THE APPROPRIATION OF DEAN FOREST.
THE Government have introduced a Bill the effect of which will be to convert the Forest of Dein into private property. In the minds of many persons the expression " Dean Forest" pro- bably conveys no other idea than that of a mining district, and by no means suggests the natural features of a forest. In fact, however, Dean Forest corresponds to its name as accurately as its better-known fellow in Hampshire. Situated about fourteen miles to the west of the city of Gloucester, between the Severn and the Wye, it consists of a number of wooded hills and valleys, the centre of the Forest being nearly 600 feet above the level of high-water mark on the Severn. As defined in 1831, it comprises 24,000 acres, 18,500 of which are wood and waste land. Of this quantity about 1,000 only are occupied by mines, quarries, railways, tramways, and other works. It will be seen, therefore, that the mining operations so intimately associated with the Forest do not materially affect its sylvan beauties. Under an Act of Charles II., the Crown is empowered to keep inclosed from time to time 11,000 acres of the Forest for the growth of timber, inclosing a fresh portion, if they think fit to throw out any part previously inclosed. The remainder of the 18,500 acres is open land, accessible to all Her Majesty's subjects, and portions are covered with very fine old timber.
Dean Forest is, at present, subject to a curious compli- cation of proprietary rights. The right of keeping deer and of preserving "vent" for their use is vested in the Crown over the whole Forest. The soil of the whole area, ex- cept about 4,800 acres (now in the hands of private persons), also belongs to the Crown. And over the open waste the owners and occupiers of the adjoining parishes, once within the legal bounds of the Forest, exercise a right of common. This threefold ownership of the surface exists, indeed, in all forests, and calls for no special remark. But Dean Forest is further distinguished by a curious custom relative to the minerals beneath it. It appears that ironstone was worked in this neigh- bourhood so early as the time of the Romans, and from a remote time, no doubt anterior to the prevalence of feudalism and the highly technical doctrines of English real-property law, a practice of mining most foreign to our present-day ideas of private property has been transmitted. Every male person born and abiding within the Hundred of St. Briavels (in which the Forest is situated) of the age of 21, who shall have worked a year and a day in a coal or iron mine within the Hundred, enjoys the position of a Free Miner. Every free miner has the right to have granted to him a "gale," or spot for sinking a mine, provided it can be done without interfering with existing works. In the mine so sunk and worked the Crown is a partner, generally to the ex- tent of a fifth. The grantee of a " gale " is bound to work one day within every year and day after the grant, and he pays a -small dead-rent to the Crown until he finds coal or iron, when he usually compounds for the Crown's share. This curious system—a kind of right of common in minerals—has been confirmed and regulated by an Act of Parliament passed at the commencement of the present reign, which established a
Register of Free Miners. There are at the present time about 1,186 Free Miners registered, and about 200 existing "gales" of coal and 60 of iron. The right to "gales" of coal and iron extends under the private property in the Forest as well as under that of the Crown, but in the former case the owner is also entitled to a share in the profits. The right is barred by Act of Parliament under the 11,000 acres inclosed for the time being for the growth of timber. The Crown has, under the Act regulating the Gale system, a right to grant leases of small portions of land for the purpose of mining works, and many such leases are in existence, but it seems to be admitted that no important mining operation can be undertaken except through the agency of a free miner. In practice, the Free Miners sell their "gales" to capitalists, who work them.
When the peculiar features of the place are borne in mind, it will not create surprise that the population of Dean Forest is exceptionally placed. The preservation of the Forest either for deer or for timber would tend, if left to itself, to prevent the creation of villages and the increase of population. But mining operations necessitate an adequate supply of miners. What has happened under these circumstances is this. En- croachments which the Crown, from the nature of the case, was obliged to wink at, have been made on the edge of the waste. Some forty years ago these encroachments amounted to about 2,000 acres. A Commission of Inquiry was then appointed, and an Act subsequently passed, which confirmed the title of the occupiers—of the older inclosures freely, of the later upon a small payment. These 2,000 acres form part of the 4,800 previously mentioned to be now in private hands. Upon them have grown up the several villages occupied by the miners, of which Cinderford is the largest. These villages are described as being built on no plan,—the houses placed irregularly, as the encroachments have been made from time to time, and not arranged in streets,—and having no regular drainage or water- supply. Moreover, the communication by road from one group of houses to another is of the most rudimentary character. In fact, all the inconveniences that would naturally arise from the irregular and casual way in which the population has been housed seem to be found. However, the mortality in the Forest is not great,—in one-half, East Dean, exceptionally low, and the pauperism is not remarkable. :As the evils which exist are of a very obvious nature, they have attracted attention. Last Session a Select Committee was obtained by Colonel Kingscote, and this the Crown have, from the peculiar point of view of the Office of Woods and Forests, turned to good account. "We are prevented," they said, "from granting any facilities for the extension and improvement of the Miners' villages by the existence of the Commoners' rights. These rights are worthless to the owners, but very detrimental to the nursing of timber ; get rid of them, and you will have solved the whole difficulty, and will secure a happy population and an increased revenue to the Exchequer." We fear those Members of the House who take an interest in " Open Spaces " were not on this occasion on the alert. There appears to have been no one to say a word for the much-abused common-rights, or for the maintenance of any considerable portion of the Forest in state quo. In their Report the Committee deprecated the conversion of the Forest from its present use as a nursery of tim- ber to ordinary tillage, but they recommended, apparently without a second thought, the commutation of those rights which are alone effectual to preserve the district in the state they wish. The Miners' rights received no greater consideration. The Report contains a suggestion, remarkable for its simplicity, if not for its abstract justice, that no person to be born after the passing of the Act recommended by the Committee should be entitled to be registered as a Free Miner; and the Crown is advised to buy up the interests of holders of "gales" as oppor- tunity may serve, so that the Mines may henceforth be worked under ordinary leases.
The Bill introduced by the Government aims at carrying out the recommendations of the Committee, but even if these were unexceptionable, the mode of giving effect to them is open to grave objection. It is proposed to appoint a Commission, whose duties shall consist in (1), ascertaining the boundaries of the Crown lands, and the rights of common and rights of way over them ; (2), setting out public and occupation roads through the Forest ; (3), commuting the rights of common, either by land or money payment ; (4), setting out recreation-grounds and allotment gardens for the labouring classes ; and (5), selling lands to provide compensation for the common-rights and for the expenses of the Act. From the date of the Award of this Commission the lands of the Crown within the Forest are to be freed and discharged from all rights of common and rights of way, except such as may have been set out by the Commission. The Commissioners are further directed to inquire into the sanitary condition of Cinderford and other districts of large population, and to report thereon to the Local Government Board.
Amongst provisions of minor importance, we find a clause embodying the recommendation of the Committee that no person born after the passing of the Act shall be entitled to be registered as a free miner, and a bait is thrown to exist- ing free miners in the provision that when land is sold to them, an abatement may be made from the purchase-money in consideration of the surrender by them of their rights.
Now, this Bill undoubtedly possesses the merit of simplicity. By means of it the Crown will acquire immediately the abso- lute ownership of the whole, or very nearly the whole, of the surface of Dean Forest, and by degrees the free control of the minerals. We say the whole, or very nearly the whole of the surface, for it was urged before the Committee, in favour of the extinction of the common-rights, that they were of very little value to the owner, that sheep were principally depastured on the Forest, whereas they are not commonable by the Forest law, and that in the case of Abbot's Wood, a part of the Forest recently inclosed under a private Act of Parliament, very little compensation was awarded to the commoners. Thus, it is obvious that the Crown hopes to get rid of all the rights which at present qualify its ownership of the Forest, without losing any appreciable extent of area in so doing. The effect of the Act, from a public point of view, will be simply to abandon that hold on the Forest which the public through the com- moners now have. The effect on the Commoners themselves will be, that in a few years they will be the poorer by the worth to them (not in money, but in comfort of living) of their common-rights, for it has been pointed out again and again that the compensation which a commoner receives in nine cases out of ten is entirely lost in the course of a generation at the longest, whereas the right of common is inalienable.
But it is said that it is a necessity of the mining population that they should have more land, while they are indifferent to their present right of common. Now, it appears from the local paper that the Miners are not at all prepared for a general in- closure ; but even if they were of a different opinion, the equiva- lent which they asked is not offered by the Bill. The request most urgently made by their representatives before the Com- mittee was that plots of waste land should be offered to them for building at their present value, and not at the price to which competition might force them. The Bill contemplates no such process, and the local Crown witnesses before the Committee discountenanced the suggestion. The latter, in- deed, urged that no sites for cottages should be allowed, except on the outskirts of the Forest, although the distance now travelled by the Miners to and from their work was a principal reason for taking action at all in the matter. On the contrary, the Crown is to have those powers of sale and leasing which it has in the case of land not part of a forest, and it is well known that the Commissioners of Woods consider themselves bound by the strictest commercial prin- ciples in the discharge of their stewardship. It is not difficult to see what will happen. The capitalists who work the collieries will buy up as much land as the Crown will sell at a full price, and will build cottages for their workmen, who, holding at will or on short terms, may be put to the incon- venience of a compulsory change of abode if any very awkward controversy between labour and capital should arise.
Then how is this very important change in the condition of some 20,000 acres of land to be effected ? Through the agency of a Commission, who have absolute discretion as to the form of compensation to be offered to commoners and the allotments to be made for public purposes, and whose decision is without appeal or control. In the case of Epping Forest, Parliament will have the power of reviewing the proposals of the Commission it has appointed, and the scheme suggested by them will acquire no force until confirmed by an Act. Why is the future of so much larger an area of land to be decided without the same opportunities of full consideration and public discussion ?
To give the Government their due, there is one vestige in the Bill of an attempt to remedy the evils which led the local Members to take action, and which have, as the Crown authorities will say, forced this measure on them. It is the inquiry into the sanitary condition of Cinderford and other populous districts. Inasmuch as it is not ignorance of the evils to be remedied, but want of co-operation between the
Crown, the colliery-owners, and the local population, which has hitherto prevented improvement, it is not very clear what benefit this inquiry may confer.
We have, then, this curious state of things. Professing to take action merely to remedy certain patent evils in the Forest, —the impossibility of providing workmen with dwellings near their work, and the bad sanitary condition of the villages they now inhabit—the Crown introduces a measure which, glancing by these evils, goes straight to the mark of appropriating the Forest. We have said little of the justice of the proposal with regard to the Miners' rights. Mr. Macdonald has given notice to reject the Bill on the second reading, and we have no doubt he will call attention fully to this subject. But when many are beginning to doubt the wisdom of making all land private property, and when Parliament has paused in its career of inclosure, the introduction of any Bill framed on the prin- ciple we have described is not a statesmanlike or creditable step. All the evils complained of could be directly cured by a far less sweeping measure, something not without interest might be done towards recruiting that fast vanishing class, small freeholders, and one of the few existing tracts of open woodland scenery might still be preserved to visitors from our crowded towns.
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