The Express.
London, England, 1849-09-24 00:00:00

STARTLING DISCLOSURES.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE
WOODS. PORES fS, AND LAND REVENUES
OF THE CROWN.
A report from the committee of the Wiese of Com-
mono, which was reappointed at the commencement of
the last swim), at the instance of Viscount Doman,
is publishei this (Monday) morning. Toe document
is eutitled the " First Report" of the committee.
We understand that a "Second R port"
will succeed it. The first Report anteing
the evidence and documents laid before the committee
with reference to the " Woods and Forests." The
mcond report will, we are informed, treat of the
other property belonging to the crown—of the great
estate in Loudon and of the management of tho
Parks.

120 committee, as originally appointed. consisted
of fifteen members. Of this number, one, viz.,
Sir Benjamin Hell, never attended, and two,
v.z , Sr R. H. Inglis and Mr. Trelaway,
only appeared ores. Of the remaining twelve, no less
than six were office holders,—viz. the Earl of Lin-
coln, Viscount Jocelyn, Mr. Cardwell, Mr. Gibson
Craig, Mr. James Wilson, and Mr. Hayter. Mr.
Hsi ter scxd throughout as the crgan of the govern-
meat. The six independent men ben of the com-
mittee were Viscount Duncan (chairman), Mr. Lang-
ston, Mr. Piney, Mr. Henry 'Drummond, Mr. Mon-
tell, and Mr. Locke. All these, except Mr. Langston,
appear, irrespective of politics, to have irpparted
Lord Duncan in his endeavours to secure a searching
investigation.
Tee committee sat forty days between February
and July, and examined a great varie'y of witnesses.
On the sth of July, eleven members being present,
the committee deliberated as to the nature of their
repent, and requested the chairman to prepare a draft
ot the same. This draft was submitted on the 12th
of July. The report was discussed at three successive
meetings. At tae last, Lord Jocelyn proposed, by
way of amendment, that "the chairman be in-
structed to report the evidence to the house,
and to inform the house that, owing to the
late period to which their inquiries have been
protracted, they are unable satisfactorily to report
their opinions thereon during the present eeisioo, but
will be prepared to do so in the event of their re-ap-
pointmeut next year."
Upon this amendment the committee divided, when
, there appeared for the amendment 7, against it 3.
The consequence was, that the government majority
succeeded in stifling a rept rt moat unfavourable and
damaging to the management of this important
public department.
We now proceed to state the nate° of the evidence
laid before this committee.
The committee examined witnesses with regard to
ithe state of the New Forest, the Forest of Dean ;
Salcey Forest, Northamptonshire ; the Fun ate of
Holt and Woolmer, Hampehire ; Delamere Forest,
Cheshire ; the Forest of B4ie, Hampshire ; Chopwelt
Woods, Durham; and littharn Woods, Keut. The
statements made by various witnesses with
regard to depredations and defalcations in
the Nt W Fey est and the Fee est of Balmy were most
extraordinary. We give below the report of
Major Freeman, a government officer, who was
sent into the New Forest to conduct the inquiries
which were rendered necessary by the disclosures of
last year. It will be seen that there is scarcely a
sir gle department or branch c f the Forest manage-
ment of which he does not report iu the most unfa-
vourable terms.
From the revelations which were made last year,
the public ar.: net altogether unprepared for any dis-
closures, however extraordinary, with regard to the
New Forest. But the ease of Salety will be entirely
new to them. It is of the most astounding charms:, r.
It appears that only a very few yeses ago the
deputy-surveyor of tf is forest, a mm of Sta-
tion and the responsible officer of the govern-
ment, pursued a wholesalo and continuous system
of plunder, which alternately resulted in the
die-forestinz of all the land. This man, whose
name was Kent, absolutely cut down and eo'd, for
his own purposes, the whole of the timber in Sficey
Forest. lie was engaged in this system of depreda-
tion, unchecked by the Commissioners of Wools and
Forests, fir a series of years. At length he was
unable, upon some occasion, to settle his quarterly
accounts, and an enquit y being instituted,
discovery followed. Time man was arrested,
and indicted for embezzlement. He pleaded
" guilty" at the Old Bailey. There was, conse-
quently, no trial, and no public disclosure what-
ever of the circumstances. The matter, in fact, was
smuggled up by the government to rave themselves
from the Wein • which would have at'ached to them.
'Io k.cp the matter still more quiet, Kent was sent
out of the way under sentence of transportation. It
seems that he died whilst undergoing thateentence.
Ilow Kent came into the Woods and Forests employ-
ment is not eery clearly elicited. The " commissioner"
can give no information of any sort respecting him.
&yeti d what is stated by Mr. Milne, no one can tell
how this man came to be placed in a situation of
great public trust, for "my lords'" minute book con-
taining Kent's appointment is lost! The extent of
the man's depredations upon the crown and the pub-
lic are equally unknown. All that is cocain is that
he cut down every old tree in Salcey Forest, except
between 40 and rso crake!
There moat astounding revelations appear only to
have come to light by accident. The present Deputy
Surveyor of' Salmi Forest was anxious to refute some
evidence that had been given respecting it before
Lord Dune In's Committee last year. In his zeal he
tendered himself as a witness and was acnepteJ.
Upon the subject of these deprolations the minority
of the committee prepwed to make the following re-
port, with direct references to "the functions of the
Commissioners of Woods."
" Instances of laxity have undoubtedly presented
themselves in the course of evidence, extending over
the transactions of many seers, and involving a very
multifarious and minute expenditure of monies.
Under the superinducement of long-continced illness
ou the put of the immediate representative ot the
board in the New Forest, and through the agency of
leptons subjected to his control, and therefore more
immediately re sponsible to his authority, frauds, it is
apprehended, to a considerable extent, have been
committed in that forest, attended with considerable
pecuniary lose. The ill-advised selection of an officer
for the local management of Salcey Forest, upon its
inclosure in 1823, appears to have resulted in pro-
ceedings equally reprehensible in their character and
equally lamentable in their results. Your committee
are not disposed to underrate the importaree of those
occurrences, and they more especially regret that it
should hare been reserved for their inquiries to bring
them first to the notice of parliament!'
We must def. r to another day an analysis of evi-
dence respecting other Forests. At the last sitting
of the committee the Earl of Carlisle, Chi( f Commie-
sioner of Woods and Forests, was examined. We
give his lordship's examination entire.
Hes your lordship any suggestion to make to the com-
mittee wi h reference to the future mansgement of the
royal fon sea ? —There are, of course, points connected with
the best mode of managing the royal forest, in future, which
have been 'meant to my mind, yet I ha dly think that, till
I have had an opportunity of maturely considering the whole
of the evidence that has been taken by this committee, I
should be warranted in submitting any distinct suggeitton
or recommendation of my own to the committee ; I should
be anxious to Coke the whole of the evidence that has beet.
token into the best consideration that I can give to it, as
early as p-trtible, and to come, aa soon as I can, to such a
view of it as it may suggest.
Has any correspondence taken place between the Office of
Woods and the Board of Admiralty on the subject of supply-
ing orniier to the navy. subsequently to the 16th ot Ma cb,
1841 have peen this year in correopondence with the
First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Fronoie Baring, upon the
R[l.l; -re. I have rhoe,:estaction ot stating, that I believe
it is an tn. cv • n .ng brougnt 'o a satisfactory conclusion.
and the terms settled upon which the nocapuels wise glee
with the rnysl forests for the supply of Moiler.
You think is probable Last is future the Board of Ad-
miralty will take their supply ot timber from the royal
forests I confidently expect that that mil he the case.
MAJOS FILSIDIANI) Rproltr.
New Park Lodge, Jan. 31, 1849.
My Lord and Geatlessee,—Having, in obedience to the di-
recti ins contained in your letters ot the 17,h,t8th, and 25th
of July lair, taken charge of the several services, and pro-
of eded to inquire tote the general management of the New
Forest, with a view to &Benton whether all. ged irrigularf
ties existed, and the period having arrived when it seem"
necessary for me to make seine report, I feel that, after se-
veral months' employment in this that: , it might be ex-
pected I should make a more wmprehemive one than that
which lam about to submit. But I would beg to state,
that, havi, g been charged with the entire duty of Deputy
Surveyor, which, und.r the peculiar ereanenanc.• in
which I was placed, required a more than or portion
of my time to be devoted to it, and a very coneiderable
amount of CqTY, spondencP, and having been must fully occu-
pied prev'ou•ly to the receat trials in etendi,:g at the in-
vite lea, ions before tne megivrates, and the various prelimi-
nary inquiries, which rendered it necessary for me to be is