BILL RESPECTING THE NEW FOREST AND TIMBER FOR THE NAVY.
In the course of this session Pitt introduced a bill for encouraging the growth of timber for the navy, and improving the royal revenue raising out of the New Forest, by the sale of certain parts, and the enfranchisement of copyholds. This bill passed the commons without much opposition, but on the second reading in the upper house it was strenuously opposed by Lord Chancellor Thurlow. His lordship objected to the principle of the bill as favouring the alienation of the crown lands, and he asserted that it was essential to the safety of the constitution that his majesty should have his interests blended with those of the landed property in the country. Thurlow’s arguments seem to have had great weight, for though the bill was committed by a majority of forty one against twenty-nine, it was postponed and never afterwards resumed.