The Express.
London, England, 1848-09-06 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 8, 1848.

Ones and .gala hes the dual issue been postponed by
temporary expedients. They will be adroit etateemen,
who em peeves' it mace Lew, whilst it will take
awl lea& and cearepeose hearts le being it lo a final
adjustment whitest the overthrow ant dismember-
ment of the anion.

Tag wretched mismanagement of the woods and
forests has been inevitable. It appears clearly from
the evidence of Lord MORPETE and Mr. Mimi (be-
fore the woods and forests committee), the Ant and
second aommimioners—that then i!, in reality, no-
..

bodicharged with or respanildelie the mintigo-
meat of the woods and forgets. _ _

In 1787 the charge of the woods and forests was
withdrawn from the general commissioners of land
revenues and entrusted to a overate board. About
1810 the management of the Lind revenues was de-
volved upon the commissioners of woods and forests
—the inferbor board to which the special manage-
ment of a part of the crown lands bad origin-
ally been entrusted. Anything resembling a
statesman-like aim and
.purpose would be sought
in vain in this chopping and changing ; but
doubtless could the private history of the constitution
of the boards of these days be revealed, very subetan.
tial and powerful motives could be as‘igned. "But
such eternal blazon may not be," and we must take
the commission of Woods and Forests as time and
chance have made it. _

There are three commissioners. The first, in addi-
tion to the charge of a general superintendence of the
more especial department of the commission, and of
being the recognised channel of communication be-
tween it, the crown, and the Treasury, is always a
member of parliament, and of late years generally a
cabinet minister. The others have many duties to
perform, entirely unconnected with the woods and
forests.

The fact is, with regard to the first oommissioner,
that the woods and forests seem to have been con-
sidered of so little importance that its chef might be
made a member of the cabinet on tho footing of a
minister who has no special department to occupy his
time sad attention. He has been expected to " make
himself generally useful." All stray piece. of busi-
ness which no other pers3n could be expected to un-
dertake have been thrown upon his shoulders. The
extent to which this has been done borders on the
ludicrous. Poor Lord Mostrirrti is positively the
Caleb Quut4nts of the administration. He is chief

justice in Eyre, north and south of Trent, chairman of
the commission for superintending the improvements
of Buckingham-palace, chairman of the Commons in-
closure commission (and in that capacity charged with
the execution of the act of parliament for advancing
loans up= drainage), a commissioner of Grienwieh
hospital, a commissioner of Highland roads and
bridge!, a commissioner of the Holyhead roads, a
commissioner for paving Regent-street, a commis-
sioner for building churches, a commissioner of the
conservancy of the Mersey, a trustee tor the manage-
ment of certain chapels in Mar'clebone, a member of
the council of the Duchy of Cornwall, a member of
the Fine Arts commission, director of the geological
surveys of Groat Britain and Ireland, chairman of the
Metropolitan Sewers Commission, member of the
Metropolitan Sanitary Commission, cues multi, alit's, I
Lord Mo mu combines in hie individual person the
functions of a minister of agriculture, of commerce,
des cidtee, and of sanitary police.
Largo, largo, al Barbieri!
_ _ _ Alfactotarn della viii! !

It is obvioustcalsOresTiiiaininistrative functions
combined with his lordship's duties at the council
table, can leave him little leisure for the detail duties
of that office from which he derives his ministerial
title. Tnese duties are partitioned between the two
I junior commissioners. The third commissioner has
not even a nominal connexion with the Woods and
Forests. He is " more especially concerned with the
lands and manors in England and Wales, and the Isles
of Man and Alderney, with the land revenues of
the crown in Scotland and Ireland, with the office
of quit-rents in Ireland, and with all leasehold
houses in London, Windsor, and Richmond." The
second commis ioner is the nominal manager of the
Woods and Forests, but he has other business to
attend to also. He has " the management of the
royal forests, parks, woodlands, the Holyhead feeds,
the improvements in the metropolis for which acts
have passed the legislature, and the public works
and buildings."
So it is obvious that instead of three commissioners,
the Woods and Forests have only the third part of
one commissioner to look after them. And in point
of fact this third part of a commissioner—this tailor
multiplied by three—has only a very limited range
of authority over the Woods and Forests. There
are three sets of officers' entirely independent of
one another, appointed by and responsible to
different authorities, who are understood to =Nein-
' tend the management of the forests. The vert and
venison are under the warden's or ranger's department;
that officer is either appointed by the crown or holds
his office upon an hereditary tenure, and he appoints
his keepers. The common rights are under the
?orderers and regarders, who are elected by the
freeholder, and who appoint their stewards. The
superintendence of the timber and lands, the repairs
of houses, and the payment of 8.1 salaries are under
the immediate superintendence of the Commissioners
1 of Woods and Forests, who appoint the deputy cur-
-1 mein their assistants, and woodmen.
We have here, therefore, three independent sets of
officers, all with incompatible objects in view, having
different ends to promote and different muters to
plea-.
The aim of the wardens is to keep a good stock of
deer on hand for the immense array of officials, no-
blown, gentry, and clergy who annually receive grants
of venison from the forest, and to collect their own
perquisites of firewood, &a The maintenance of the
deer is the destruction of the timber, and, thus the
mutant endeavour of the warden and his officers is to
thwart the efforta of the commissioners' officers

to increase and improve .the timber. The duty of the
verderers and regarders is to protect the interests of in-
dividuals and communities entitled to rights of com-
mon in the forests. They are authorised to tostitutesur-
veys, and hold courts to this end. But the interests
of the parties they represent being at variance with
those of the orovrn, a constant struggle is carried on
between them and the officers of the commissioners

to thwart and neutralise each other. There are three
parties striving for asaindancy in the Woods and
Forests; they have reciprocally the power to impede
and check each other, but not to do anything effectual
of themselves.

The consequence is, that by tacit consent all
three parties appear to have relinquished the idea of
discharging their respective public duties, and have
for years made it their business to ,job for their
own private advantage or that of their friends and
favourites. We find the warden's keeper., whose
aim is to get browse for their deer and faggots
for themselves at the expense ef the timber, charged
in souse forests by the commissioners with the dele-
gated superintendence of the timber. We find the
regarders in the New Forest leagued with timber
merchants to plunder the forest. We find the officers
of the commissioners, when an exceptional verderer
in Waltham Forest endeavours to stand up for the
rights of those who have the privilege of common in
it, and cheek usurpations and unwarranted enclosures,
telling him to do so at his peril.
Under such a system it could not be but that abuses
such as we have already exposed, and have many
more yet to expose, shoed up. The wonder is,
not that many goodly private estates should from
time to time have been filched from the forests by
noblemen and gentlemen, or that 5001. should be
paid for the opportunity of plundering the timber
under the title of an officer appointed to prevent dila-
pidation., but that any royal forests at all should
have remained at this time of day to be the scenes
of such peculation.