144 EPPING FOREST. 
in the various suits affecting the Forest, pending the 
Report of the Commission. Strong objection, however, 
was taken to this, so far as the Corporation suit was 
concerned, and finally an exception was made of this 
suit, on the ground that it might materially assist the 
Commission, if the legal issues in the case were heard 
and determined by a competent legal tribunal. Thus it 
happened that two great inquiries as to Epping Forest 
were started and proceeded with at the same time— 
the one before the Courts of Law, in which the validity 
of the past inclosures was at issue, and the rights of 
the Commoners were to be decided; the other before a 
Royal Commission. 
Being at the time a member of the then Government 
I was unable to take part in the above discussions 
in Parliament. I had ceased also for a time to be 
Chairman of the Commons Society, but I continued 
to attend its meetings, and took a part in guiding 
its general policy and action. In the discussions on 
Epping Forest I was not in favour of the attempt 
to urge the Government into proceedings for the 
enforcement of the Crown’s forestal rights. I believed 
the legal difficulties opposed to such a course were 
very great, especially in view of the fact that the 
deer had been killed down, and that more than half 
the Forest had been already freed from the Crown’s 
rights. I considered that by far the most promising 
line of action, for the abatement of inclosures and 
the preservation of the Forest, was through the medium 
of the Commoners and by enforcing their rights in the 
