The Express.
London, England, 1848-08-17 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 17, 1848.

these opinion' of France, who daily avowed them, and
yearly acted upon them ; who scouted all alliance
with the Jacobins, and who preferred leaguing with
the despotic sovereigns of Germany to war upon and
resist this feeble and devoted France. That minister
was WILLIAM Pirr. And his policy and his preach-
ing, completely in the vein of Mr. DISRAELI, cost this
country six hundred millions sterling !
A republic may be something exceedingly vulgar
and unpicturesque. We are not of its partisans, much
preferring the quiet of our own old monarchy; but
when we find the French republic promoting to emi-
nence and power statesmen the first principles of
whose policy are peace and amity to England, whilst
the ministers of the French monarchy placid their
policy in outnumbering our fleet, excluding our com-
merce, and overreaching our diplomacy, we cannot-
but think the French republic much more neighbourly
and more agree-able than the monarchy.
With respect to the affairs and fortunes of
the French have during all time had much more to do
with that country than England can have had. Italy
touches the frontier of France, and its fate intimately
toue'les her interests. No hall century has elapsed in
which French armies have not traversed, or held. or
disputed, the Italian soil. Of old it was a contest of
family, and perhaps of race, between the house of Aus-
tria and the house of Bourbon. The French and the
Germans struggled for predominance on that chosen
field. For the first time there now appears a third
party, the most rightful and the most interested—
that is an Italian party. The French and the Ger-
mans may be now more inclined than they ever were
to admit the rights of this national party. And they
show this by their readiness to bring England into
the negotiation and settlement of differences, know-
ing that England is neither for the German, nor the
French, but for the Italian. England is called to
perform a sacred duty there—not to interfere with
' arms, or to menace or to bully, but to raise a respected
and disinterested voice for Italian independence,
which we marvel to see a man of genius, like
DisitAzu, be so party-blinded and ungenerous as to
f overlook. . .

We would not, however, listen to sentiment in the
matter. It is a dangerous motive of political action.
But if the reign of despotism and the spirit of war,
contention, and conquest arc to be put an end
to, this fatal bone of contention, fair Italy,
must be taken front both French and German, and
constituted on the strength of its own nationality.
We do not say that this can be done at once,
or that we are to make war. to construct it.
But we must preserve what we can of its
precious fragments, an! use English influence to the
utmost to keep intact and together the elements of
Italian freedom and Bali An independence.

ON the borders of Dorsetehire and Hampshire, in a 1
part of the country little known, for no high road
passes through it, nor has it hitherto been remarkable
for bright intelligences, there is a little market town
delighting in the sylvan appellation of " Ringwood."
It is some compliment to our department of corre-
spondence that we were enabled to print—not many
days back—a letter from this secluded town, giving
some account of what was going on in the New Forest.
The occurrence must indeed be astonishing to the
peaceable inhabitants. The great men who have
ruled it over the forest so long hare been. all dis-
missed, and some of them degraded; half a dozen
or so of the " jolly foresters " have been walked off
to Winchester gaol for acts which every'
body about the forest has seen them doing without let
' or hindrance all their lives ; and a government commis-
sioner on the spot has been asking (save the mark') for
accounts—talking about " irregularities in the felling,
lotting selling, and delivering of timber prevailing to a
very actions extent,"—threatening reports:to the go-
vernment, and even hinting at measures stronger and
less agreeable, unless the whole facts are fairly told.
The " Jaques" of the New Forest grows melancholy
under this infliction. He can no longer satisfae-
totily respond to the inquiry,
" Are not these weals
More free from peril than the envious court ?"
The very word "court" causes him to shudder.
The only court he has been used to has been that of
the verderer, the chief business of which was a venison
dinner. To be turned over to an assize court, which
is more likely to end in the hulks or Botany Bay, is a
" peril" of which he is by no means envious. He feels
that "the icy fang" has indeed come upon him in the
shape of the constable, and he at once declares that
when he thought of

" Counsellor,
I et feelin;,ly persuade me what I am,"
the idea of the ATTORNEY-GENERAL Or Mr. COCK-
BURN never entered hie imagination.
The New Forest has hitherto been the great card
of the department of Woods. When the CHANCELLoIt
OF THE EXCHE.IVER and hie friends were pooh-
poohing Lord Des eIN at the commencement of this
session for even hinting at abuses concreted with
crown property, this forest was absolutely held en by
the commiseioners as a model of perfection. "We
challenge you to find an abuse in the New Forest,"
said the responsible commissioner for self and col-
leagues. "We shall see," replied Lord Dexesst ;
and the public will soon be in a position to judge who
had most reason to be confident.
The rights and privileges of the crown in the New
Forest appear to be limited, as far as we can learn, to
planting young trees, which seldom arrive at matu-
rity, and stocking the forest with deer, for the keepess
to kill at the fitting season. The property of the
crown in the soil is subject to the rights of the com-
moners, who may turn in quantities of cattle, and the
rights of the encroachers, who are the only parties
making anything of the land. The crown deer and
the commoners' cattle struggle for the herbage, and
the young trees get destroyed, which is all for the
benefit of those who have the planting of them. The
crown managers pay over and over again for the
costs of such plantation ; and they also pay all the
expenses of the keepers, who are not, however,
officers either of their appointment or in any way
subject to their control. Thus the crown incurs enor-
mous costs without deriving any corresponding
benefit.
On the borders of the forest there is, of course, a
population, but, as the ground is !unfilled, the popula-
tion hare little or no employment. Clown land,
moreover, being extra-parochial, little or nothing is
done for the education of this people, and they conse-
quently grow up, generation atter generation, a rude,
ill-informed class, with little moral or religions train-
ing. A vast amount of crime is the consequence. In
fact, the very nature of the property, the way the
deer and timber are exposed, and the loose adminis-
tration of forest law when it clashes with the interests
of the more wealthy, seem to have induced a feeling
among this population that depredations on the pro-
perty of the crown constitute no offence. The social
evils of these parts of the kingdom are consequently
almost unparalle'ed.
This is a mere sketch—the roughest possible out-
line—of the state to which the crown property has
come under the management of the Commismoners of
Woods and Forests. The particulars and details,
when the public come to know them, will present a
scene which will be startling indeed. What will be
thought, for instance, of such facts as these—that in
Waltham Forest, consisting of 12,000 acresof land,the
commissioners have absolutely allowed the crown to
be practically dispossessed ! Many years ago there
was a large stock of red deer in this forest feeding
on the herbage which the crown claimed. These
have been entirely destroyed ; and the lords of the
manors hate set up a claim to the soil and timber,
and have absolutely made grants to private indi-
' vidnals of very considerable portions of the waste of
the forest, both for sites for building and for purposes
of agriculture. The verderers, who ought to protect
the crown, have taken part against it, and the con-
sequence is that the crown is driven to proceed in the
courts of law against the parties in possession, with
the prospect before them of a very doubtful issue !
In the cases of two estates, thus established
in Waltham forest, the commissioners of woods have
confessed to parliament that " in consequence of the
length of adverse possession" they can take no pro-
ceedings whatever. The crown is, in fact, defied, and
its property, we may almost say, is lost.
The blame attachingto the commissioners for all this
cannot be shifted or evaded. The department of
forests may be said to have been under one adminis-
tration since the year 1802, when Mr. Nltts a, the
present senior permanent commissioner, was first ap-
pointed secretary to the surveyor-general. But, as
this gentleman is said to have declared, the system
of the office has never " given occasion to considir
what improvements were necessary in the general
"ement of forest prvorty."

THE Miscellaneous Estimates, No. 5, consisting. of
the cost of our " Colonial, Consular, and other Foreign
Services," some immediately Mt coosideratica