THE NEW FOREST IN DANGER. 65 
the fact that a Bill emanating from private members, interested 
in open spaces, was this year to have been brought into Par- 
liament, by which the obnoxious clause in the Ranges Act 
would have been rendered inoperative, and consequently the 
War Office unable to lay a finger on the 800 acres. Unfortu- 
nately one of the principal promoters of the opposition against 
the War Office scheme has instituted an inquiry into the matter, 
which hampers action in Parliament at a time when delay is 
dangerous indeed. Without thinking of imputing to him the 
unworthy motives for so doing that a contemporary weekly 
journal has dared to do, it must be confessed that an inquiry 
into the rights and wrongs of an unprovoked assault of one man 
upon another, by a third party who has witnessed the same, 
would be just as much to the point. 
So there the matter rests, at a critical period indeed, but the 
darkest cloud ” is said to have a “ silver lining,” and who 
knows that before the year is out one of the greatest blows will 
have been struck at the encroachment system — a system which 
has too long cast its blighting shadow over our land. 
Archib.\ld Clarke. 
•Since the above was written it has become public knowledge that the Secretary 
•of War, in deference to the vigorous protest brought to bear upon the Government 
by the press generally, by signed petitions and by platform speakers, has prepared 
and brought into Parliament a Bill which at first sight seems to entirely exclude 
the New Forest from the operation of the Ranges Act and other Acts of earlier 
date. But the War Office are loth to give up their ill-gotten gains, acquired 
when the public were in ignorance of the whole matter, and that it is their clear 
intention to keep a tight grasp upon the 800 acres, part of the last section but one 
of the new Bill (Section 29), here quoted, most clearly shows ; “ Nothing in this 
Act shall affect the validity or operation of any lease granted before the passing of 
this Act.” That general attention has been called to the fact that the new Bill is 
nothing but a tricky compromise is the result of an ably-written letter .signed by 
several leading naturalists, as well as by the editor of Nature Notes, that 
appeared in the Standard and Morning Post of March yih. Of course it is good 
news to know that the Government Bill provides that no more of the New Forest 
is to be taken, and well it may be so, for at present under the loth clause of the 
Act of 1891 there is nothing to prevent the VVar Office leasing as much more of 
the New Forest as they want for military purposes from the Forests Commis- 
sioners, no doubt with the full approval and delight of the latter body, to judge by 
their past actions. 
