THE Enclosure Acts between 1770 and 1830 caused chaos in southern and western England. Home Secretary, Lord Mel­bourne, had no sympathy for impoverished agricultural labourers, and may have been oblivious of the activities in the Forest of Dean.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs, from?Dorset, were fortunate that Lord Russell, who succeeded Melbourne as Home Secretary, realised that the Dorset men had been unjustly transported to Australia.

Warren James was not so fortunate. You have only to read of the conditions for 'convicts' in England, on board transport ships and, particularly, at Port Arthur in Tasmania, to imagine that he suffered horribly.

A popular verse of the period summarises the situation rather well:- 'The law arrests the man or woman, who steals the goose from off the common, but leaves the greater rascal loose, who steals the common from the goose.'

Nearly 200 years later morality seems to have changed little. Transportation may have ceased, but instead of convicts, and others, many of our talented youngsters are emigrating to old Commonwealth countries, seeking a better way of life than in Britain. It may be because our politicians, bankers and 'big business' seem to be putting profits before people, just as they did 200 years ago.

One of the few major improvements during the intervening years has been the establishment of the Forestry Commission.

A dear, much loved old friend died in 2010; I am so glad that she, her father, and two brothers are not alive now, to see and hear the devastation that is being wreaked upon the Forestry Commission.

Father and sons were Foresters through and through; they cherished and husbanded the forests in their charge with diligence and love. They were true professionals unlike politicians in charge of Defra and forestry. How can the present Forestry Commission manage timber production, public recreation, environmental and wildlife conservation with drastic cuts in personnel and funding?

As rural populations flocked to towns in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries so it is almost as if their descendants are returning to usurp the remaining Forest and countryside of Britain.

– Name and address supplied.