EPPING FOREST. 139 
In consequence of this rebuff, Mr. Fawcett, on 
February 14th, 1870, in a most able speech, brought 
the whole subject of the inclosures of Epping Forest 
before the House of Commons, and moved an address 
to the Crown, praying that Her Majesty would be 
graciously pleased to defend the rights of the Crown 
over the Forest, so that it might be preserved as an 
open space for the recreation of the people. 
Mr. Fawcett was replied to by the Solicitor-General 
(now Lord Coleridge), who said he approached the 
subject with every sympathy for the object in view, 
namely, the preservation of Epping Forest, and without 
the smallest desire to throw any impediment in the way. 
“Tf it were true,” he said, “that any rights of the Crown 
had been interfered with, in which the subjects of the Crown 
shared, and if it could be shown that by a simple and cheap 
mode the Crown could maintain its own rights, and by maintain- 
ing its rights, maintain practically and effectively the rights of 
the subjects, he should decidedly approve the interference of the 
Crown. Indeed, he would go further and say thatif the rights of 
the Crown were of such a character that they could be exchanged 
for something of a substantial value—as, for instance, if the 
Crown by parting with its rights over 3,000 acres could obtain 
300 acres elsewhere of open space—it would be a sensible thing to 
do so.” 
He then proceeded to point out the grave difficulties 
in the way of enforcement of these rights. 
“They were asked,” he said, “ not to maintain any rights of 
the Crown in which the subject was entitled to share, or in 
which he had the slightest interest, but they were asked to 
maintain certain rights of the Crown, at very great expense 
and with very doubtful issue, in which the subject had no share 
