ways was now also
licensed, one from near Milkwall down to the Severn and Wye line, another
from Speculation Colliery to the same point, and a third from the
Ruerdean Woodside Colliery to East Slade.

In the next year (1854) a select Committee of the House of Commons sat
during the month of June, under the presidency of Mr. Henry Drummond, to
collect information respecting "the management and condition of the Crown
Forests." So far as related to the Forest of Dean, the inquiry seems to
have arisen from its being supposed that the timber therein, of which
7,800 loads had been felled during the two previous years, might have
been sold at higher prices, and that the mode of stripping and drying the
bark was defective. Yet it appeared in evidence that the price of the
timber was about the same as such timber usually fetched in the
neighbourhood, and that, upon the whole, the method of removing the bark
from the trees whilst standing, and then setting it upright to dry, was
as good as that of first felling the tree, and then stripping it and
drying the bark on stages. Moreover, the portable steam saw, which had
been sent to the Forest with the design of cutting the timber, as
recommended by Mr. Brown, was found to be too small for the purpose,
although it was as large as could be conveniently moved from place to
place, and hence it proved of little or no use.

The Lords of the Treasury, desirous to satisfy the public and the
legislature as to the state of Dean Forest in common with the other Crown
Forests, directed Messrs. J. Matthews, William Murton, and W. Menzies to
make a personal examination of them, and to report their opinion thereon.
This they accordingly did in considerable detail. With regard to Dean
Forest they say--"The enclosures were originally planted with extreme
care, their situations judiciously chosen, the land well prepared, and
the plants protected with nurses." "Viewing these plantations as a
whole," they say, "we feel quite justified in representing to your
Lordships that not only is their state such as to merit approval, but
having reference to their regularity, growth, and prospective ultimate
development, they are not surpassed by any Forest property in the
kingdom."

Whilst the condition of the Forest of Dean was being thus canvassed, its
management had been entrusted to Mr. Brown; but after a few months he was
removed, and at the particular request of Government he was succeeded by
Mr. Mac