VISCOUNT DUNCANasked if the noble Lord at the head of the Woods and Forests had any statement to make with reference to the subject of a certain private communication which he (Lord Duncan) had, as Chairman of the Committee on the department, made to the noble Lord this Session; also whether the noble Lord had anything to state with respect to the depredations which it had been discovered had been, during some years, committed upon the wood in the New Forest?
§ VISCOUNT MORPETHreplied, that from the information which be had received he had reason to believe that a system of fraud and depredation bad prevailed for a long time past with respect to the New Forest. As soon as the revelations in reference to them were brought under his attention by the praiseworthy investigation of his noble Friend, he engaged the services of two gentlemen who were specially recommended to him for the purpose, and he had every reason to believe that they would prosecute their inquiries with effect. Two persons had been already apprehended, and committed to take their trial in consequence of these depredations.