The Express.
London, England, 1848-09-11 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS MONDAY

the wheel or delay of the Austrians to accept the
Mediation. And in this BOA the ooqupation of Venice
ill at agyzataga. ft is a eenntennove to the intrigues
at the old Austrian chancellor. That it has other
mom ineravesiences is but too evident, but the least
% the awakening the commercial jealousy of Ger-
many as well es being a dallier to the military
spirit of Aastrie.
And this leads to another consideration. The mili-
tary throughout Germany are eager for war. They
have been thrown into the back round by the late
events, and they look to war to recover their position.
/lie encores of RADISTSKI has embulder ed the Aus.
trian offiosrs. And the opinion of the army in
Aunt& is one which, we need not say, any ministry
most consult. All tin se are new difficulties in the
way of in Austrian minister.
It was sag rated, perhaps with good intentions,
though that as doubtful, that the Gelman central
power might mediate or interfere in Italy, more
honourably for Austria, than France and England.
But all treaties concluded by the Imperial Lieutenant
or his minister must be disowned in the parliament,
and we have seen what it has done with the &hire-
wtg treaty. The transferring the Italian question,
therefore, from Vienna to Frankfort might prove merely
its transference from the frying•pan into the lire. The
mediation of England and F'lllll2 had Mr better have
been accepted frankly in both asses.

Tun New Forest inquiries and persecutions, of
which from time to time we have recently given par-
Uvular', are marvellously curious exposures. If any
body had averred some time ago that any department
of the public envies was conducted of er such a
faabion every clerk in Whitehall would have
laugh's' him to loom. Yet such is the impression
these inquiries have made that all the world is now
ready to believe that every public office is as bad as
the Woods and Forests. People are putting two and
tw,==,, and shaking their heads sagely. The
o . the Admiralty, the Customs, the Ex-
1111111—emasborly or other wants an inquiry
.into the
mmagement of each of them. Confidant* s shaken
in every branch of the public service; and with good
cause, too, judging from the Woods and Ferrets.
The prosecutions are important, not taken indivi-
dually,itut as exemplifying • sys.em. The New
Forest far many years past would appear to have
been the wens of a wholesale plunder. Large tress,
oaks of 180 and 200 years growth, were felted in
differ nt parts of the forest, and waggons tame and
fetched them away without any body asking my
unpleasant or troublesome questions. People natu-
rally concluded that it was all right. They tali seen
timber waggons pass their doors, loaded and un-
loaded, for years, and it was no business of theirs to
inquire as to their et ming, or goings. No one felt
• vet; o small an amount of suspicion u would induce
hint to examine the trees for the crown mark. The
broad arrow was nothing to him. So year after year
the crown property has been carted off in the coelest
manner possible, and the shipbuilding ports of the
north have h.en supplied with timber of which the
royal naval dockyards, for which it was expresely
grown, could never get a stick under any circum-
stances whatsoever.
This was not all. In the New Forest there are a
variety of officers employed by the crown, who have
the advantage of being found with gratuitous lodging.
Besides the great establishments, there are 5 great
lodges, 13 k. epees' lodges, and 23 woodmen's lodges :
somewhere near 50 houses and cottages in all. The
crown property:was of course repaired.by the crown :
bat the crow., did Dot desire to do the work it the
occupaate at the houses would do it for th. mselves.
So when a new plank or tease was wanted permis-
sion was obtained to take " • stick" from the bred
for the purpose. That term " stick" appears to have
bees most expansive. It almost meant "as much as
you like." Sometimes it seems to have been construed
into a damn loads of fuel wood : sometimes into 20
beech trees and a corresponding number of tops:
somet.mts into half-a-dozen or a dozen oaks, measur-
ing a hundred feet or so; usually into not less
timber than would sake to build a seventy-four.
The usual custom appears to have been to find some
obliging tradesman ready to cart the trees off to his
yard, prepare the wood there, and do everything that
was necessary. Of course the " chips " were his per-
Tilsit*. And the " chips." have built meeting house,
constructed carts am; agricultural implements, fenced
churchyards, nay, are absolutely believed to have suf-
ficed to build NOW of the trimmest ships that ever

floated on Southampton Water!
It is unnecessary to say that the legal proof of these
depredations falls short of the popular belief respect-
ing them, and even of the evidence given before Lord
Doxcee'soommittse in the House of Commons. In
a court of justice a specific act must be
proved in order to secare conviction. There
appears to have tree great difficulty to find
persons in the New Forest competent to give such
sufficient legal evidence. The offer of a reward for
information appears to have been unavailing. And
one person upon whom the crown would seem to rely
absolutely made au attempt to commit suicide by
cutting his throat on the morning that important
proceedings were expected to take place, in which it
was possible his testimony would have been required!
The worst feature of these prosecutions is undoubt-
edly the circumstance that the
.perties accused are
those wbo have either been in charge of the
forest, employed in it, or making their
livelihood by their traffic' with its produce.
Amour these who have bee n bound over to appear
fur trial are—the officer whose peculiar duty it was
to math and measure all the trees intended for sale, a
foreman who appears to have acted usually as his as-
sistant, the keeper of a walk from which much tim-
ber was stolen, the timber-hewer employed by the
crown, the crown bridge•mender, and certain of the
merchants who have usually made the largest pur•
theses of timber at the government sales. These are
all men moving in a re.pectable position ; some of them
moths parties with • hem have originated for years pest
the principal prosecutions forforest depredations which
have been heard at the Verderres and other court'.

It is lamentable to find suspicion cast upon patties
thus traded and thus employed; and more especially
so when it falls not on one individual but upon several
of the most respectable of a class.
If possible, there is, however, a consideration still
more lamentable—namely, the deep responsibility of
those in authority under whom this state of things
has been permitted to exist. The government of the
New Forest is in the hands of a large body of gentle-
meo, many of whom reside upon the spot, and several
of whom have du lee connected with peculiar
walks or districts. The lord warden's establish-
ment consists of a lieutenant of the forest, 12 master
keepers (ail individuals of stition and authority), and
two salvers. The wo els and fo. eats have their deputy
sower, or and his staff resident inthe heart of the forest.
Be', hookas thaw, there he a peculiar body, whose
duty it is specially to guard against depredation. The
freeholders of thy county in which the forest is situated
elect by a cieLt usage four verderers and twelve re-
gardens, vans belt for life and considered of con-
eiderabb. importance. The duty of the verde:ers
is to take cognisance of offences committed
within the forest; that of the re orders is to
" regard" the forest, and especially the timber lying
shout in it. All the verderers and more than half
the regards"e live upon the spot. Does it not exhibit
I any the must shametul that fur so many years they
have passed almost daily throuith the very scene rf
these d. predations, and have never noted that such
things were f Have the Woods and Forests taken
any steps to demonstrate to thus functionaries that
they have their responsibilities ea well as their pri•
'lieges ?

Ws hoer no complaints at present from Canada,
from whit it we may infer that things are p-oreedirg
pretty atm/whir ui the province. The Canadians are
not the people to suffer in silence, and if we hear no
nius mu. mg on their peat., we may surely conclude
that they have no particular grievance of which to
complain.
The liberal party in the province have now been in
power fir the greater part of a year, and thiir con-'
duct, sinter their acceioton to rata-, lies gone far to-
wards ezpoeitig the tteperione of 'halo who have
co steely utargial th.ni with h. rhoaring the most
criminal of purpose., and to relir.a the mode to
others. who hare been misled into the belief that th.
would *Auer p• woe, as soon as they obi died it, by
reoderin it intuitional'sl in caret ing these purpoeem
Into affect. The province lies Ken tar mule peaceful
Awl co. tented than it wax pr. viouely to tfer being
called upon to astmini.ter it, affairs, nor are w uwarr
vasa i s loyalty bus been ito tred in the slightest
degree.
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'II e !miter). of the Colonial-tam is but one mold