IRatuve IFlotes: 
^be Selbovne Society’s aP>aoa3ine. 
No. 28. APRIL, 1892. VoL. III. 
THE NEW FOREST IN DANGER. 
MONG the many speeches of political orators made 
during the past autumn and winter decrying the 
barrenness or extolling the fruitfulness of the parlia- 
mentary session of i8gi, not a word was spoken 
condemnatory of a cunningly-worded Bill terminating in a 
hastily-passed Act which has been used as a tool to cut at the 
roots of the rights of Englishmen. How could it be otherwise 
when our legislators themselves did not know the purport of the 
Act they were passing, or the fruit it would bring forth ? 
Allowing for changed times and changed conditions, it would 
be difficult in past history to find a grosser instance of a secret 
and unjust conspiracy carried out by two departments of a 
government than in the present arrangement between the \\’ar 
Office and the Commissioners for Woods and Forests, to filch 
<Soo acres of the finest playground of the English people, under 
the plausible pretext that it is done “ for the good of the nation.” 
An easy railway journey and frequent service of trains have 
made it possible for dwellers in London to spend six hours of a 
summer’s day in the New Forest, and enjoj^ its beauty and wild- 
ness. Never, when the population of the metropolitan district 
is so enormously increasing, were open spaces of proportionate!}- 
vast extent — such as the New Forest alone in the south of Eng- 
land can afford — so much needed; and yet, when other waste 
grounds that can lay no claim to beauty can easily be had, and 
are waiting to be made use of, the War Office has cast longing 
eyes upon those that possess it in the fullest degree, and is about 
to convert them into rows of rifle-ranges. It w-ould take pages 
to trace the various steps of legislation that have led up to 
appropriating so large an area of the New Forest for military 
purposes ; the barest outline must here suffice. Successive Acts 
of Parliament have been passed for the purpose of providing 
