THE STATEMENT OF THE GREAT FOREST ACCOUNT.-Continued.

It will be seen that there was a surplus balance in hand at the closing of the accounts
of £747 98. 9d., in Messrs. Wilkins' Bank, and this we find was expended in payments to
Mr. Watkins, the Road Surveyor, in making and maintaining the Forest roads,
Mr. Penry Williams, of Penpont, acting as Trustee of the fund.

In our opinion £5,000 would have been a liberal payment for the whole of the work
actually done in respect of this Inclosure Scheme, especially as the Crown Allotment was
situated together in one lot of land, and the Tenants' Allotment was also practically in one
lot, and had not to be divided.

And we may well ask ourselves, are we better than our forefathers were? and would such a gigantic-what shall we term it ?—malversation of public funds be possible to-day, even with the Crown assisting?

The Brecon Solicitor, Mr. John Jones, was the Clerk to the Inclosure Commissioners; and we regret to say, that neither in the Great Chest of the Shire Hall, which contains many records of the Inclosure business, including the Award and Map, nor among the voluminous papers in our possession, have we been able to find the Minute Book or Minute Books of the Inclosure proceedings.

NOTE. The boundaries of all the Sale Allotments of the Forest land are specified in the Award, and as a somewhat serious encroachment has been made on the Tenants' allotment land near the Gyrn Hill (Sale Allotment No. IV), and is still existing, we give the boundaries of that Sale Allotment as laid down by the Commissioners, so far as regards the Gyrn Hill.

"Also all that other allotment, piece, or parcel of land, commonly called or known by the name of the Gyrn Hill, bounded on the North and North-west by the lands now or late belonging to the said Penry Williams and John Griffiths, Clerk, and by the boundary between the open lands within the Lordship of Brecknock, and on all other parts and sides thereof by the Turnpike Road from Brecon to Merthyr Tydfil."

Of course this encroachment should be dealt with promptly by the Committee of the Forest Allotment Holders. It seems to me that, in the first instance, this encroachment was due to the action of the Turnpike Road Trustees in trying to prevent by means of a roadside fence the evasion of payment of Toll at the neighbouring Tollgate.

M

CAP. V.

The Great Forest lands, after the carrying out of the Inclosure Scheme, resembled a battlefield, covered with the dead and the dying, and resounding with groans and lamentations. Not an approving voice was to be heard in the stricken country side, and not a smile to be seen on the countenance of any one, except of the Inclosure Commissioners (and even the veteran, Mr. Cheese, almost cried, when Vole Darw had to be sold), the surveyors and solicitors, who had pocketed enormous fees for very little work, the Crown officials, and the Treasury, who hoped to realise a large sum for the Crown; and perhaps Mr. Christie and Mr. Alder, the London merchants, who had bought, or were going to buy, the Forest broad lands for £2 an acre, or a mere song!

And even the smiles on the faces of these latter gentlemen soon vanished, and Mr. Christie and Mr. Alder were very sorry they had ever touched the land; and the Crown authorities to-day, if they chance to read these lines, will not feel very proud of their handiwork, though they secured a large sum of money, and invested it in forming the Regent Street of London!

Yes! It was a cruel, hard act, that forcing this Inclosure Scheme, nolens volens, on an unwilling people! Why did not the Crown leave the Welsh farmers alone, their flocks and herds still to graze the mountain slopes, as had been peacefully done for many hundred years before, on a mere nominal payment? It is not easy to account for it, except by the greed of grasping and ignorant officialdom, or possibly from some feeling of hatred to the Welsh people, or prejudice against them: signs of the existence of which are not wanting even to-day.

At one stroke, the whole farming industry on the right and left bank of the Usk, and away over in the valleys of the Nedd and Tawe, was crippled and very seriously injured, so that it has never yet recovered itself, and never will. And I question whether there is to-day any one considerable flock of any Welsh farmer turned on any part of what was the Great Forest.

To take a concrete instance the case of the Carno Farm in the Glyn Tarell: This was a very pretty hill-farm, well sheltered, and with a house and all the buildings and appendages necessary to a Welsh hill-farm homestead. And the gate to the Forest land of the Gyrn Hill opened from its very Coedcae; and the farm, we are told by a witness, carried a stock of 900 sheep.

But to-day, the right of pasturage is mainly situate a mile or two distaut, and that over rough intervening ground to reach it. There is no longer any right to pasture sheep on the Gyrn hill: that right has been sold away, and is now in private hands. And what has happened to the farm? Tenant after tenant followed each other, but none could prosper, and ultimately its fate became that of a byetack, as it now is, to the Llosgoed homestead of Mr. Miller, the Scotch farmer. The Welsh tenant-occupier has disappeared!

You can multiply these instances; and apart from such cases of marked and immediate injury, the whole farming industry of the Defynnock district-naturally the wealthiest and strongest portion of the county-was dislocated and irretrievably injured.

But why did not the chief local people-the magnates of Breconshire of that timetry and stop the Inclosure scheme at the outset, I cannot tell. They ought to have known its certain disastrous consequences! Colonel Wood and Sir Charles Morgan, the County and Borough members, were of English descent and bringing-up, and also absentees. Besides, they were politicians of different parties within the Tory camp, and were about to enter into a bitter and protracted contest for the County seat. There was no love lost there,

and there could not well be any unity of purpose or action between such rivals. Mr. Penry Williams, of Penpont, was quite a young man, I think, at the time; the Marquis of Camden an absentee though he was kept informed of what was being done-Canon Williams, of Abercamlais, was absent at St. Davids, and the Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Beaufort, presiding as such also in Monmouth and Gloucester counties, had quite enough to do in keeping the Militia and Volunteers at their full strength in those troublous times without looking after the interests of the Forest Commoners. And probably then, as now, there was a natural tendency on the part of the other districts of the county to stand aloof from a dispute affecting a special part only. This should not be; but in all important questions affecting any part of Breconshire, the whole county should stand together and make common cause in defence of the interests of all and every part of it; and experience has taught me that the only way to secure this hearty cooperation of the whole county is by the convening of a Public County Meeting in the Shire Hall.

And would it be different to-day? Look at the beautiful river, the Usk, illegally deprived of its water, to the injury of all, and yet there is no single public authority, no single public magnate, ready to come forward openly and boldly to protest against the flagrant wrong admittedly done, and to rescue the river from injury, if not ruin! The vote of a County Meeting would probably tell a different tale!

It is a sad story, this Great Forest case; and though it is but an idle dream on my part, I should never myself be quite satisfied until practically the whole of the lost Forest land was bought back again, and every farm in the parishes of Defynnock, Llywel, Ystradfelte, etc., had restored to them their old rights of pasturage again!

But we must return to our story. It can be readily understood that the Commoners, now bearing the name of Allotment Holders, became much excited when it was proposed by Mr. John Cheese, one of the Commissioners, to sell more of the Common Land to provide funds for stinting the allotment-that is, limiting the number of Stock to be turned on by each farmer. Mr. Penry Williams, of Penpont, took an active part in preventing the sale of any more land, and finding Mr. Cheese still bent on the sale, submitted the following case to Counsel.

CASE-AND MR. KNIGHT'S OPINION.

BY AN ACT passed in the 55th year of the Reign of King George III, two Commissioners, Messrs. Henry De Bruyn and John Cheese, were empowered to divide, set out and allot one Moiety of a Waste called the Great Forest of Brecknock to the King, and the other Moiety to certain Persons having rights of Common for the purpose of being inclosed in several parcels.

After the Commissioners had proceeded in the Execution of such Act, it was found to be inexpedient to divide the last-mentioned Moiety in Severalty, as a very considerable Portion of the Waste had been sold to defray the Expences already incurred by the Commissioners, and it was apprehended that the further Expences attending the division would swallow up nearly the whole of the Commoners' Share.

The accompanying Act of the 58 George III was therefore passed, and it will best explain the object of the parties interested in the Waste.

The Commissioners executed their Award on the 10th of June, 1819, and in consequence of there being a part of the Expences which could not at that time be ascertained, they reserved in their Award a portion of the Waste containing about 540 Acres for the purpose of defraying such Expences.

Soon after the Execution of the Award, the Allotment to the Crown was sold to John Christie, Esquire.

Previous to the Sale of the Land reserved as before mentioned, Mr. Christie made an Application to Mr. Cheese for the purchase of about fifty Acres of the Commoners' allotment that adjoined part of his Purchase, and which he conceived Mr. Cheese had the power

of selling for the purpose of defraying the Expences attending the Stint under the 13th Section of the Accompanying Act.

Mr. Cheese most unwarrantably consented to Mr. Christie's proposal, and agreed that he should enclose the piece of Waste Ground without fixing any price upon it-without knowing whether there would or not be a surplus remaining in his hands from the Sale of the reserved Land before mentioned sufficient for the purposes of the Stint-without having taken any one step towards affecting the Stint, and in perfect ignorance of the Sum that would be requisite to defray such Expences.

At the time Mr. Cheese consented to this proposition of Mr. Christie, the Accounts of the Commissioners had not been audited, and it was therefore uncertain whether there would or would not be a Balance in the hands of the Commissioners-the Moiety of which would be applicable to defray the Expences of the Stinting.

As soon as some of the Principal Commoners found that Mr. Christie was enclosing the piece of Land before mentioned, which he stated he had purchased from Mr. Cheese, they remonstrated with the latter upon the Business, When he at last promised that he would not take any steps for completing the Sale nor proceed in stinting the Common till a general Meeting of the Commoners was held, and that he would abide by the decision of the Majority of the Commoners attending such Meeting.

In consequence of which a general Meeting was conven'd by a public advertisement in the provincial Journal, and at which Meeting the following proceedings took place :—

"At a Meeting of the Commoners held at the Camden Arms in Trecastle, on Tuesday, the Twenty-seventh day of November, 1821, in pursuance of the Advertizement published in the Cambrian Newspaper, and of which the following is a Copy :

"GREAT FOREST OF BRECKNOCK.

"Notice is hereby given to all persons interested in the Commoners' allotment, that a Meeting of the Commoners will be held at the Camden Arms in Trecastle, on Tuesday, the 27th day of November next, at twelve o'clock at Noon, for the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of putting an End to the power of stinting the Common, and also for the purpose of entering into certain Rules and Regulations for the benefit of the Commouers.

Brecon, 27th Oct., 1821."

66

"POWELL, JONES & POWELL,
"Solicitors for the Commoners.

"PENRY WILLIAMS, Esquire, having been requested to take the Chair:

"RESOLVED it is inexpedient and unnecessary to exercise the Power vested in the Commissioner to stint the Lands and grounds allotted to remain open for the benefit of the Commoners, and that John Cheese, Esquire, be requested not to Exercise such Power.

"RESOLVED also that all the benefit to be reap'd by stinting the said Lands and Grounds will be obtained in preventing persons from the Surcharge of the same by turning thereon more Cattle, Sheep, and other animals than their Farms will support in the Winter. "RESOLVED, therefore, that we will prevent such Surcharge in future upon all the said Lands and Grounds by every means in our power.

"RESOLVED that a Copy of the first Resolution of this meeting be immediately transmitted to Mr. Cheese.

"And that the whole of the proceedings of this Meeting be inserted at once in the Cambrian Newspaper."

Notwithstanding these Resolutions, Mr. Cheese has declared it to be his intention to confirm his Contract with Mr. Christie, and also to proceed in stinting the Common, alledging that some of the Commoners are desirous that he should exercise his Power, tho' the Majority of them wish he should not.