141 THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



Mr R. M'William, in a paper which was designed to 

 show that the quantity of timber in Great Britain had 

 greatly diminished, while the demand for it had much in- 

 creased at the time he wrote, early in the present century, 

 remarks : 



"The repeated political changes in the constitution of 

 our country, before as well as since the Conquest, have 

 tended in succession, though from different motives, to the 

 disforesting of the country. John, and his son Henry III., 

 were both very active in this respect: yet Henry VIII. 

 gave the most fatal blow to the woods, when he seized the 

 church lands, and applied them to his own use. Elizabeth 

 reduced the forests very considerably, though for reasons 

 different from those of Henry. 



" The wars in the time of Charles I., the havoc of Crom- 

 well, the persecution in the time of Charles II., and various 

 other causes in the time of William and Mary, tended very 

 much, not only to the destruction of the woods, but to the 

 neglect and discouragement of agriculture generally : and 

 when large tracts of land are once laid waste, the woods, 

 that formerly sheltered them destroyed, and the farm 

 houses and cottages gone to decay, it is no easy matter to 

 restore them, and bring the land again into cultivation. 

 Indeed without planting for shelter, no great advantage 

 would probably be derived from the culture of those 

 dreary, heath-covered wastes. This, however, is no reason 

 why they should not be sheltered and recultivated : more 

 particularly as timber is not only a protection against the 

 inclemency of the climate, but likewise the most effectual 

 bulwark against our enemies. 



" A principal object of the first invaders of any country 

 in cutting down the wood is to destroy the retreats and 

 strongholds of the natives ; and it is not before a very 

 advanced state of civilization, tbat the destruction of the 

 forests is considered as the destruction of the instruments 

 of defence, or of the requisites for the national comforts, 

 and for improvements in the arts. Yet the latter appears 

 to have been the object of the Spaniards, when, in 1588, 



