246 THE NEW FOREST. 
throughout the country were relieved from the danger 
of being appropriated for rifle ranges, without inquiry, 
or even the opportunity of objections being made to 
the proposals. 
Later, the scheme for making a rifle range in the 
New Forest was abandoned. It has been alluded to 
for the purpose of showing that it is not Lords of 
Manors and Railway Companies, only, who are disposed 
to lay hands upon the Commons, and to convert them 
to their uses, but that public departments equally 
require watching, for they also have been under the 
impression that Commons may easily be expropriated 
for any purpose they have in view. 
It would seem also that the Commissioners of Woods 
had not frankly acquiesced in the policy, with respect 
to the New Forest, directed by Parliament in 1877. 
They appeared to be constantly on the watch to obtain 
advantage at the expense of the Commoners. At one 
time their local officer encouraged a movement for 
establishing a training school in forestry for the pur- 
pose of experimenting with the open waste lands; at 
another he sanctioned and encouraged an encroachment 
on the open Forest by a water company. In the last 
session of Parliament, a Bill authorising various petty 
encroachments was introduced, the subsequent abandon- 
ment of which was due to the opposition evoked. Even 
at this moment litigation is pending between the Crown 
and the Verderers, with the view of establishing an 
alleged right of the Crown to cut up timber by steam 
saw mills, and to open glades in the Forest, and thus 
