§ MR. OSBORNE MORGAN (Denbighshire, E.)asked Mr. Attorney General, Whether the Crown claims the right to grant speculative leases or licences empowering the holders thereof to enter upon freehold lands in Wales adversely to the freeholder and to search for gold and silver thereon, even where the existence of such metals has not been 1143 proved, and thus indirectly to force upon the freeholder the alternative of taking a mining lease of such precious metals under his own lands; and, if so, under what statute or other authority such right is claimed?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir RICHARD WEBSTER) (Isle of Wight)The Question which the right hon. and learned Gentleman asks me is, in reality, one of law, upon which he is as well able as I am to form an opinion; but, as I understand the law, in the absence of substantial evidence that gold and silver is to be found in the lands, the Crown does not claim the right to grant licences to enter upon lands adversely to the freeholder.