36 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



authorities or the residents, that it shall not be turned 

 into townships and plantations, nor be starved, nor its 

 wild life left to be taken and destroyed by any one and 

 every one. It will be seen that the " rights " I have 

 spoken of, with the unwritten laws and customs which 

 are kept more or less in the dark, are in conflict with 

 the better and infinitely more important rights of the 

 people generally of the whole nation. Once all this 

 becomes common knowledge, that which some now 

 regard as a mere dream, a faint hope, something too 

 remote for us to concern ourselves about, will all at 

 once appear to us as a practical object something to 

 be won by fighting, and certainly worth fighting for. 



It may be said at once, and I fancy that any one who 

 knows the inner life of the Forest people will agree with 

 me, that so long as these are in possession (and here all 

 private owners are included) there can be no great 

 change, no permanent improvement made in the Forest. 

 That is the difficulty, but it is not an insuperable one. 

 Public opinion, and the desire of the people for any- 

 thing, is a considerable force to-day ; so that, inspired 

 by it, the most timid and conservative governments 

 are apt all at once to acquire an extraordinary courage. 

 Sustained by that outside force, the most tender- 

 hearted and sensitive Prime Minister would not in the 

 least mind if some persons were to dub him a second 

 and worse William the Bastard. 



The people in this district have a curious experiment 

 to show the wonderful power of the Forest fly in retain- 



