonwealth might be increased thereby." 



