p long enough, and they ought to be thrown open.
The gates of several plantations had been broken in the night. On Sunday
the 5th of June I saw Henry and Richard Dobbes pull away the bushes out
of a gateway, and turn their cow into Cockshoots Enclosure, and when I
went and expostulated with them they said they had been deprived of their
rights long enough. Warren James had for some time been urging others to
join him in the recovery of their rights, which they considered to be
usurped by foreigners, in whose hands the principal coal-works of the
Forest are, by purchase or lease from free miners; and on the 3rd June he
had a hand-bill printed, calling upon all persons to meet and clear the
Forest on Wednesday June 8th. I spoke to him on the 5th, and told him in
the presence of numbers the folly and danger of his proceedings; but he
paid no attention, and said the Forest was given up to them in Parliament
the year before; that he had a charter, which he would bring and show me.
I published a notice, warning all persons not to join an unlawful
assembly, and on Tuesday the 7th Mr. Ducarel and I issued a warrant to
apprehend him; but it could not be executed. We swore in a number of
special constables, and with the woodmen mustered about forty at the
scene of action where they were to begin; but the rioters mustered nearly
200, with axes, &c., and began their work of destruction about 7 o'clock,
and we found it useless to attempt to stop them. They were soon joined
by others, and supplied with cider, and continued their work Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, in which time they destroyed nearly
one-third of the fences in the Forest, the reparation of which cost about
1,500 pounds. On Sunday military arrived, and they all dispersed.
Warren James was apprehended and sentenced to transportation for life,
and seven or eight others to different periods of imprisonment from one
month to two years. {111} Those who escaped suffered by lying in the
woods and concealed where they could, and I believe all now repent and
see the folly of their conduct. I suppose altogether nearly 2,000,
including children, were employed in the work of devastation. None of
the trees in the enclosures were injured, and where the cattle and sheep
that were let in had eaten the grass in the drives and open places, they
went back into the unenclosed Forest, and would not remain amongst the
trees. In 1838 a pardon was sent out to Warren James,