246 THE NEW FOB EST. 



throughout the country were relieved from the danger 

 of being appropriated for rifle ranges, without inquiry, 

 or even the opportunity of objections being made to 

 the proposals. 



Later, the scheme for making a rifle range in the 

 New Forest was abandoned. It has. been alluded to 

 for the purpose of showing that it is not Lords of 

 Manors and Railway Companies, only, who are disposed 

 to lay hands upon the Commons, and to convert them 

 to their uses, but that public departments equally 

 require watching, for they also have been under the 

 impression that Commons may easily be expropriated 

 for any purpose they have in view. 



It would seem also that the Commissioners of Woods 

 had not frankly acquiesced in the policy, with respect 

 to the New Forest, directed by Parliament in 1877. 

 They appeared to be constantly on the watch to obtain 

 advantage at the expense of the Commoners. At one 

 time their local officer encouraged a movement for 

 establishing a training school in forestry for the pur- 

 pose of experimenting with the open waste lands ; at 

 another he sanctioned and encouraged an encroachment 

 on the open Forest by a water company. In the last 

 session of Parliament, a Bill authorising various petty 

 encroachments was introduced, the subsequent abandon- 

 ment of which was due to the opposition evoked. Even 

 at this moment litigation is pending between the Crown 

 and the Verderers, with the view of establishing an 

 alleged right of the Crown to cut up timber by steam 

 saw mills, and to open glades in the Forest, and thus 



