244 THE NEW FOREST. 
1877, for the maintenance of the Forest, it was held 
that those, who were not registered, would thence- 
forward be wholly excluded from the Forest. Such a 
course would have brought hundreds of families to the 
workhouse. Fortunately, the Government was induced 
to pass, in 1879, a short Act authorising the Verderers 
to allow persons not registered to turn out cattle in the 
Forest on payment of a small fee. 
In 1891, another, and it is to be hoped a last, 
attack was made on the New Forest. At the fag end 
of the session, a clause was slipped into a Government 
measure called “the Ranges Act,” empowering the 
War Department to appropriate any common land for 
rifle ranges, in spite of any prohibition or restriction 
contained in any local or personal Act, and notwith- 
standing any common or other rights or easements over 
such lands. This clause, though not mentioning the 
New Forest, virtually applied to it, and doubtless was 
intended to do so without alarming the Commoners. 
Had any public explanation been given as to the 
effect that this clause would have in linking together 
various other Acts, such as the Volunteer Act of 1863, 
the Artillery and Ranges Act, 1585, and the Drill 
Grounds Act, 1886, there can be no doubt that the 
measure would have been most strongly opposed, for it 
placed every Common in the country at the mercy of 
the War Department, and would have enabled them to 
extinguish common rights over them, and afterwards to 
sell the land, when no longer wanted for ranges, as 
private property. 
