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PRENCH FOREST ORDINANCE

OF, 1669;

_ HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PREVIOUS TREATMENT
| OF FORESTS IN FRANCE.

COMPILED* AND TRANSLATED BY

JOHN CROUMBIE BROWN, LL.D.,

Formerly Lecturer on Botany in University and King’s College, Aberdeen ;
subsequently Colonial Botanist at Cape of Good Hope, and Professor
of Botany in the South African College, Capetown ; Fellow of the
Linnean Society ; Fellow of the Royal Geographical ‘Society ; and
Honorary Vice-President of the African Institute of Paris.

EDINBURGH:
OLIVER AND BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT
LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO.

% 1883.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

“THE CELEBRATED FOREST ORDINANCE OF 1669:” Such
is the character and designation generally given at the
present day to the Ordinance in question. It is known,
by reputation at least, in every country on the Continent
of Kurope; but, so far as is known to me, it has never
before been published in English dress. It may possibly
_ be considered antiquated ; but, on its first promulgation, it
was welcomed, far beyond the bounds of France, as bring-
ing life to the dead ; and I know of no modern system of
Forest Exploitation, based on modern Forest Science, in
which I cannot trace its influence. In the most advanced
of these—that for which we are indebted to Hartig and
Cotta of Saxony—lI see a development of it like to the
development of the butterfly from what may be seen in
the structure of the chrysalis ; and thus arn I encouraged
to hope that it may prove suggestive of benificial arrange-
ments, even where it does not detail what may be deemed
desirable to adopt.

In my translation I have followed an edition issued
with Royal approval in 1753, with one verbal alteration
to bring it into accordance with certain older approved
editions, and with another verbal alteration to bring it
into accordance with editions issued in 1699, 1723, 1734,
and 1747.

A similar volume on the Modern Forest Economy of
France is being prepared for the press.

Information in regard to the culture of woods in France,
in accordance with advanced science, is supplied in a
volume lately published—“ Elements of Sylviculture: a

iv ADVERTISEMENT,

Short Treatise on the Scientific Cultivation of the Oak, and
other Hardwood Trees,” by the late M.G. Bagneris, Inspec-
tor of Forests, and Professor in the Forest School of Nancy ;
and translated from the French by Messrs E. E. Fernandez
and A. Smythies, B.A., Indian Forest Service. Details of
the application of that science to the cultivation of Coni-
feree may be found in a volume I have published, entitled :

Pine Plantations on Sand- Wastes in France.—In which are detailed
the appearances presented by the Landes of the Gironde before and after
culture, and by the Landes of La Sologne; the legislation and literature of
France in regard to the planting of the Landes with trees ; the character-
istics of the sand-wastes; the natural history, culture, and exploitation of
the Maritine Pine and of the Scotch Fir; and the diseases and injurious
influences to which the Maritine Pine is subject.—Edinburgh : Oliver &
Boyd. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. 1878.

Details of the application of that science made in the
réboisement of Mountains, may be found in another volume
which I have published :—

Réboisement in France ; or, Records of the Re-planting of the Alps,
the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees with Trees, Herbage, and Bush, with a
view to arresting and preventing the destructive consequences of torrents.—
In which are given, a résumé of Surell’s study of Alpine torrents, and
of the literature of France relative to Alpine torrents, and remedial
measures which have been proposed for adoption to prevent the disas-
trous consequences following from them,—translations of documents and
enactments, showing what legislative and executive measures have been
taken by the Government of France in connection with Réboisément as a
remedial application against destructive torrents,—and details in regard
to the past, present, and prospective aspects of the work. London: C.
Kegan Paul & Co. 1879.

And an illustration of the change for the better which
has been introduced into the Forest Management of
France, is supplied by a pamphlet entitled :—“Glances
at Forestry in France in 1860 and 1880:” a reprint of
papers by me, which appeared in the “ Journal of Forestry
and Estates Management.”

| JOHN C. BROWN,
Happineron, 10th April, 1882.

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CONTENTS.

PART I.—TREATMENT OF FORESTS IN FRANCE PREVIOUS TO
THE ISSUE OF THE FoREST ORDINANCE OF 1669,

Cuap. I.—Early History of Forests, Forest Treatment,
_ and Forest Legislation in France, ee a.
Narrative by M. Cezanne of state of the Forests previous to

the Norman invasion (p. 1) ; account by Dr Broch of the

Settlement of the Normans in France (p. 3); treatment

of the Forests by the Normans (p. 8) ; Forest Ordinances
- of the 13th, 14th, and 16th Centuries (p. 11).

Cuaap. I[.—Forest Administration in France in the
First Half of the Seventeenth Century, ...

Translation of a Manuscript Report, preserved in La Biblio-

théque National, by Charles Colbert de Cressy, on the

Forests in the Province of Tours (p. 13) ; showing reck-

less malversations which had occurred under the Forest-

Masters of Tours (p. 14); of Amboise (p .14); Loches (p,

15); Montrichard (p. 16); and Chinon (p. 16); and the

culpability of men high in rank and office (p. 19). Trans-

lation of an account by M. Joubain, Inspector of Forests,

of Proceedings by the Government, which followed(p.21).

Cuap, Il].—Method of Forest Exploitation in France
followed till the Middle of the Seventeenth Cen-
tury, and known as Jardinage or Furetage,

Account of the method of Exploitation, and explanation of

rec (p. 35); devastating effects of it on Forests
p. 36).

Cuap, 1V.—Method of Forest Exploitation in France
enjoined in the Middle of the Seventeenth Cen-
tury, and known as La Methode a Tire et Aire, ...

Import of the name (p, 40); adoption of it in Germany (p.
41); defects requiring to be remedied (p. 42),

Cuaprer V.—Method of Forest Exploitation now fol-
in France, and known as La Methode des Compar-
tuments, ... . 7

Development into this of La Methode a Tire et Aire (p. 45) ;
with a notice of difficulties encountered (p. 46). :

PAGE

13

35

40

45

vi CONTENTS.
PART II.—Tue Forest Orpinance or 1669,

Cuap. I.—Introductory Details,

Legal right to Legislation (p. 48); enumeration of pibrioak
Ordinances (p. 52); explanation of terms used in the
ordinance (p. 53),

Cuap. II.—Translation of the Text of the Ordinance,
ORDINANCE By THE Kine, Louis XIV.,... tt wee

Chap. I.—Of the Jurisdiction of the Waters and
Forests, ... ; + me

Chap. II.—Officers of the Jfattrise, or Division of
the Forests under charge of a Forest-Master, ...

Chap. ITI,—-Of Grand-Masters,

Chap. IV.—Of Des Maitres gars = or Forest-
Masters, ... x tos va! . “

Chap. V.—Of the Lieutenant,

Chap. VI.—Of the Procureur du Roi, or fer
Attorney, ts rs

Chap. VII.—Of the Garde-Marteau, or id Ace of
the Stamping-Hammer,.. .

Chap. VIII.—Of the Gs fier the Recorder or
Registrar, defile pee “us

Chap. IX .—-Of Gruyers,

Chap, X.—Of the Huissiers Audienciers, or Ushers
of the Audience-Hall; Gardes Generaux, cr

Mounted Police ; Sergeants ; and Police of the _

Forests and Woods held in Grurie, Gratrie,
Segrarie, Tiers et Danger, and Par Indivis, or
Co-Proprietorship,

Chap. AJ,.--Of Surveyors, ...

PAGE

48

61
61

62

66
69

76
79

80

84

86
88

90
94

CONTENTS.
Chap. XTT.—Of the Assizes, Q: ihe

Chap. XIII.—Of “The Marble ee and J ee
of Final Appeal, :

Chap XIV.—Of Appeals,

Chap. XV.—Of V’Assiette, or Appointment, Survey,
and Delimitation of Fellings to be offered for
Sale ; Ballivage, or Seed-Bearing Standard Trees
to be Reserved in Felling ; Martellage, or Mark-
ing of Trees to be Reserved as such, and as
Marks of the Boundaries of the Felling; and
Vente de Bois, or the Sale of Wood; with
details in regard to the Exploitation of Forests,

Chap. XVI.—Of Recollemens, or eet of Fel-

lings after the Removal of the Wood, . vee
Chap. X VIT.—Of Sales of Windfalls and of Small
Lots of Wood, ... ose

Chap. X VIII.—Of the Sale, or Lettings by ——
of Pannage, Mast, and Pasturage, :

Chap. XIX.—Of Rights of Pasturage and of Pannage,

Chap. XX.—Of Chauffages, or Rights to a Supply
of Firewood, and other Rights of Usage pertain-
ing to Woods, for Repairs and for Building,

Chap. X XT.—Of Building Timber required for sisi
Mansions and for the Navy, ... one

Chap. XXII.—Of the Waters, Forests, Woods, and
Warrens held under title of Dowatre or Endow-
ment, Concession, Engagement, or Bargain,
founded generally on Auction a and by Title
of Usufruct, ol vid vied

Chap. XXIII.—Of the Woods in Grurie, Gratrie,
Trers et Danger, or held from the Crown under
Tenures thus designated, ee ea ov

b
Vii

PAGE

96

98
101

102

113

118

120

121

125

127

129

132

Viii

CONTENTS.

Chap. XXIV.—Of the Woods appertaining to Eccle-
siastics, and Tenants by Mortmain,

Chap. XX V.—Of the Woods, Meadows, Marshes,
Lands or Heaths, Pastures, Fisheries, and other
Lands appertaining to Communities, and Inha-
bitants of Parishes,

Chap. XX VI.—Of the Woods s belonging t to Private
Persons, ;

Chap. XX VII.—Of the Police, and of the Conserva-
tion of the Forests, Waters, and Rivers,

Chap. XXVIII.-—Of Roads, and Royal Highaene in
Forests, and of Footpaths by Rivers, ...

Chap. XXIX,—Of Rights of Levying Toll, of Pas-

sage, and of such like, ...
Chap. XXX,—Of Chases, eee ese eee
Chap. XXXI,—Of Fishing, ... ids

Chap. XXXII,—Of Penalties, Fines, Restitutions,
Damages, Compensations for Loss, and Confis-
cations, ... ;

SIGNATURE OF THE KING, AND PUBLICATION OF THE

ORDINANCE BY PARLIAMENT AND THE ‘‘ CHAMBRE
DES COoMPTES,”

PAGE

136

140
145
146
- 157

158
160
168

174

180

AUTHORS CITED.

BARANTIN, p. 30; Brocu, p, 43 Cezanne, p. 1, 8, 10; CLEMENT,
p. 25, 27, 29; CoLBErt, p. 13, 25, 30, 34; JouBarn, p. 21, 27;
JOURVILLE, p. 11; MAanwoop, p. 9; Henri Martin, p. 5, 7; Lorenz,

p. 38; MorreviLuy, p. 22; Parapg, p. 31, 41; PELLIsson, p. 28,

~

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FRENCH FOREST ORDINANCE OF 1669;
WITH HISTORICAL SKETCH OF

PREVIOUS TREATMENT OF FORESTS IN FRANCE.

}

re et ke

TREATMENT OF FORESTS IN FRANCE, PREVIOUS TO THE
ISSUE OF THE FOREST ORDINANCE OF 1669,

CHAPTER I.

EARLY HISTORY OF FORESTS, FOREST TREATMENT, AND
FOREST LEGISLATION IN FRANCE.

In M. Cezanne’s Suite to the Etude sur les Torrents des
Alps I find an historical sketch of the Deboisement of
France, or destructions of woods and forests, which have
rendered necessary the Reboisement of the mountains as

-ameans of arresting and preventing the disastrous con-

sequences and effects of torrents, in which he thus speaks
of the Forests of France in prehistoric times :—

‘At the beginning of the stone period of history, when
the first human families commenced settling along the
shores of France, what proportion of the whole superticies
of France was that which was occupied by forests? What
was this proportion of the superficies occupied by forests

B

2 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE,

at, and for some time subsequent to, the great migrations ©

of the Aryan race, the different streams of which traversed
and peopled Europe? What, again, was it in the times
when Gaul, then populous, overflowed upon Italy, with

Bellorese and Brennus, and hurled its adventurous bands —

as far as Greece and Asia Minor? Was it three-fourths ?
was it nine-tenths? This will never be known!’

But again he writes in the same connection :—

‘If we would represent to ourselves Gaul as she was in

the days of Cesar, we must picture it as covered with —

sombre forests, broken here and there by cultivated clear-
ings, such as still are seen in some parts of Russia and of
America. But thereafter the slopes of Provence and of

Roussillon were denuded of wood, and stood bare as did —

Greece, in regard to which Plato, so early as 400 years

before the coming of Christ, deplored the destruction of -

the forest shades of an earlier day. Between the terri-
tories of two tribes of Gauls the forest would stretch
itself as a natural frontier, which the progress of cultures,
of carpentry, of smith work, and of shipbuilding, such as it
was, would slowly cut away. But the forest vegetation,
still all-powerful, would reign in the mountain regions,

would control the terrestrial streams, and would with ©

energy repair such losses, which would be but rare, as the
tempest or fire might occasion.

Le

‘From the campaigns of Cesar dates the commence- —

ment of war formally waged against the forests, a war of
twenty centuries, which has failed, as we may see, to
exhaust itself by a complete extirpation of these forests.

‘The commentaries of Cesar show us the forests being

burned sometimes by the Gauls to arrest the pursuit of”

them by the Romans, sometimes by the Romans to force
the retreat of Vercingétorix.

‘Colonisation followed conquest, and devastation ex-
tended the traces of the war; but at that time dehotsement
or the destruction of forests was, if we may say so,
legitimate ; it extended the domain of civilisation at the
expense¢ of the forests which still preponderated.

leat y a ee eee ee

EARLY HISTORY OF FORESTS. 3

‘The barbarous Germans who invaded the Empire,
accustomed to live in the forest, and worshippers of sylvan
deities, had a sympathetic feeling for the forests of Gaul.
The Salic Law, the law of the Lombards, protected the
forests under pain of fine or forfeiture; and it cost nearly
as dear to fell a tree as to fella man. If the forests of
Gaul were diminished by the wars of the Romans the
devastations of the fourth and fifth centuries restored to
them large spaces lost then to cultivation. So at a later
period, after the passage of the Normans and the Saracens,
thick forests covered the cantons of the wealthy colonies
which had been previously cleared of wood, and there are
still found among the pines in some of the woods of
_ Provence stumps of olive trees planted by the ancient
_ Phonecians.’

Thus far M. Cezanne. Subsequently the settlement of
the Normans, or Normands, in France, gave a new aspect
to the treatment of the forests ; and everything connected
therewith has an interest for the student of Forest Science.

On the rise of the Carlovignian dynasty in the middle
of the eighth century it extended its dominion to the North
till it came into collision with the Scandinavian tribes of
Denmark. These maintained their independence, and in
a short time thereafter there began piratical expeditions,
fitted out by the people living in Denmark, in Norway,
and in Sweden. The object of the expeditions undertaken
by the Vikings may at first have been robbery and booty,
but the ultimate result was their conquering and seizing
territories and dominions.

The expeditions fitted out in Sweden seem to have been
directed mainly against the Finns, and the Livonians and
Estonians, and Russia, in which country their influence
had much to do with the civilisation and advancement
and influence of the State of Novogorod, which was founded
by them. The Danes directed their expeditions more
against the southern shores of the Baltic, and the northern
shores of the German Ocean, or North Sea, and the north

4 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

of France, and England, which in the beginning of the
eleventh century was completely overrun by them, and
became a united kingdom under Canute the Great. The
Scandinavians of Norway directed their expeditions more —
to the north, and further to the west, to the Faroe Islands,
the Shetland Islands, and the Orkneys, whence they
spread along the East Coast of Scotland, in the Hebrides,
and in Ireland, where, in the twelfth century, kings of the
Norwegian race reigned in Dublin until the establishment
of the English dominion about the year 1170.

Dr Broch, in a work entitled Le Royaume de Norvége et
le People Norvégien,* on whose authority I state these
facts, goes on to say :— 7

‘From Ireland the Norwegian Vikings directed their
way towards the coasts of France, combined and mixed
with the Danish Vikings come from England and from
the Frisian coast, as also with the Swedish Vikings, and
devastated those coasts, then under the incapable successors
of Charlemagne. By its riches this coast presented to the
invaders from the North the most attractive prey.
The Frank Monazchy having reached its apogee under
Charlemagne, had already begun to decline under his son,
Louis the Pious, or Le Debonnaire; and under their
successors it became a prey to the scourge of civil discords
which ended in the dismemberment of the great empire,
and the destruction of all its military forces at the great
battle of Fontenailles, on the plains of the Auxerrois, in
June 841. It was there that Lother, followed by the
Franks of Austrasia and in part of Neustria,and also those
of Aquitains, was conquered by the brothers Louis and
Charles, surnamed the Bold, after a struggle bloody for
both parties. According to Martin, ‘the force of the
carnage fell upon the Franks and the Aquitains; and the
flower of the Frank race perished in this fearful field of
battle. A great many writers, some of them almost con-
temporaries, others more recent, exaggerating still more

* Christiana; P. T, Mallin, Rue Carl Johan. Paris: Challamel Aine, Rue Jacob 5.

BARLY HISTORY OF FORESTS. 5

the terrible extermination of Fontenailles, maintain that
the forces of the Franks were so enfeebled, and their war-
like spirit so felled by this combat, that from that time
forward, far from making conquests over their enemies
as they previously had done, they were no longer capable
of defending their own frontiers.”*

‘Two years later, in 843, the Vikings, combined under the
terrible Hasting, of whom, beyond this, nothing is known
of his country and origin, and ascended, pillaging and
devastating, the courses of the Loire and of the Seine. All

the coast from the embouchure of the Rhine to the fron-

tiers of Spain, and even the Spanish coast of Galicia, were
ravaged with a daring and a cruelty till then unheard of.

_ The Norman Vikings ascended the Loire to Tours, and the

Seine to Paris, both of which cities they took and pillaged,

__ together with the rich churches and convents around them.

‘These expeditions extended already, at this period, to
the most southern coast of Spain on the Atlantic; and
Seville, which was then in the hands of the Moors, was
twice—first in 843, and again in 845—surprised and pil-
laged by the Norman Vikings.

‘The largest and richest towns in. France — Rouen,
Nantes, Tours, and Bordeaux, were retaken many times and

" pillaged; and at the embouchures of all the great rivers

flowing into the Atlantic Ocean the Vikings established
fortified encampments, in which at times they wintered,
and whence they made most audacious inroads into the

_ very heart of France. The powerless Carlovignian kings

sought to purchase deliverance from their attacks with
gold; but this poor resource only so far prevented the evil
by exposing without covering the feebleness of the kingdom,
When any one of the chiefs had received a large sum to
keep the peace, he often doubtless returned to his home,
or retired to some other country ; but his promise was not
obligatory on his people, and there were formed of them
new bands of invaders under other chiefs.

* Henri Martin’s Histoire de France. 4to edition ; tome ii., pp. 414 and 415,

6 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘England was in a like manner ravaged by the Danes,
who, in the latter half of the ninth century, inundated
that country from one end to the other, perpetrating in
it the most terrible devastations.

‘In the commencement of the tenth century there
appeared in the midst of these bands of pirates a chief
who consolidated their power in France, and who puta
stop at the same time to the most terrible devastations,
by giving more of stability and permanence to their
influence in the country, and by embracing Christianity.
This was the Norwegian Rolf—called Rollo by the French
writers—son of the Norwegian jarl Ragnvald, from the
south part of Ramsdal. Rolf had been exiled by King
Harold of the fine locks, because that, on his return from
one .of the expeditions he had made on the Norwegian
coast, what was called a strandling—that is to say, he had
carried off cattle for his ships without the consent of those
to whom they belonged. Rolf directed his way then
towards the west, where he put himself at the head of a
large troop of Scandinavian Vikings, and seized the
devastated country around the embouchure of the Seine.
He established his residence there with Rouen as _ his
principal seat. ‘ There, again to quote Martin,* ‘the
Normans of the Seine had two very different modes of
acting with regard to the Neustrians. Outside the
settlement they continued their rapines and_ their
accustomed violence; but within the country which they
had appropriated, and which they already called by their
name — Northmannie, or Normandy —they conducted
themselves as intelligent masters, and no more as blind
destroyers; they made the slaves work for them instead
of killing them, and they imposed a regular tribute on the
traders and peasants who gave themselves to agriculture
and commerce. The few and scattered subjects of the
Normands were now less unfortunate than the poor
people of the other provinces, for the men of the north

* Henri Martin, Histore de France. 4to edition, tomie ii., p. 463.

ade i
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nS a a

oer

EARLY HISTORY OF FORESTS. v4

did not carry on with them a system of universal pillage,
and the land rested tranquil behind them when they
were absent on business.

‘The King of France, Charles the Simple, hoping to put
an end to the incursions of the Normands, whom he had
not strength to drive away, resolved to gain them over, and
offered to Rolf the hand of his daughter Ghiséle, with the
cession of the country lying between the ocean, the rivers
of Epte, Eure, ana Aure, and the frontiers of Maine and
Brittany, on condition that he would submit to baptism,
and become a vassal of the king. In the course of the
negotiations Rolf required that Brittany should be ceded
to him, to which Charles consented with great readiness ;
but this country not belonging to him he only ceded to
Rolf the right to conquer Brittany, if he was sufficiently

owerful tov do so, On these conditions was concluded,

in 912, the peace which made Rolf the forefather of the

powerful Normand dukes. Rolf received baptism from the

_ Archbishop of Rouen, and took there the name of Robert.

‘This epoch marked the termination of the piratical

_ expeditions of the North-men against the coasts of France.
_ Normandy became organised under the powerful hand of
- Rolf, and became the richest and most populous of all the
provinces of Western France. Following the example of

Rolf, the greater part of the men embraced Christianity.
According to Martin, in his Histoire de France,* the gospel
conquered the Scandinavians, and’ scarcely had they

_ become Christians when they, with all their energy,
_ placed themselves at the head of the Christianity of young

France, and of the renewed civilisation; they took the
initiative in everything and everywhere; they renounced
their language, as they had done their gods, to take up
the Romance language, and to make it the vehicle of a new
poetry, arts, letters, monuments—all of these had been
destroyed by them: they contributed now powerfully to
restore them all, and thenceforward they gave themselves

a

* p. 498.

8 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

up to the most profound inspiration of the Celtic spirit, —
and they were, if not the creators, the great propagators
of the spirit and society of chivalry.
_ ‘Normandy now became the centre of an intellectual
impulse which increased its powerful influence on the
rennaisance of England and of France, and we may with
some certainty add, and that of Italy, and one of which
the whole of Europe has felt the influence.

‘We hear nothing more of the expeditions of the Vikings.
These may be considered as having ceased from the middle
of the eleventh century.’

Leaving my readers to imagine for themselves what
influence such a new factor must have exercised on the
mode of life and practice of the so-called nobles, I resume
the statement of M. Cezanne :

‘With the Carlovingians there was opened a new era.
Passionately delighting in the chase, they protected the
forests to preserve the game, and more especially the
larger kinds of game, such as the elan and the aurock,
which had even then become scarce, and is now reduced
in numbers to a few individuals, the last heritage left by
Charlemagne, which are preserved at great expense by
the Emperor of Russia. To secure for themselves their
favourite sport, the princes of the second race seized pos-
session of the forests, and every sezgneur followed their
example most zealously in proportion to his power.
Forest property then experienced a transformation, which
it is interesting to note, for the efforts violently brought
about at that period have caused themselves to be felt
even in the present day: in point of fact, it is from this
seizure of possessions that date the greater part of the
private properties as well as the public domain of forests.

“At an earlier time, and until then, with the Gauls for
example, the forests were undivided; the forest was not
communal, in the modern acceptation of that term, but
common and public, everyone pleasing himself with it,
and making use of it according to his liking. The

tearm

AY ED GE

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7 ie pan

EARLY HISTORY OF FORESTS. 9

Romans, a military and an administrative people, familiar

with the abstract idea of a res publica, or commonwealth,

had left the forests undivided; but they had regulated,
or reduced to rule, the use to be made of them, as they
had done also in regard to the waters: they had an
Administration of Forests and Roads, provincia at calles et
silvas, with special officers, saltwarii, or foresters. The
barbarian conquerors, on the contrary, proportioned
amongst themselves the soil of which they became pro-
prietors, or seigneurs, and appropriated the forests. In
the beginning, the traditions of indivisibility and of com-
munism were persistent ; and the ancient colonists, now
become serfs, preserved at first the right to the use of the
forests, now seignorial or royal. But under the Carlo-
vignians the feudal system became organised; and the
proprietorship of forests became nearly absolute, especially
in the provinces of the North. In this part of France,
the land of common-right, there came to prevail at length
as a maxim, nulle terre sans seigneur, there must be
no land without a landlord, or lord of the manor, that is
to say, in other words, all common or undivided lands,
and thus the forests belong to the seigneur or lord of the
manor. In virtue of this principle the seigneur defended
the forest with jealous care, and he even extended it at
the expense of the cultivated ground, under pretext of the
right of the chase or of a warren”

M. Cazanne remarks in a foot-note: ‘In the Latin of
this epoch, foresta signified reserved property, or guarded
chase; what we to-day call forest, would then be called
sylva :’ and thus is it still in Britain, in English legal
phraseology.

The so-called game laws belong to the category of forest
laws, and all of these relate to the chase. In an old book,
published first in the winter of 1598-1599, entitled “A
Treatise on the Laws of the Forest and of the Purlieu,
wherein is declared not only these laws, but also the

original and beginning of forests; what a forest is in its

own proper nature,and wherein the same doth differ from

10 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE,

a chase or a warren, with all such things as are incidental
or belonging thereto,” it is stated by, the author, Manwood,
a writer deservedly held in reputation as an authority in
such matters, that ‘a forest, in law, is a certain territory
of woody grounds and fruitful pastures, privileged for wild
beasts and fowls of forest, chase, and warren, to rest and
abide, under the protection of the king, for his princely
delight, bounded by definite marks determined by record
or prescription.’

The existence of trees in a forest, as defined by the
English law, in France at the time in question, was a mere
accessory, and of importance only as affording covert and
shelter for game; and it is mentioned by Manwood, in
regard to forests as thus defined, ‘ there have existed certain
laws and forest courts for the adjudication of these laws,’
Such is forestry in English law, and such was forestry then
in France.

M. Cezanne goes on to say:—‘ By degrees the posses-
sion of a forest became the visible sign of seignory, or of
nobility, and the condition of admissibility to certain
honours; there was no baron, however petty, who did not
maintain a wood on his property; and in case of lack he
usurped some field in the neighbourhood. The title deeds
of the middle ages are full of contentions, in which is seen
a descendant of the Gallo-Romans claiming his vineyard or
his meadow, incorporated by violence in the forest of the
Frank seigneur.

‘In the South of France the Roman law remained in
force, but not their policy: the forest which previously
was public, became communal, and the destruction of
woods, subjected to no administration or control, pro-
ceeded more rapidly than it did in the North.

‘Amongst the most active of the clearers away of woods
in the middle ages we must reckon the monks. (1) A
hermit retired into the solitude of the woods; some dis-
ciples joined him there; the place became sacred; a
community was founded, and uprooting the trees around

EARLY HISTORY OF FORESTS. 11

_ them, little by little, they gnawed away the forest, which
_ was replaced by cultivated fields. (2) With time the
- community became rich, lost its civilising energy: it no
longer uprooted to fertilise; it devastated to enjoy. The
secular clergy themselves looked favourably on the up-
' rooting of woods, that they might have the tithes of the
_ produce of the land, which they claimed as theirs of right.
‘A very great many of these attacks upon the woods
were in the beginning made legitimate by a regular
' licence, a deed granted by the seigneur or the king in a
' fit of liberality. The deed, it is true, did not confer more
_ than a usu-fruct ; but in these times of disorder no police
put limits to the abuse of this, and the consumption of
timber and of firewood increasing with the progress of
_ industrial operations and of comfort, the disorder of pro-
_ cedure became general. In vain did every seigneur,
and the king himself, establish regulations, and appoint
_ forest agents; nothing could now arrest the accelerated
_ and truly frightful progress of deboisement—the destruction
' of woods, and the men, then indeed few in number, who
_ looked to the public weal, began that united cry of lamen-
| pan of which we hear still, even to-day, the prolonged
echo.
‘The first ordinnance in regard to forests was that of
_ Philippe-August, 1219 A.D, Already, and even previously,
' high personages had taken, like the king, the title of Lords
_ of the Waters and Forests ; but their rights were not estab-
- lished till they were confirmed, towards the close of the
_ century, by an ordinnance of Philippe le Bell, 1291 a.p.
It appears, from the considerations embodied in the ordin-
nances issued, that the forest-agents were the cruellest
enemies of the forests; they encouraged abuses of them
that they might draw profit from them. Saint Louis
forbade the foresters to accept of any present.* Charles
Y., surnamed le Sage, and who deserved the name--for

* On one occasion the king himself acce fed a present or gift made to him, but being
reproved by his seneschal, he acknowledved he had done wrong. Histore de Saint
Louis, par Jowrville. Paris, 1867; p. 439.

15 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

traces of him are found invariably wherever researches
are made into the origin of the French administration—
was the first to subject the management of the forest
to regulation; he thought to create a navy, and in view |
of the building of vessels, he issued a Reglement General
des Eaux et Foréts. 1376 A.D.

‘In the fifteenth century we find the nobility depressed,
and in the place of the seigneur or lord of the manor, the
king more enlightened, more paternal, but further removed
from his people. The communes enfranchised and strongly
organised, everywhere develope agriculture and manu-
factures at the expense of the forests; Usages or forest
rights, resting on use and wont, multiply; but soon the
scarcity of wood occasions a rise in the price of wood for
carpentery and fuel, and a clamour is raised against the
abuses; from 1515 to 1588, Francis I. and his successors
multiply edicts; 1543 A.D. the jurisdiction of the Royal
lords of the forests was extended to private forests; 1557
A.D. uprootings by the bishops were prohibited ; 1543 A.D.
the establishment of forges and of manufactures, which
were destructive to the forests, was subjected to regula-
tion; and they established jurisdictions and appointed
functionaries. But the vices of the administration, re-
ligious discords, and civil and foreign war, rendered sterile
those efforts, the history of which does honour to Francis I.

‘With Henry IV., and Sully, and Louis XIV., and Colbert,
the seventeenth century was an era of reparation. Two
principal ordinances governed the legislation: the edict
of 1597, entitulated Reglemant General des Hava et Foréts, and
the celebrated ordinnance of 1669, a veritable first code,
to which the forest properties of private parties were sub-
jected, as were those of the state.’

_ Itis to this last that attention will be called in the sequel.
But in order to its being properly appreciated it is desirable

that something more vit be known of the circum-
stances in which it was issued.

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CHAPTER II.

_ FOREST ADMINISTRATION IN FRANCE IN THE FIRST HALF
OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

By the middle of the seventeenth century woods and
forests in France had come to be valued for their pro-
ducts, more than for the shelter which they afforded to
game. But they were subjected to such devastation that
one far-seeing statesman at last perceived that the exist-
ence of the nation in a state of vigour was being perilled by
the destruction of the woods and forests, and he gave ex-
pression to his fears in the oft-quoted saying —France perira

1 faute des Bois /—¥France will perish through lack of woods.
_ It was Colbert, the Minister of Louis XIV., and no one

acquainted with the condition of the forests and of the
forest service at that time will be surprised that such was
his utterance.

The following is a translation of a manuscript report
preserved in the National Library of France, La Biblio-
theque Nationel. It bears the title, Rapport au rot sur la
Provence de Touraine par Charles Colbert de Cressy, Com-
missionaire deparié, en 1661.

_ ‘FORESTS OF THE PROVINCE OF TOURS.

‘The woods of this province are as extensive, and they

_ areas badly managed, as are any in any other,Department

in the kingdom. All this Department is managed by a
Grand-Master of the old school, who has for colleagues
another like to himself, and a third like to them both:

_ the first is called Taschereau, the second Lignieres, and

14. THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

the third Duplessis-Bouleau. They are all equally comp-
trollers-general. There are two receivers-general of woods,
and there are reckoned thirteen maitrises, or divisions,
each under a forest-master, viz. :—

TOURS.

‘In this mattrise there is but one forest-master and a
king’s attorney, or procureur de rot. There is, moreover,
no wood of which any use can be made; the only one
which appears is that of the park of Plessis, which is of
very limited extent, badly planted, and beginning to
decline.

AMBOISE.

‘There is no forest-master; the lieutenant is the priest,
and the procureur de rot is no great things. Of woods,
there is only the Forest of Amboise divided into three
cantons: that called the High, that called the Low, and
that called the Middle Canton. The Low Canton is a
wretched coppice-wood on wretched ground, and is devoid
of baliveauz, or standards reserved for the re-seeding of —
the wood; the Middle Canton is a young timber forest,
well conditioned, where, for ordinary sales they have given
up seven arpents or acres for exploitation by Furetage or
Jardinage ; in the High Canton there still remains a little
coppice, which might be turned to profit if it were well
conserved.

‘ But the licence taken here is so great, and the officers
do their work so badly, that all the inhabitants of the
environs send thither an immense number of cattle: and
more, they come themselves every day, to the number of
three hundred and more, with carts and beasts which they
fetch from people belonging to Chinon, Azay, Rivarennes,
and other places ; and the officers on their part pillage the
forest and despoil it. It is impossible to see the extent of
the greater depredations. Those who are most accused
are the Bishop of Nantes, the monks of Turpenay, and M.
de Vassé. There are four arrant guards bound to see to
the conservation of the forest, who, by themselves and

FOREST ADMINISTRATION. 15

their deputies, have ruined and pillaged it. We have
gone there; we have made an inventory of all the papers
of the mattrise ; have reconnoitred the boundaries in pre-
sence of the officers; caused to be made in our presence a
survey and chart of the forest; carried out the ordinance
in regard to all that borderers, usagers, and others claiming
rights had to produce their titles to; questioned the officers
in regard to their functions and their performance of their
duties; and sub-delegated for giving instructions relative
to the reformation, to the Sieur Milen, assessor of Tours,
who is labouring in this incessantly.

‘There are but few usagers and usurpations. The
Archbishop has a usage entitling him to 52 cords of fire-
wood, and to the entire so-called Great Usage.

LOCHES.

‘For officers there are in the maitrise of Loches a
forest-master, called Armience, who does not sin through
ignorance; a lieutenant, who is a young man; and a pro-
cureur de roi, who is no great things! For woods there
is only the Forest of Loches, which is a considerable one ;
it contains in all 6000 arpents, or thereabouts; and a
soil which is very unequal in quality. There are some
cantons which are very good, others which are very sterile,
and others of medium quality.

‘There are about 5000 arpents under wood, namely,
2000 of timber forest fenced, and 3000 of coppice of un-
equal quality—some pretty well conditioned, and some
impaired by browsing; the remainder of the forest land is
empty and waste-land.

‘There are always executed there four kinds of fellings,
namely, 25 arpents for the king; 10 arpents for the officers ;
12 to 18 for gratuitous gifts, as they call them; and 15
for firewood for the grand-masters.

‘It may be said that generally the soil in this forest is
good, and very proper for wood; the young shoots spring
up so abundantly that it is necessary to make clearances
of them to give air to the young reproduced timber forest.

16 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘It may be remarked that the ground is covered alter-—
nately with oak and with beech, according to its nature.

‘The Carthusian monks have a choice of 700 arpents,
which they cut 100 arpents in extent, at ten leagues from
Ambroise, which constitutes part of the moitrise.

MONTRICHARD.

‘The whole charge of this mattrise is in the hands of
the aforesaid Marquis of Lourdes, who has acquired this
as being concessionaree of the domain of Montrichard, and
he claims on this account right to dispose of the forest—
both of the coppice-wood and the timber forest ; and he has
had the happiness to have no officers to say him Nay! He
has only the Forest of Montrichard which pertains to this
mastership. It contains about 1500 arpents. The said
Marquis, without either reason or title, has caused to be
felled at one time alone, between 600 and 700 arpents.
A continuance of this has been interdicted by a decree of
the Council. The soil of this forest is very good, and well
adapted for the growth of wood. The coppice-wood, so
far as it remains, is beautiful, growing well, and being well
planted ; there are also timber-forests, perfectly beautiful ;
and there are few having rights of usage. Le Sieur
Daltonneau, lieutenant-general of Loches, is the sub-
delegate for this reformation.

CHINON.

‘This mastership has only the Marquis of Beauvau for
forest-master, who has the entire charge. He has for
heutenant a very old officer, who is also very capable, but
who has not done his work too well, any more than has
the master himself done his.

‘Of woods, there is the Forest of Chinon, divided into
five wards, and containing about 5000 arpents in all.

‘There is a high forest, which is of the nature of a
timber forest, consisting of trees of different ages, the
greater portion of them scattered and ill-assorted through
the great depredations which have been committed among

FOREST ADMINISTRATION. 17

_ them, and almost all the trees are lopped of head or
_ stripped of branches ; the felled parts are ruined, destitute
_ of ditches, destitute of shoots or saplings, destitute of
_ baliveaux. There should be 3400 arpents, and there are
' made ordinary fellings of 34 arpents, which it will be
necessary to reduce, seeing that there are not in all 2500
ents well stocked. The Archbishop of Tours is pro-
Ay prietor of the half, but indivisible share of this.
fe. The low forest contains about 1500 arpents, and is
totally ruined. There are nothing but heaths, excepting
- in certain places where is a timber forest composed of
_ a mixture of poles and baliveaux on good soil. The whole
_ forest contains 2200 arpents at least—viz., 450 of timber
forest growing well, and which should not be touched ;
_ and 150 arpents of old coppice fit for exploitation; and
- about 1600 arpents of timber forest, which the Marquis
_ of Lourdes holds as alleged concessionaree, in regard to
_ which he is at present engaged in a lawsuit with the
Receiver of the domain appointed by Parliament. It
a has always been pretty well conserved. There are four
_ guards and a sub-delegate ranger, leSieur Milen. There
: are four parties who have rights of usage. There have
been many usurpations, or at least claims which appear to
have been only recently made. The Marquis of Lourdes
has made some fellings of copse wood without right or
_ valid title. There is also a bocqueteau [bosque ?] of timber
forest. ‘There are four claimants of Great Usage ; they
are parishes. There are four parishes which claim rights
of pasture. There are numerous usurpers of rights which
_ they claim, and under divers pretexts there are numerous
depredations committed.
_ ‘What does most harm to the forest is, that there are
certain vagabonds who have betaken themselves to the
caves and quarries in the environs of Loches. All the
wood held by private persons and communities in the
_ vicinity of the rivers Indre and Indrois, and the streamlet
Bangerais, are held of the king.
‘The President and Lieutenant-General of Loches is the
sub-delegate,

—

Co

Bet: THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘The principal abuses which we have observed within
the bounds of the said Province in connection with the
woods, are primarily in relation to fellings: of which
besides their being disposed of at a very bad price, and:
at two-thirds of what is their value, through the mal-
versations and collusions of the officers, it was reported
to us that some buyers who had had the price greatly
raised by others, through some misunderstanding between
them, bidding against them, reimbursed the loss by carry-
ing off three or four times as much wood as they had done
in previous years. And the result of all is, that so far
from the forests bringing profit to the king , the proceeds.
do not repay the expenses incurred, to meet which the
proceeds have to be supplemented constantly by from 3000.
to 4000 livres from the general funds of Tours. They have
exceeded the ordinary extent of fellings, and ‘they have
gone beyond these in the work of exploitation, without.
these officers being ever called on to make any verification
of what had been done, and that although they had them-
selves prepared the titles for the merchant-traders at the
‘time of the auction; whence it followed further, that no
baliveaux, or seed-bearing trees, had been reserved in the
fellings ; that these had not been ditched; that they had
not produced a single new shoot ; and, in fine, that the first
canton in the forest, in which they had carried on these
fellings, had been destroyed beyond hope of restoration.
These same officers, or others, had taken occasion from this
subsequently to get the ground passed and adjudged void
and waste-land, which would have ultimately caused the
extirpation and universal annibiliation of the woods in
the Department, if the evil had been continued.

‘The damage which has been done to the aforesaid
woods of Bocqueteaux, and the fact that important good
woods are alienated at a miserable price by the inter-
position of influential persons, and the collusion and
prevarication of the officers themselves, are well borne
out and attested in the Forest of Bauge, and in sis
of Bercé, Rouvre, and Boiscarbon.

FOREST ADMINISTRATION, é 19

_ ‘That the mortgagees of the domains—who are entitled
only to enjoy the ordinary fellings of coppice, which are
‘always kept in the condition of coppice—not being con-
tent with this, have presumed to cut the shoots of fellings
in the timber forest, which were assuming the character
of timber trees, as at Amboise, Montrichard, and Loches,
which will lead in the end to the ruin of these timber forists,
‘and will bring an unjust advantage to the said mort-
gagees, and a considerable deteriment and damage to His
_ ‘That the officers of the Marble Table of the Palace in
Paris remain in a very blameable way asleep, while the
officers in the provinces, over whom the said officers of the
~ Marble Table—and especially the Procurewr-général—should
_keep watch, as the greatest enemies which the forest have,
' who injure and ruin them—the greater part of them having
0 idea of their charge beyond doing this, is bad enough; but
‘these officers of the Marble Table are still more to
‘blame, and more especially so the Procureur-général, in that
' they do not decide appeals from the Forest-master, if they
‘do not feel themselves some personal interest in the
arrangements which they make with the appellants for the
moderation of the restitutions and penalties. And in regard
“ this there is one thing should be noticed: it is that
“in no case have the penalties imposed by the masters ever
been increased at the Marble Table ; on the contrary, they
“always diminish them; and the reason why they do so is
‘this, they allege that they are bound to make the penal-
‘ties received by them payable to the Receiver in Paris,
‘this being a fund for the guarantee of salary; from all
which it comes to pass that misdemeanours or depredations
being but slightly punished, if punished at all, the neigh-
bouring inhabitants commit them without any dread.

‘We are astounded by the number of fires which occur
in the aforesaid woods, there being no forests in which
there have not been many within a few years past; and
recently they have extended to Chinon, to Amboise, to

20 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. .

Bercé, and to the Forest of Maliéro; it appears manifest]

necessary that an endeavour should be made to find out
some remedy which may prevent the occurrence of such
disasters in the future, which are attributed generally to
herds and people who have no excuse for what they do,

‘Tn fine, the bad treatment and bad use made of their
woods by all Ecclesiastics deserves special attention, an
some appropriate measure.

‘We shall say no more here of the doings of the Marquis o
Lourdes, Baron de Courcelles, the Bishop of Bayeux, and
Sieur de Lourches, though they be very considerable in
this department, having said enough of them in the special
reports. “gy

‘In like manner we pass over in silence all the other
abuses which we have acknowledged to be of minor con-
sideration, or which are so common in all other provinces
as to be of ordinary occurrence; and this we have done
the more readily that punishment can be made to follow
in the track of the reformations which we have begun to
institute.

‘We have not considered it required of us to report here
what may be done to regulate the ordinary fellings, and
the charges for firewood ; the wages and duties of officers ;
and the firewood claimed by usagers;'and this the more
that the reformations are presently being carried out with
all the zeal and diligence that can be desired. By this
means will be known shortly the condition and possible
yield of each forest, the officers who remain employed, and
what it would be just to award to them, and who may be
the true usagers, and what are their rights.’

Such is the report. Such a state of things might well
rouse the spirit of an honest man who was a patriot. I
find it more satisfactory in my studies to read such papers
than to read the narrative of the poetic historian ; though

FOREST ADMINISTRATION. 21
a a narrative I find it more pleasurable to read. Such
documents enable me, I fancy, to realise more correctly
the state of things at the time of their production, and in
making this translation I felt I was translating the state-
ments of a man thoroughly disgusted with the men—be
Ee bishops or archbishops, marquises or barons, gentle
or semple—who could do such things, and with the
Government and system of government under which such

state of things could arise and exist. Contemptuous
terms and phrases are used as if it would defile the lan-
| a in its purity to speak of such doings in phraseology
current amongst noble-minded gentlemen. Too well,
perhaps, did he know that such abuses of power and office
Bee not uncommon at that time in France, but were
yeneral ; and that this was only one manifestation of them
in the Government Department of State Forestry. But it
was the one with which he had then to deal, and though
ready loyally to fulfil the command of his sovereign to
report on the state of things in this part of the Augean
stable, his soul loathed what he saw, and he did not
hesitate to manifest his loathing.

Of the proceedings which followed, the following account
is given by M. A. Joubain, Inspector of Forests, in the
Revue des Haus et Foréts, Annales Forestiére for April 1879 : —
_ ‘Under what by Martin in his Wistoire de France is
ealled “the foolish and corrupt government of Marie de
Medicis,” the most serious abuses had obtained footing in
all departments and offices of the State. Absorbed with
the realisation of three great projects, the weakening of
Protestantism, the humiliation of the Great before the
Royal power, and the securing of a preponderating influence
for France in Europe, Richelieu had not time to attend
sufficiently to the internal administration of the kingdom.
His successor was in this respect incomparably worse.
He himself set the example of dishonesty ; and corruption
mongst the representatives of government and amongst
holding authority of any kind became, especially

22. THE FORESTS OF FRANCE...

during the latter years of his ministry, an evil so pre-
valent and so deep-rooted, that it must have appeared
almost incurable. :

‘In the midst of all this corruption, the officials of the.
mistress of the moors and forests unhappily did not main-_
tain clean hands. The Royal Forests were, under the
ministry of Mazarin, the theatre of hateful and innumer-_
able abuses; but the death of the Cardinal was the
precursor and signal of the most serious reforms in every
administrative and judicial organisation in the kingdom. .
Scarcely, indeed, had he succumbed, on the 9th of March
1661, to the attacks of gout which had tortured him for
along time, when Louis XIV. called together the other
ministers and other advisers of the Crown to declare to
them that he willed from that time forward to be governor
himself, and to restore everything to order. It was indeed a_
heavy task he had undertaken; but the king was not
slow to prove that it was not beyond his strength. Aided,
prompted even by Colbert, whom a thorough practical
knowledge of business and exceptionally lofty views fitted —
for the conduct of all, he undertook without hesitation,
and without misgiving or weakness, the great work of
social reconstruction upon which he had been meditating
for years. 7

‘In the month of September, as is known, the all-potent
superintendent was arrested, and his trial was prosecuted |
with great rigour, in despite of the influence of high’
personages, and of the queen-motber herself, with the
result of his being condemned, according to the Memoirs
of Madame de Motteville, as “a great robber.” Two
months after his arrest a royal ordinance instituted a
Chamber of Justice for inquiring into abuses and mal-
versations of finance committed from 1635 onward, which
manifested all at once an energy and remarkable severity
Maitres des requétes were at the same time sent to differen
parts of the kingdom, to supply information to the king o:
everything relating to the administration. By this mean
all was brought to ligbt in most provinces, and in other

FOREST ADMINISTRATION. : 23.

@ salutary terror was spread amongst the guilty. The
misdeeds of the forest officials, moreover, attracted the
attention of Louis XIV. and of Colbert. On the 15th
October 1661, there was delivered a Decree of Council
which, after having established that the greatest disorders
had been introduced into the forests of the domain,
bk oined, with a view to avoid the complete annibiliation
}of these, a reconnoissance of the area of each block; of
| the kinds of trees of which they were composed ; of ‘the
fellings executed since 1635; of the portions alienated,
usurped, or exchanged; of the number of parties holding
Tights, and of the returns from these. These Reformations,
jas in the language of the time and country they were
called, comprised the complete forest service. They were
| to be reported by the grand masters, or failing them, by
the Comptrollers-General of Waters and Forests. But,
}no doubt, it was not long before it was seen that the
officers of the highest grades were often themselves impli-
cated to a great extent in the criminal acts which they
}were required to point out; and it was decided very pro-
iperly, to send into the provinces “« Inquisitors ” more
| independent and more trusty. These “ Commissioners ”
jiwere generally Maitres des requetes, or Chancellors of the
| King. They set to work in 1662, and in the year follow-
jing, enlightened by their first reports, Colbert addressed
: to them, 10th March 1663, complete and detailed instruc-
jtions in regard to the end of their mission, and the
ures to be taken to accomplish ibis.

‘The principal passages of this document may enable
any one without difficulty to conceive the fearful disorder.
‘The «structions pointed out, for example, the greater
part of the malversations to which officers of the Crown,
both high and low, had given themselves, “It is well,” it
| was said, “ to remark in how many different ways the first
oificials must have abused the authority pertaining to
their offices:—the grand masters in taking under divers
pretexts large gratuities for ordinary and extraordinary
sales which they have made ;

24 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘“Tn making ordinary sales without letters patent 5
‘“Tn levying fees to which they had no right ;

‘«Tn making more extensive surveys than is borne out —

by the documents ;

‘“Tn giving away a considerable number of acres under ~

retext of their being waste places ;

‘“Tn taking firewood, either loose or in cartloads, much —

beyond what was assigned to them by law ;
‘“ Tn causing firewood to be delivered at their houses ;
-“Tn giving auction sales both ordinary and extra-
ordinary to merchants with whom they had an under-
standing, and even to domestics ;

‘“Tn granting firewood and forest servitude without |
title, either for their personal profit or to gratify their

friends ;

‘“Tn permitting the clearing of different lands, and the
building of houses within the forest bounds, and even
establishments in the heart and within the skirts of the
forests, and sometimes making alienations, for entrance

moneys, of land of considerable extent and well-wooded, —
under pretence of their being void and waste lands, from —
all of which they have derived great advantage to them-
selves. The officers of the different mattrises have been —
guilty of the same abuses not only in the case of coppice —
woods, but even in permitting trees to be taken, and in
themselves taking a great number, either for their houses |

and buildings or to dispose of them for money; and

‘“Tn granting valuable trees to different persons to the |

prejudice of the sales.
‘“ The discharge of the reports of the forest watchman

has also been a great abuse in different mattrises or master-—
ships, because that when a peasant has had a report made
against him, he has been able to make up matters with —
the Forest Master, and the watchmen seeing the inutility

of their report have themselves taken money to abstain |

from action, so that all the forests have been given up to
pillage.” |

FOREST ADMINISTRATION. 95

© These extracts are from Lettres, instructions, et memoires
_ de Colbert, publiés par Pierre Clement (4 vols. folio), as are
also others which follow.

‘The corruption was so general that the instructions
enjoined the Commissioners to be on their guard against
all the officers with whom they had any business trans-
action. “From the time that the Commissioner arrives in
the locality of the mattrise of the forest which he seeks
to reform, it is nécessary that he take possession at once of
the several offices, that he may acquire a thorough know-
ledge of all that has been done in the said maitrise ; and
in order to effect this, if he cannot assure himself of the
fidelity of the keeper of the records (which will be diffi-
cult), it may be well that he cause to be sealed up all the
places in which there can be papers belonging to the
officer, that an inventory may then be made of these: or
to set a watch of such a kind that the keeper of the
records cannot make away with any.

‘“Tt is also necessary to observe in connection with the
employment of a surveyor that he never employ one in the
country or on a forest in which he has been accustomed
lo wore. ns,

‘“The Commissioner in going to reconnoitre the boun-
daries and to examine the land-marks should see that he
be accompanied by the officers of the maitrise, against
whom he must be carefully on his guard, particularly on land
ruined and in bad condition, it being impossible but that
they have contributed to this.” |

‘As for the attorneys, Colbert did not for a moment
doubt but that they had neglected what was their duty to
exact, the penalties imposed to prevent the continuation of
depredations—“ As the Commissioner,” he writes, “ will
doubtless find out an infinite number of penalties which
have not been paid, it is necessary he make choice of a
good and honest man, who shall be commissioned by the
king to receive these, and immediately to proceed against
all those who have been condemned to pay them, that

56 a, THE FORESTS OF FRANCE, »

thereby there may be established a fear of trespassing in
the forests, which might ruin them.”

‘Under date of 28th January, 1664, a special ordinance
was issued “for the reform of the woods and forests of.,
Brittany.” The preamble of this ordinance is of sufficient
interest to justify citations at least in part. “Considering ,
that the miserable condition in which all the woods and
forests of the kingdom are to be found, leads to the con-
clusion that this is one of the great evils which the
disorders of the bygone times have occasioned, and leads
to the desire that the most prompt and efficacious remedies _
possible should be applied; . . and forasmuch as we.
have been advertised that one of the principal causes of
the disorderly condition of our said woods and forests pro-
ceeds from the incapacity of some of the said. officers of .
these, from malversations committed by them and by .
purchasers at sales, and by the holders of property situ-
ated alongside of the woods and forests, and by the prac-
tised impunity, We will that We be informed precisely by
Our said Commissioners,or by those whom they may sub- .
delegate to this effect, of the peculations, exactions, and
vexations committed on our said woods and forests by the
said officers and the said purchasers, and adjacent property-
holders,”*

* 'To many it may seem that such a picture must have been drawn under the influ-
ence of a morbid state of mind, and a melancholic view of men and things. Without
entering on an investigation of this, or attempting proof or disproof of its being the
case, I may state in support of its verisimilitude that a similar state of things seemed
to exist in Russia during my residence in that country from 1833 to 1840, and to have
prevailed long. That a similar state of things existing in the management of the
Crown Woods and Forests of Great Britain was brought to light by evidence collected
by a Committee of the House of Commons in 1848 and 1849. And a somewhat similar
state of things existing in the management of Crown Forests in the Colony of the Cape
of Good Hope was reported*by me in a Memoir On the Conservation and Extension of
Forests as a means of counteracting the disastrous consequences following the destruc:
tion of bush and herbage by fire, appended to my Report as Colonial Botanist for 1863 ;
in Memoirs on Forests and Forest Lands of Southern Africa, and on the Forest Economy
of the Colony, abstracts of which were appended to my Report as Colonial Botanist for
1866—in evidence given by me before a Select Committee of the Legislative Council to
consider the Colonial Botanist’s Report, 14th August, 1865—and in evidence collected
by a Commission. As Tegards South Africa, these allegations had reference mainly to
reckless waste, but depredations which should not be tolerated were also reported.

FOREST ADMINISTRATION, . a7

M. Joubain goes on to say, ‘ Colbert watched with great
attention to see that the Decree of Council, the Instruction,
and the Ordinance should not remain dead letters. He
kept himself constantly well acquainted with the doings
of the Commissioners, encouraging them in the discharge
of their arduous duties, and watching over the execution
of their decisions. On the 8th November 1662, he wrote
to Chamillard, charged with the reformation of the forests
of the Isle of France, and particularly with that of Com-
piegne :—“ From the manner of procedure which you adopt
you will have explicit and perfect knowledge of all that is
going on in the forests embraced by your Commission;
but, above all things, execute justice, spare no one, fear
nothing. ... With regard to the grants of firewood with
which the Grand Masters have gratified their friends, not
only do I consider that there is ground on which to order
restitution, but even that you will find that those who
have so freely disposed of the king’s property have in-
curred guilt. Jt is necessary to bring the greatest. severity
to bear upon those who have committed depredations in the
forests, and who have reduced them to the condition in
which they are.”

‘On the Ist of June 1663, he sent word to M. de Mauroy,
Commissioner for the Reformation of the Forests of Bur-
gundy :—“ Provided that the legal proceedings which you
institute against the ecclesiastics who have damaged the
timber forests without verified letters patent, be in proper
form and due order, do not, if you please, put yourself to
os trouble of doing everything which may he done to screen
. them.”

‘From the Histoire de Colbert, by Pierrie Clement, we
learn that by reason of facts established by a Commission
of Forest Reformation, a sergeant of the forests of the
Province of Alengon had beén condemned to the galleys,
“His punishment,” wrote Colbert, “will assuredly serve
as an example; and it will be well that you give, if you
please, the necessary order for his being taken to La Toulon
with the first chain.”

98 THE FORESTS OF FRANCK.

‘Although the registers of the despatches of Colbert
for the years 1663—1670 have, unfortunately, not been
found, his incessant activity in endeavouring to put a stop
to the destruction of the wooded domains of France, and
to restore her forest wealth, may be considered sufficiently
demonstrated by what has been advanced. His Mémoire
sur les Forets, presented to the king in 1665, will supply,
if need be, one more proof. This document, in which he
establishes with regret that the forests of the kingdom
had been sacrificed for a long time, and that they had
never been treated so as to leave reserves and produce for
future use, was, In some respects, the avant-courier of the
celebrated ordinance of 1669.* —

‘The king himself, on his side, took the greatest interest
in, and attached the greatest importance to, the re-estab-
lishment of a proper and intelligent administration of the
forests. Of this we have unquestionable evidence in the
memoirs and instructions drawn out by Pellisson, from his
notes and under his own eyes, which he designed for the
Dauphin, his grandson. Under date of 1662, we read in
these, “I have applied myself also this year to a code of
regulations for the forests of my kingdom, in which the
decrease was very great, and displeased me so much the more that
I had formed and entertained fora long time great designs —
for the navy. The war, and the schemes of partisans to
make money, had produced an influx of officers Des Zaux
et Forets, as of all other kinds. The wars, and the schemes
themselves consumed or reduced their wages, of which
they had only made a vain show in creating their officers,
They avenged themselves and paid themselves, and that
with usury, at the expense of the forests which had been
entrusted to them. There were no kinds of artifices with
which these officers were not familiar, even to the burning by
design of a portion of the standing trees, that they might have

* There might be cited also ‘his letter of 7th August 1666, to the poet La Fontaine,
Mattre des Eaux et Foréts & Chateau Thierry, preserved in Gfuvres de La Fontaine,
édition Walckenaer.

——

FOREST ADMINISTRATION. 29

ground to take the remainder as burned by accident. I
have only succeeded in the last year to prevent the evil
augmenting by prohibiting that any sale should be made
until I had ordered it otherwise. This year I have applied
two prompt remedies: the one has reduced the officers to
a small number, whose salaries can be paid without incon-
venience, and upon whom it is easy to keep an eye; the
other has instituted inquiry into past malversations, which
may not only serve as a warning for the future, but which
by the considerable restitutions which will be enforced will
contribute in part to the reimbursement of the expense of
the officers suppressed.”

‘As may have been anticipated, the Commissioners
entrusted with the reformation did not fail to encounter
great resistance on the part ofall those foresters, merchants,
and border proprietors, who had derived profit from the
deplorable régime to which Louis XIV. and his ministers
had determined to put an end. Thus in the administra-
tion of Alengon it was, according to a letter from Colbert
to M. Flavier du Beulay, of 4th June 1666, cited by P.
Clémont as necessary to break up “the monopolies of the
officers, and the merchants” to give up for many years
having any sales. But prompted, encouraged, and ener-
getically sustained by the king and by Colbert, and armed
with the most extensive powers, the Commissioners were
able to show themselves equal to the accomplishment of
the task which had been entrusted to them. They did not
recoil before either toilsome hours of inspection, and long
and troublesome researches, or before high influences and
lively oppositions; they neither hesitated to prosecute

- great and small, nor to pronounce the most serious sen-

tences.*

‘The names of some of these good and eminent men,
associated with one of the most useful works of the reign
of Louis XIV., have come down to our day; thus have

* Even capital punishment, for the Master des Eaux et Foréts of Epernay was con-
demned to death.

~ 30 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

those of de Chamillard, of Flavier du Beulay, of Hotenau,

of de Fontenoy, of Colbert de Croissy, of Barentin, and of
Lallemand de Lestrée. As for their works, the reports of
some have in part or in whole been preserved, and better,
perhaps, than even the document of which mention has
been made. One of the reports permits us to form an
exact idea of the condition of the forests, and of the
criminal proceedings into which the officers allowed them-
selves to be drawn, and, in fact, of the part played by these
reformers. That for which the forests of Poitou gave
occasion is exceedingly interesting from different points of

view, and it derives besides special importance from the —

circumstance that the reformation was begun by one of the
brothers of the great minister, Charles Colbert de Croissy,
who had been previously charged to present to the king a
memoir on the general condition of the province; it was,
moreover, a reformation completed by an important per-
sonage, “ Charles-Honoré Barentin, Chevalier, Seigneur
d’Hardivilliers, Maison-Celles, Les Belles-Ruries, Maderas,
and Monnoye; Counsellor of the King in all his Councils;
Ordinary Master of Requests of the Palace; President in
the Grand Council,’ and the “Sieur Thoreau du Tillou,
Councillor of the King in the Presidency of Poictiers,”
who gave to the one and the other of these Commissioners
his co-operation as sub-delegate.

‘Entrusted with a commission for the “ Reformation des
Laux et Forets” of Poitou, by “Letters Patent of His
Majesty, given at Vincennes, the 3d day of October 1663,”
Charles Colbert, on the 29th January 1665, enjoined inan
ordinance “all proprietary lands, possessors and holders of

lands, houses, and heritages situated within the Forest of —

Mouliers* within the boundaries and within half a league
beyond the same, as also to all those who claim forest
rights of great or small usage,—of felling trees, of fuel, of
charcoal burning, of brick making, of lime burning, of other
servitudes or other rights, whatever they may be, in the

* A forest which still exists under the same name, about 12 kilometres from Poitiers.

Tee Te a ee

_~« »

_ “FOREST ADMINISTRATION. 31

© said forest, and in the environs of the same, to present
_ their titles and authoritative documents establishing their

f

rights.” This ordinance, renewing a measure enjoined in
a general way by a Decree of Council of the 15th October

_ 1661, authorised, moreover, the closing of the forest,—that
is to say, “ prohibits the sending of any cattle to pasture,
and the felling or removing of any wood,” until a new

. Order.

‘On the 12th May 1665, and following days, he made,
preceded by the Sieur Thoreau, a “visite externe” of the

_ forest, or, in other words, a reconnaissance of its boundaries,

On the 28th August and following days of the same year,

President Bavantin made in detail “a visite interne.” The
| surveyors were then appointed to make out a general plan,
_ as well as to “measure and survey places in dispute,” of

which the Sieur Fran¢ois Garnier, “ Painter in Ordinary

to the King,” was charged “to prepare in presence of the

_ party the diagram and description.”

‘Finally, after a circumstantial inquest—after a thorough

examination of the different questions raised on the 30th
_ April 1667,—two decisions were delivered by M. Barentin,
“guided in the successive steps by the Ordinance.” ‘The

~

first related to the boundaries and the rights of usage. It
ordained the restoration to the “body of the forest” of a
great number of usurped forest lots, fraudulently sold or

_ more rarely illegally let. The extent of these forest lots
_ exceeded 1100 arpents, of which scarcely 25 arpents were
- only let. Damages and penalties were, moreover, adjudged

against the holders of these lands, and also against private
individuals who had constructed lime-kilns or brick-kilns

~ near or within the forest, or who without legal right had

_ taken wood from within its boundaries, The total amount

of penalties which fell upon nearly a hundred individuals
exceeded 12,000 livres. The Sieur de Bessay, Seigneur de

_ Traversay, and De Cremault alone had to pay more than

4000 livres of penalties and damages,
“The number of parties holding rights of usage, or who

» said that they held such, was very considerable. The titles of

SS) a

32 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

four only were recognised as valid; and one of these, the
Sieur Chastaigner, Count de Saint-Georges, was condemned ~
to make restitution of the produce of 53 arpents of coppice
wood from 1635, which he had appropriated in excess of 101
arpents to which he bad right. As for thirty-four others,

“ private parties or communities, of whatsoever quality or
conditions they might be,” the sentence “refused to them
absolutely all rights of usage, and of everything of the kind,
whatsoever it might be,” they having “produced no titles
authorising these.”

‘The second sentence pronounced in the matter of the
Forest of Mouliére had reference to frauds committed in
the exploitation and the management of it. After the
enumeration of the documents produced in the course of |
the examination, and a réswme of the allegations made,
both of the accused and of the witnesses—an enumeration
and réswme which fills more than a hundred pages in folio,
—there are given details of the sentences; these varying,
in different cases, fell on “Jean-Baptiste Jouslard, Sieur
d’Airon, ci-devant Grand Master des Laux et Forets of the ©
Audit Department of Poictou; Charles de Lauzon, at
present Grand Master ; Isaye Chesneau, Lieutenant of the —
said Grand Master; Pierre Baron, Procureur dw Rot in the ©
same; Jean Estourneau, Comptroller; Jacques Vezein, |
Recorder; Jean Mettoys, Jacques Aymard, also Recorders; —
Olivier Demeocq, Sergeant Warder ; Frangois Gardemault, —
Francois Gervaise, Samuel Persevault, Charles Viault, |
Guards; Bonaventure Dreux, Procureur du Roi, in the —
Bureau of Finance at Poictiers; M. Artus Gouffier, Duke ©
of Rouannais. Peer of France.” Finally, nearly two hwudred —
private persons, “contractors in the king’s domains, or —
associates or officers of such merchants, salesmen, and ©
inhabitants of hamlets or villages bordering on the royal —
domain,” were then punished.

‘If the abuses had been grave, and so much were they
so that the forest was then entirely ruined—“ for there did
not remain any tree, excepting on the triage” given up to —
the Count de Saint-Georges,—the measures taken for their —

FOREST ADMINISTRATION. 33

‘repression were, to say the least, severe. The sentence
required all the officers and officials of Mouliére to demit
their offices with little delay ; it declared them “incapable
of holding any office or discharging any function in the
forests of His Majesty.” One of them called Boisson, sur-
named Labrosse, an official of a contractor, was “condemned
to do penance in his shirt—head and feet bare,—a rope
round his neck, followed by the public executioner, and
holding in his hand a torch, two pounds in weight, before
the gate and principal entry of the Palais Royal of the city
of Poictiers, and to be banished for ever from the county
‘of Poictou and Guyenne.” Sales made from the year 1635
were declared null, and the total of the pecuniary penalties
amounted to the enormous sum, especially for that period,
of 275,000 livres, of which about 9000 had to be paid in
the form of alms.

_ ‘The sentences against the forest officers and their
subordinates were based on the ground that they had
“presumptuously, fraudulently, and wickedly committed
and permitted all the malversations and wastes which had
occasioned the ruin of the forests of His Majesty ;” and on
} the ground that they had “sold the wood of the king, and
received the money, . . ._ erased, altered, and added
to the minutes of sale, and with a bad intention left many
blanks in the deeds and papers; . . . consumed the
wood on their lime-kilns and brick-kilns within the heart
of the forest; . . . illegally received taxes, fees, and
firewood.” The other persons condemned were treated as
their accomplices in “the frauds and monopolies,” or per-
petrators of the misdemeanours, and of the robberies
committed on the property of the king.

‘ The commissioner for the reformation of the forest, after
having pronounced these sentences, completed his mission
by the preparation of a report, now of no great interest, on
the measures to be adopted to restore the forest woods of
Mouliére ; and he caused to be printed (1667) a collection
of these works, which was published at Poictiers by “ John

Fleurian, printer and bookseller in ordinary to the king
D

34 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

iS a

for the city and university.” It is in folio; it is now
extremely rare; and it bears the following title :—“ La
Reformation Generales des a Foréts et Bois de a Majesté
de la Province de Pictou, par Messieurs Colbert et Baren-
tien, Conseillérs du Roy en tous ses Conseils, Maistre des”
Requests ordinaires de son Hostel, Commissionaires dé-
partis, pour l’exécution de ses ordres dans la Généralité de
Poictiers, et pour la dite Reformation ;’ and the motto,
without being exempt from the magniloquence of style
prevalent at the time, indicates rather happily the import-_
ance and the nature of the work. It is verse from Ezekiel :
“ Scient omnia ligna regionis quia ego Dominus; Humiliavi
lignum sublime ; Eualtav lignum humile; Siccavi liguum viride ;
Et frondere feci lignum aridum.”’ *

* * All the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high :
tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and made the dry tree to
flourish.” —Ezek. xvii. 24. "i

CHAPTER IIL

METHOD OF FOREST EXPLOITATION IN FRANCE FOLLOWED
TILL THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, AND
KNOWN AS “JARDINAGE” OR “ FURETAGE.”

THAT there was reckless waste of the woods and forests in
France through mal-administration and malversation on
the part of officials, in the middle of the seventeenth cen-
tury, seems to be beyond question; but the system of
exploitation also was wasteful, and to secure the conserva-
tion of the forests it was deemed necessary that there
should be a change in this as well as in the staff of forest
administrators and subordinate officials, and in the admin-
istration, or management, of everything pertaining to the
forests.

It has been mentioned that the forests were exploited
at that time, on a system of exploitation known as Jardinage
} or Furetage. The method of exploitation so designated is
} that which is generally followed in the management of
woods in England, and of forests in our colonies,—felling
a tree here and there, and leaving the others standing,—
and is called in French Forest Economy Jardinage, or gar-
dening, from its similarity to the procedure of a gardener
gathering leeks, onions, turnips, carrots, cabbages, or cauli-
flowers,—taking one here and there, not at hap-hazard,
but with some principle for his guidance—it may be to
} thin them—it may be to gather in the mature, and leave
| the others to grow; and called Furetage, or ferreting, from
the similarity of the woodman’s procedure in seeking out
what trees to fell,—to what is called from the conduct of a
ferret, ferretting out what is wanted when it does not at
once appear.

36 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

The English forester, in going over the woods and wood- .

lands, and forest-like clumps of trees placed under his
charge, and selecting one and another to be felled, whether
it be because it has begun to decay, or because it will
supply wood which for some purpose or another he
requires, or because the plot or belt requires thinning, and
he desires that in the doing of this certain trees should be
removed and others allowed to stand, follows this method
of exploitation ; and this method of procedure may appear
to be a most natural one to follow; but it has been found
to be, when followed long in the exploitation of forests,
gradually but surely destructive of these.

In a volume on the Hydrology of South Africa,* [pp.
172-175], I have given details of what I witnessed there
of such effects, not in one forest alone, but in many widely
dispersed over the colony, supplying illustrations of the
first, the second, and the final stage of the devastation
thus occasioned. I have witnessed, and heard from others
engaged in the work, of like results upon a far more

extensive scale, in the apparently interminable forests of

Northern Russia.

Like results are said to have been seen in Australia and
New Zealand ; and like results in France at the time now
referred to were traced or attributed to the same or like
procedure—methought I heard again just now the wail :
France perira faute de bois /—and like destruction of woods

has followed it over extensive regions in Central Europe.

* Hydrology of South Africa ; or, details of the former Hydrographic condition of —
the Cape of Good Hope, and of causes of its present aridity, with suggestions of o- |
priate remedies for this aridity ; a work in which the desiccation of South Africa, from —
pre-Adamic times to the present day, is traced by indications supplied by geological —

formations, by the physical geography or general contour of the country, and by arbor-

escent productions in the interior, with results confirmatory of the opinion that the ©

appropriate remedies are irrigation, arboriculture, and an improved forest economy ; or

the erection of dams to prevent the escape of a portion of the rainfall to the sea,—the —

abandonment or restriction of the burning of the herbage and bush in connection with
pastoral and agricultural operations,—the conservation and extension of existing
forests,—and the adoption of measures similar to the reboisement and gazonnement
carried out in France, with a view to prevent the formation of torrents and the destruc-
tion of property occasioned by them. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co, 1875.

—

a

FOREST EXPLOITATION—‘“ JARDINAGE.” 37

By the reckless destruction of forests, by what I may
call Primitive Jardinage, forests of vast extent have dis-
appeared, and others in several of our colonies are dis-
appearing, to the detriment of the interests of all concerned,
even of those who are hoping to enrich themselves by the
operation—an operation similar, in some respects, to that
of the boy in the fable who thought to get rich at once by
killing the goose which laid the golden eggs.

It has been alleged and maintained, that by a natural
process, unprotected land sooner or later becomes covered
with arborescent vegetation,—that thus must it have been
in all lands and in all times,—and that most of the lands
now covered with herbage and grass must have been at
one time covered with woods—a wilderness, and not a
desert. The allegation is not made without foundation—
it may in its absolute form of expression be a great exag-
geration of the truth, but history warrants the conclusion

that a great part of Kurope now naked and bare was once
covered with forests.

The existing forests of Germany, the Thuringerwald in
Gotha, the Schwartzwald or Black Forest in Baden, the
Oderswald in Hesse, the Spéssart, between Aschaffenburg
and Wurtzburg, and the forests in the Austrian Alps, are
all of them only fragmentary remains of the great Hir-
cynian forest, which originally covered the greater part of
Continental Europe, and was extensively diffused over the
districts now known as Germany, Poland, Hungary, &c.
In Cesar’s time it extended from the borders of Alsatia
and Switzerland to Transylvania, and was computed to be
sixty days’ journey long and nine broad. In England
memorials of forests are found in names of villages and
districts near which no forest now exists, and in traditions
of forests preserved in story and in song. Once a land
like that now covered with what are called the vast and
interminable forests of America, Europe is now a land of
cities and of fields, and a similar change is taking place in
several of our colonies and dependencies. The forests,
like the black man, and like the wild beasts of the field,

38 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

are disappearing before the face of the white man. To-

many the whole of these changes seem unaccountable ; but
there they are; it is the fact which is here brought under
attention, and viewed in the light of the destruction of
forests going on in our own day.

It may be, and probably it is the case, that the white
man is only acting as did the black man before him, and
as his own fathers did in bygone times in the land whence
he has emigrated, cutting down such trees as served his
purpose, as they cut down trees which served their pur-
pose. But either from the operations of the white man
being more extensive than were those of the men by whom
he was preceded as occupants of the land, or from the
circumstances of his operations being carried on in our
own day, so that we see the work done, and the effects
which follow, without any such foreshortening as prevents
this being done in the consideration of the past, or, it may
be from a combination of both of these facts, the work of
destruction is seen now to go on with effects which dispose
us to cry: Hold! Woodman, spare that tree! and to urge
upon all our Colonial Governments to stay the work of
destruction till it can be shown to what the present system
of forest management must lead, and how, by a more excel-
lent way, there may be obtained from their forests a
sustained production combined with a natural reproduction
and improvement of these, so that without present loss
they may be handed down to coming generations undi-
minished, and enhanced in value if not in extent.

Detailed information in regard to this system of exploi-
tation and its former application to the management of
forests in France, is supplied by the works of Baudredarf
and subsequent writers; and in regard to the effects of it
on forests in which it is, from necessity, or a supposed
necessity, still practised, M.M. Lorentz and Parade, fathers of
the School of Forestry in Nancy, wrote years ago:

‘Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, if not
before, it was found necessary to adopt legislative measures

—

FOREST EXPLOITATION—“ JARDINAGE,.” 39

to protect, by prudent foresight, the interests of the future

while supplying the requirements of the present; and

in 1544, 1576, and 1579 there were issued ordinances
designed to regulate the felling of timber, and deter-
mining the duration of lengthened periods during which
no fellings should take place in portions of the forests which
had been cleared of trees deemed fit to be felled, that time

might be afforded for the reproduction of forest by a new

growth of trees; by the ordinance of 1669 the general
practise of it in France was terminated, and now it is only
tolerated in circumstances in which the application of the
more advanced forest economy of the present day would
be productive of more evil than good, as would often be
the case on mountain crests, &c., where the woods afford
shelter and protection, which once destroyed it would be
difficult to restore, and impracticable to restore till after a
time, during which damage, perhaps irreparable damage,

would be done,’

CHAPTER IV.

METHOD OF FOREST EXPLOITATION IN FRANCE, ENJOINED ©
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, AND —
KNOWN AS “LA METHODE A TIRE ET AIRE,” |

IN view of the devastation of forests which had taken place ©
by the middle of the seventeenth century, it was felt that, —
to avert the devastation of the forests of France, and evils —
which might follow in the train of such.a catastrophe, not |
only must the staff of administrators and officials be altered, —
but the method of exploitation must be changed. :

From what has been stated in regard to the manage- —
ment of forests in the maitrise, or mastership of Chinon,
[ante p. 17] it appears that there—and if there, probably —
elsewhere—the forest, the area of which was 3400 arpents, —
or acres, had been partitioned into 34 lots, to each of which ~
in succession ordinary fellings should be confined, and that —
at that time it was a practice, in felling the trees on a lot, —
to leave some standing to bear seed, by the dispersion of —
which the wood might be replenished.

In the passage which has just been cited, we find that —
explicit directions on this point were embodied in the —
Forest Ordinances of 1544, 1576, and 1579.

The remedy for existing evils, and a preventative
measure adopted against greater evils following these,
was simply an improvement of this method of exploi- —
tation, and the extension of the improved practice to
all forests.

There may appear to us to be nothing very remarkable —
in such a measure; but thus has it been with discoveries —
and devices innumerable, and the schoolboy who has not —
long laid aside the garb of childhood may be heard to say —

FOREST EXPLOITATION—“‘A TIRE ET AIRE.” 4)

‘in regard to some most remarkable discovery or device of
of the day when it is explained to him: Anybody might
have known that! Oft-times are we reminded of the story
of Columbus and the egg. He was told by a flippant
hoaster that any one might have discovered America.
The successful voyager, it is said, called for an egg, and
asked the disparager of his prescience and perseverance if
he could make it stand on end. He tried, but without
success ; when Columbus, taking it in hand, chipped the
end by a slight blow with it on the table, and on this it
stood erect,—‘ Oh! I could have done it so.” ‘“ Yes;” was
the reply, “and you could also have discovered the New
World after I had shown you the way!” Andso may it be
with the exploitation of forests according to La methode a
tire et aire, that now introduced.

Though many now-a-days may see nothing wonderful
in such a device, two hundred years ago it was hailed
throughout a great extent of Europe as the very means to
be employed in conjunction with a reformed administra-
tion to secure the reproduction of felled woods, and withal
a sustained production of firewood and of timber. And
this expectation appears to have been expressed in the
designation given to this improved method of exploitation.
_ TI understand the last term in this designation given to
it to be an old corrupt form of the verb avoir, to have;
and I regard the designation as one resembling our col-
loquial phrase: Cut, and come again! but as going beyond
‘this, and as equivalent to saying, Pull away, and yet possess!
‘This is how to do it, La Methode @ tire et aire—to pull up
and use, and yet possess your forest as valuable and pro-
‘ductive as ever !

The device was at once adopted with great expectations
in Germany, where also they were beginning to suffer from
_ the devastation of their forests. But there a briefer cycle
| of exploitation was adopted than that proposed in France.
From an historical notice of forest management, by M.
‘Parade, prefixed to M. Nanquette’s Cours d’Amenagement

42 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

des Forets inseigné a 1 Ecole Impériale Forestiere, it is stated
that the revolutions, or cycles of restoration adopted under
the new system in Germany were short: they were from
14 to 20 years for coppice woods; they did not exceed $0
years for timber forests; and forest ordinances issued in
Prussia by Frederick the Great, in 1740-1786, prohibited
any revolution or cycle in pine forests to exceed 70 years.
In France, at that time, the period of revolution adopted
in the management of timber forests was from 120 to 180
years, and in some cases it was longer. It is difficult to
account for the much shorter period adopted in Germany, -
says M. Parade, on other ground than that there was in~
Germany a superabundance of trees of great dimensions,
and a small demand for these, which might have the
effect of leading people to give their attention chiefly to
the production of wood for fuel and other domestic uses—
wood of easy transport, for which there was a ready sale.

- The system thus introduced into Germany was prosecuted ©
with vigour, and for some fifty years with satisfaction, suc-—
cessive improvements being from time to time introduced. —
But from 1760 to 1780, evils inherent in the system of ~
exploitations & tire et aire began to manifest themselves —
on all hands. Towards the end of the reign of Frederick —
the Great there was issued an ordinance relative to the
management of forests, in which it was enjoined that the
fellings in the different sections, instead of being carried
out completely, or a blanc etoc, should be confined to
thinnings or nettoiemens, having for their object the
removal at most of bad wood and of matured wood, or
trees upwards of 70 or 80 years of age. And this has”
been considered an indication, that it began to be per-
ceived that the artifical restoration of forests which had
been rendered necessary by the felling of the coniferous
forests, was difficult to effect when it had to be done
over ground of great extent, and in circumstances little
favourable to success. |

Corresponding complaints on other points were made

FOREST EXPLOITATION—‘“A TIRE ET AIRE.” 43

of the effects of this system of éxploitation on beech
timber forests, the restoration of which was not secured
ether by a new growth of seedlings, or by new shoots
from the stumps left in the ground.

_ And, finally, a grievance felt especially in the lesser
states in which the forest products constituted a great
oe of the public revenue, began to call for a remedy.
Phis was the great and grievous inequalities which were
found to occur in the annual products obtained in carry-
ing out the system continuously and continually. There
‘was no unwillingness to retain and continue the orderly
regular exploitation of the forest—of the importance of
this there was no question ; but it was felt to be absolutely
necessary that this should: be so arranged as to secure
the most nearly perfect natural restoration of the forests
possible, and to furnish to the proprietors year by year
products pretty equa] in quantity or in value. And this
was not done by the system which had been so admired
when first adopted. The system might admit of modifi-
cation, but the system pure and simple had proved a
failure.

The forests of Europe had previously been extensively
subjected to Jardinage, and these forests, says M. Parade,
in the Historical Notices already referred to—and of a
portion of which several of these statements may be con-
sidered a free translation—presented standing crops of
most unequal denseness ; and standing crops without a well-
marked gradation of age, to which the system could not be
applied strictly without giving rise to many incoveniencies,
the most serious of which were these: (1) a great inequality
in the product of successive fellings on succeeding years on
succeeding sites, sites following side by side; (2) consider-
able loss of increase proceeding not only from great differ-
ences in the soil, and in the denseness of the patches felled
in successive years; but also, and that more especially,
from the circumstance that some portions were necessarily
cut down while the trees were too young; while in
other portions many trees, and even entire plots, were

dd THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

left to decay before they came within the sweep of the
regular series of fellings.
These inconveniencies do not appear to have commanded
much attention in France; but they did in Germany, and
this led to modifications so great and so important that
the method of exploitation now generally followed in
France, and elsewhere on the Continent of Europe, can
no longer be considered what is understood to be the
system of exploitation a tire et aire. This has not lapsed,
but it is merged in that which secures in combination
sustained production, natural reproduction, and progressive
amelioration of the forests, evolved or developed from the
superceded method of exploitation. 4

CHAPTER V.

METHOD OF FOREST EXPLOITATION NOW FOLLOWED IN
FRANCE, AND KNOWN AS “LA METHODE DES COM-
PARTIMENTS.”

THE method of exploitation enjoined in France under the
designation La Methode @ tire et aire, and the reform of
_ abuses in the forest service instituted along with it there,
commended themselves to many who were, from various
considerations, seeking to arrest the destruction of forests
on the Continent of Europe. But a hundred years sufficed
to show that this method of exploitation as it was then
practised was not the Ne plus ultra of forest management ;
and a hundred and fifty years sufficed to produce a fresh
evolution or new development of it, known in France as
La Methode des Compartiments. Details of this come not
under discussion here: it pertains to the nineteenth century,
not to the seventeenth, and it was devised in Saxony, not in
France. But both as a perfecting of the French device,
and as a development of this which is now becoming
universally adopted, it demands some notice.

In order to secure the full benefit of the device it was
found to be necessary to divide the wood or forest, not
into equal, but into equivalent portions—subdivisions, not
of equal area, but of equivalent produce. Of the method
of exploitation a tire et aire, the following may be taken as
supplying a rough and rude illustration, in its application
to a coppice wood and a timber forest. If the coppice be
one, which may profitably be cut down every twenty years,
by dividing it into twenty equal or equivalent portions,
and cutting one, but only one, of these each year, there

46 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

may be obtained a constant supply of wood, the division ~
cut in the first year being ready again for the axe ©

in the twenty-first year of the operation, and again in the

forty-first year, while the other divisions follow in their }

order. If the timber forest be one in which the trees may

profitably be felled after a growth of a hundred and twenty —
years, by the forest being divided into a hundred and ~
twenty equal or equivalent portions, and these be treated, ©
as has been stated in regard to coppice woods, correspond- —

ing results would be obtained. :
Advantages likely to follow such a method of manag-

ing forests suggest themselves at once, and as described {
it seems to be one which must be of easy application —

anywhere. But the practical forester who has given
attention to my statement may have remarked that I
have used the expression egual or equivalent portions.
Good will result from the adoption of divisions into equal
portions, much good, but with a large admixture of evil.
Equal portions are not necessarily equivalent portions,
and such is the variation in the productiveness of dif-
ferent portions of a forest, from variations in soil, in
exposure, and in adaptation to the growth of the kind
of tree which happens to be upon it, that it is very im-

probable that many portions equal in extent will be equal —

in productiveness, if any at all happen to be so; and
therefore the division of a forest into equal portions will
not yield advantages equal to what would be obtained
by the division of the forest into what I have called
equivalent portions.

With the attempt to do this commences the difficulties
of the undertaking. Equivalent partitions cannot be
obtained by divisions founded on equality of superficial
areas, neither can they be obtained by divisions founded
on the number of trees growing in each, or even on the
cubic contents of these. The soil, the exposure, the kind
of tree growing in different localities, the adaptation of
the soil, and of the exposure, to the growth of the kind
of tree, or of trees, growing in each, the age or ages of

i

x

;

*
J
q
:
i

FOREST EXPLOITATION—“ DES COMPARTIMENTS.” 47

these trees, the rate of their annual, increase at different
ages, the age or ages at which they respectively attain
their maximum of growth, and at which they attain their
maximum of value—these, and twenty other points, must
be determined to furnish the data necessary to determine
equivalent partitions; and such partitions are necessary
in order to ensure the full benefits of this method of
forest management being secured.

If by a tentative process, based on superficial extent, as
it necessarily must be, modified in accordance with the
number of trees, and with the cubic contents of these, it
be sought to arrive at a division of a forest into equivalent
partitions, it will be found that constant modifications of
the division first made are seen to be necessary. And
_ the substitution of equivalent for equal partitions led to
other devices to secure what was wanted,—equal annual,
decennial, centennial, or other periodical supplies of pro-
ducts, To secure this, successive thinnings of different
portions were made to contribute to the supply along
with what was obtained by definitive fellings; and while
in one division of the cycle this might be secured by the
produce of the first thinning of the partition A, and the
produce of a second thinning of partition F, and the defini-
tive felling of partition W ; in another it might be obtained
by the definitive felling of F, and a second thinning of A,
and the first felling or thinning of a secondary crop grow-
ing on partition N ; and like equivalent supplies might
have been in intervening periods, and afterwards in suc-
ceeding ones, obtained by other combinations.

The combinations which occur in practice are numerous,
to the tyro they might seem complicated, and a fuller
statement in regard to them confusing. All that is con-
templated here is to show wherein La Methode des Com-
partiments differs from La Methode @ tire et aire, and to
show that that may be considered a development of this,
with the history of which we are at present occupied.

PART II.

THE FOREST ORDINANCE OF 1669.

n
Vv

CHAPTER IL

No measure connected with the treatment of forests has

yet excited so widespread and prolonged beneficial influ-
ence as what has what has long been called—not in France
alone, but in other lands in which occasion has presented —
itself for making mention of it—The Famous Forest —
Ordinance of 1669, whereby it was sought to rectify the —
malpractices previously prevalent in the forest manage- —
ment of France.

It should not be reckoned disparagement to say of it
that it was more perfect in appearance than in reality—
on paper than in the field— in the spring-tide of its —
youth than a century later; and that the system of exploi- —
tation it enjoined may be said to have now become
antiquated, and been superseded by the more excellent
way which has been more widely and more extensively
adopted, and gives better promise of permanence and
of good, though it is still only in the dew of its youth.

The so-called Famous Forest Ordinance of 1669 enjoined
exploitation, according to La Method @ tire et aire, in all
state forests, and, I may add, everywhere in France, in the
management of forests in regard to which the Government
had an unquestionable right to prescribe, such as those ~
held by ecclesiastics in virtue of their office; by civil —
corporations or communities, the members of which die,

Ym

OF THE FOREST ORDINANCE OF 1669. 49

but the constituted body survives continuously ; and by
‘individuals on entailed trust.

But the claims of the Government, as representative of

the State, went further than this; and within certain
limits they considered they had a right to prescribe in
regard to the exploitation of forests held in possession by
_ private persons. Jn reference to this, I may mention that
according to a principle accepted generally by students of
Forest Science—if not first propounded by them—forests
are national property; and this principle is recognised in
the legislation of not a few of the nations of Europe.

_ By the tenet that the woods and forests of a country,
“not the State forests alone, but all, are national property,
‘it is not understood that the population of a country have
“one and all of them a right to go into the woods and
forests everywhere and cut or fell as it may please them ;
but that these forests, public and private alike, are the
‘ Property of the nation in its entirety: not of the indivi-
duals composing the nation at any one period, nor of these
‘conjointly ; but of the nation irrespective of time,—of the
people constituting the nation in times past, in the passing
present, and in the times coming—property of which each
“successive generation has a right to the usufruct alone; and
which itis bound in justice to leave to the succeeding gene-
Tation in as good condition as it was found, or with an
equivalent in national property or national advantage, for
any diminution or deterioration which has been occasioned
‘init. And what thus affects the nation as a whole, or the
generation enjoying the usufruct, affects thus and thus
only, the individuals of whom it is composed.

It may at first sight seem an extravagant tenet this;
but it is only an amplification of the principle involved in
the statement made in regard to the forests of France at
the earlier period of its national history, that forests were
regarded not as communal, but as common property; and
the principle is one recognised and acted on in our British

| legislation,

50 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘We are familiar with the fact of private property being’
taken without hesitation when required for public use,
compensation, such as may be deemed adequate by the
government as representing the nation, being given, which
compensation may possibly be far from satisfying the pro-—
prietor for his loss. Again, entails can be broken by
legislation when the interests of the nation seem to the
legislature to require that this should be done. And our
legacy duties seem to speak the whole property left by an
individual unused by him being no longer his when he is
dead, but property of the nation of which he only had the
usufruct during life, and which the nation, in the exercise —
of its right, will transfer to such persons as he may desire
to have it, if he leave an expression of his will in the -
matter in such form as the nation, through its representa-—
tive the government, may have prescribed ; but even thisis
subjected to a specified deduction, varying with circum- ©
stances, such as the relation in which the legatees stood to ©
the departed, the whole being indicative of the claim of ©
the nation to the whole if they had chosen to enforce their —
claim. And all such legislation as this is only a carrying out
of the general principle involved in the aphorism of the —
Apostle, “ We brought nothing into this world, and it is
certain we can carry nothing out;” and in a still more ancient —
saying, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked
shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord has
taken away ;” a principle again recognised in the trumpet-
note, “ The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof!” —

It is in view of the importance of the native-grown
firewood and timber, in some countries, to the existence and —
welfare of the inhabitants of them, and of the effects of —
woods and forests in warding off calamities to which they
are exposed, that it has been deemed expedient to recog-
nise in legislating in regard to them the principle in
question. Jn Britain a holder of property may be inter-
dicted from so disposing of it as to injure the property of
another. And it having been ascertained that the destruc-

-_:

OF THE FOREST ORDINANCE OF 1669, 51

tion of a forest on the brow or summit of a mountain
range, which has acted as a wind-break, would be injurious
to the cultivation of lands on the plain undertaken under
that shelter; that the destruction of a forest growing on a
mountain-side may lead to the formation of destructive
torrents ; that on other mountains the continued existence
of woods is requisite to give security against avalanches
or landslips; this has led to legislative enactments to
enh the destruction of such forests, and such legislation
also been justified on the principle in question.

The Ordinance, however, it should be remarked, inter-
fered less with the mode of exploitation, than with the
administration, of forests not belonging in one way or
another to the sovereign; it claimed, and it enforced its
claim, to a right to interfere and to legislate in matters
heen to depredations, malversations, and abuses by
oresters of whatever degree. It interfered but little; but
it asserted the right to interfere, and this once admitted,
it was a mere question of expedience to what extent
interference should be carried. And in its injunctions
telative to the administration of forests, more especially
of State forests, the Ordinance has told upon the forest
egislation of other lands not less manifestly than it has
bc its regulations in regard to exploitation.

_ With the teaching received through Darwin’s studies of
svolution and developement, it may be shown that the
‘forest legislation of the present day is an evolution,
developement, or special application of principles em-
bodied in this ordinance. And as the nautical terms in
some modern languages are substantially those of Britain,
and these again those of Scandinavian Vikings, supplying
Nndications of their origin, and of their channel of trans-
Mission, so have not a few of the technical terms em-
dloyed in France at the time this ordinance was promul-
rated, been reproduced in, it may be, a modified form,
n ‘another language, indicating their origin or channel
f transmission, and in some cases indicating both.

52 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

The Ordinance of 1669 was neither the first nor the
last Forest Ordinance issued in France. Certainly not
the first: it was preceded by many.

The first Ordinance in regard to forests appeared in the
reign of Louis VI. in 1215;

‘I'he second under Philippe II. in 1219;

The third under Louis VIII. in 1222;

The fourth under Philippes le Hardi in 1280;

The fifth under Phillipes le Vel in 1291;

The sixth under Louis X. in 1316;

The seventh under Philippes le Long in 1318;

The eighth under Phillipes des Valors in 1346 ;

The ninth under Jean le Bon in 1355 ;

The tenth under Charles V. in 1376 ;

The eleventh under Charles VIII. in 1485 ;

The twelfth under Frangois I. in 1515;

The thirteenth under Henri II. in 1547;

The fourteenth under Francois II. in 1558 ;

The fifteenth under Charles IX. in 1560 ;

The sixteenth under Henri III. in 1575 ;

The seventeenth under Henri IV. in 1597 ;

The eighteenth under Louis XIII. in 1611 ; 4

This, the nineteenth, the Celebrated Ordinance of 1669, ©
was prepared by Colbert in the reign of Louis XIV. But
neither was it the last. It was followed by several in
succeeding times, many of which were not unimportant,
either in the injunctions given or in the results which
followed the promulgation of them; but further specification
of these is not necessary either to the understanding or
to the due appreciation of this which is the one with
which we have at present to do. ‘

Besides the Ordinances which have been enumerated,
there were issued edicts, declarations, and regulations,
founded on these, and enforcing them in the administration
and management of the forests, and supplementing them.}
The ordinances bear that they relate to Le fait, or the)
matter, des Eaua et Foréts, and in many of the older forest)

OF THE FOREST ORDINANCE OF 1669. 53

laws we find the three terms, Laux, Bots, et Foréts, used
as if they constituted but one word—a word used commonly
to designate in general the then existing jurisdiction in
regard to all relating to fishing and to the chase, much as
in English legislation the so-called Forest Law is almost
equivalent to what are now known as the game laws of
_ the country.

It may facilitate the intelligent perusal of some of the
injunctions of the Ordinance in question if I explain the
use or application made of a few of the technical terms

employed in reference to judicatories, officials, and usages.
_ There were existent at that time three different judica-
tories having jurisdiction in matters pertaining to the
waters, woods, and forests,—the Gruries, the Maitrises, and
Tables de Marbre, or other tribunals representing these
latter; and there were also what were called Capetaineries
des Chases. The Grurtes Royaux, or Royal Gruries, were
inferior judicatories, established to watch over the con-
servation of forests at a distance from the seats of the
second class of courts, and to take cognisance in the
first instance of lesser offences which might be com-
mitted in these.

Besides the Gruries Royaux, or King’s Gruries, there were
Gruries des Seigneurs, or Gruries appointed by nobles.

The Gruries des Seigneurs were established by edict of
March 1707, in each of the Jurisdictions des Seigneurs Eccles-
tiastiques et Laics of the kingdom, with powers similar to
those of the Gruries Royaux des Haux et Forets du Rot, to take
cognisance, in the first instance, exclusively of officers of
the Mattrises and of those of the Zubles de Marbre, and other
judges, both royal and seigneurial, of all matters relating
to waters and forests, usages, offences, abuses, wastes, and
malversations; of all disputes in regard to fishing, or in
the chase; and of all that relates to marshes, pasturages,
common lands, water leadings, mills, thefts of fish and of
wood, and quarrels, excesses, and murders, arising out of
these things.

54 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

The Maitrises particulieres des Eaux et Forets, or Courts of
the Maitrise or forest territory placed under the adminis- |
tration of a Maitre particulier, Special Master, to which
designation corresponds the designation, Yorst-Meister or
Forest-Master,and the designations derived therefrom in use.
in many countries—were judicatories established near the
principal royal forests, to watch over their conservation, —
and to adjudicate specially, in the first instance, on the
petition of the Procureur dw Roi, on all matters, civil as well
criminal, relating to the Waters and Forests, and also on
appeals from sentences passed by the Royal Gruries, &e.

The ables de Marbre, and the tribunals representing —
them, were judicatories having power to decide appeals from
sentences passed by the Maitrises and by Gruries des Seigneurs,
with power to take cognisance in the first instance of all —
suits and disputes in regard to the proprietorships of waters
and forests, islands and rivers, belonging to the royal
domain, and others in which the sovereign has an ~
interest. a

The Zables de Marbre, or Courts of the Marble Table, —
were judicial courts established near the Courts of Parlia- —
ment at Paris, Rouen, Toulouse, Dijou, Bretagne, Metz, —
and in other towns of the kingdom. They were abolished —
in February 1704 by Royal edict, and Chambres Souveraines —
established in their stead. But they were re-establised as
Courts of Appeal in May of the same year. b

By edict of March 1558 they were made Courts of —
Dernier Ressort, and by this ordinance they were empowered |
to judge in all civil and criminal cases relating to the
property of the Lavw et Forets by whatever tenure held, |
but this subject to appeal to Parliament. They were con- |
tinued as Courts of Appeal by parties from the iaferior
forest courts, under certain restrictions. And appeals from —
them by Grand-Masters, Forest-Masters, and other officials ©
of the Forest service were direct to Parliament. The prin-—
cipal charges of which these courts had to dispose appear
to have been such as were classified under one or other of |
these heads—abus, delit, and malversation, a

|

OF THE FOREST ORDINANCE OF 1669. 55

_ The term Abus, in its general acceptation; is in French
law applied to anything done contrary to law and usage.
In forest law it appears to be applied to any wrong-doing
in the discharge of official functions—these being regarded
as an abuse of the confidence placed in the officers by
_ their sovereign.

___ Delt is applied generally to contraversions of orders and
regulations, suggestive of what may be called a misde-
-meanour. Many misdeeds in woods and forests may be so
_ described. But while the term is so used as to cover these,
the most frequent application of it seems to be what almost
_ makes it equivalent to the English term depredation ; and
_ the phrase Sois de delit, is applied generally to wood which
_ has been felled in contravention of the ordinance; and
more particularly to wood stolen from Crown forests,
_ Malversation included all kinds of fraud not included under
one or other of the designations thus explained.

Many offences were punished by fine. In some cases
the amount of fine was specified ; in others it was left to
the discretion of the court. In these it was designated
amende arbitraire, by which I understand, not a mere
nominal fine, but, one proportionate to the offence, how-
ever heinous.

Culprits guilty of depredations, and other like mis-
demeanours, were punishable by fine and restitution, the
latter penalty being a pecuniary payment, never less
in amount than the fine imposed. In these cases the fine
went to the king, the restitution to the possessor of the
forest—be he the king or another—as compensation for

loss and damage sustained. And restitutions adjudged
to communities were required to be spent exclusively and
entirely in public works in the forest or elsewhere.

The principal officials were Grand-Maitres des Eaux et
Forets, who were superior and qualified officers, appointed
to watch over the execution of the ordinance, and the
conduct of the officers of the Mattrises, and of others who

56 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

had access to the Royal forests ; Forest-Masters, or Mattres
Particuliers, who had corresponding functions under the
Grand-Masters, and in a more restricted sphere; and
Lieutenants who stood in a relation to the Forest-Masters —
corresponding somewhat to that in which the Forest
Master stood to the Grand-Master.

The designation has been dropt in France, though its
equivalent has been retained in*other countries. And
the change of designation might be considered indication
of a change in function; but we have to do with it here
only as it was used at the time in question. |

Of subordinate officers, the most important were: the
Procureur du Roi, the Greffier, the Garde-Marteau, and the
Sergen du Garde. The duties of all of these are detailed in
the ordinance ; and therefore nothing more need be stated
here than that the designation Procureur du Rot is given
to the king’s attorney in the courts in which he appeared —
in prosecution of offenders; the Grefier had charge of all
documents pertaining to the administration of the Mattrise —
to which he was attached, his duties resembled somewhat —
those of a Recorder of Court, but in some of their details ©
they resembled more[those of a Registrar. A stamping ~
hammer was employed in marking trees which define
boundaries in the forest, and others which like them —
were to be reserved in fellings. If this hammer were used
surreptitiously to mark other trees instead of these, serious
consequences might ensue; it was therefore entrusted to ©
the charge of a special officer, in reference to which his —
designation was G'arde-Marteau ; and the conditions under
which it was to be produced and used are specified in the
ordinance ; the Sergen du Garde, as his designation implies,
was a subordinate but important responsible officer of the
forest police. There were Capitaineries des Chassées in great
numbers, which had been established by kings and by
seigneurs, but all, with specified exceptions, were sup-
pressed by this Ordinance of 1669, and the number of
them was still further reduced by Declaration of 27th
July 1701, :

OF THE FOREST ORDINANCE OF 1669. 57

The functions of the Capitaines de Chasses related to the
chase, as the title indicates, and only indirectly, if at all,

to the maintenance of the forests or the prosecution of
what are understood by foresters as forest offences and

_ contravention of forest laws,

And there were officers specially entrusted with like

duties in connection with the waters and fisheries con-

nected with the forest service.

One of the works of officials frequently spoken of is
Reformations, Two distinct things are spoken of under the

_ phrase Leformations des Forets, the idea conveyed varying

with the object to be accomplished: the one is the

_ reparation of damages occasioned by the abuses and

malversations of officers, merchants, dwellers on the
precincts of forests, and usagers; the second is. the re-

establishment of the order necessary for the conserva-

tion of the forest; and the first embraced enquiry after
the delinquents, as well as forest operations to counter-
act the mischief done.

Reference is made in the ordinance to woods held in

| Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Danger. The first. were thcse in
which the woods and land belonged to individuals, but

the jurisdiction pertained to the king, and with it all
profit which might thence accrue, the right of fishing,
woods of the chase, and glandee or mast, including all the
fruits of the forest which are fit for the feeding of swine —
all of these excepting that in some case, the right of
fishing and that of glandee may by legal deed have been
otherwise disposed of. Grate and Segrarie are terms
synonymous with grurie, as already explained.

Tiers et danger was a technical term applied to the right
of taking from the wood to which it was subject the third
and the tenth of what was sold, and this might be taken
either in money or in kind at the option of the lord
superior holding the right.

These various rights have excited some curiosity in

58 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

regard to their origin. On this subject, in an old work
entitled Zraité de la Souveraineté, by Bret, it is stated, lib.

lii., c. 5:—

‘Many have laboured to find the origin of so burden-—
some a servitude on the goods of another; as for me, I

have always considered that these rights have been

introduced upon what was anciently the case: when kings ~

had sole and exclusive rights to have timber forests, and ~

nobody could let such grow without their permission, as
we learn from the fourth div. leg. franc., cap. 19, entituled
De Forestibus institutis noviter, which is in these terms:
‘Ut quicunque illas habet dimittat, nist judicio veraci ostendere
possit quid per jussionem sur permissionem Domint Caroli geni-
toris nostri eas instituisset’ Which thing is repeated in the

chapter De Forestibus Dominicis, in the same book, where~
it is said, ‘de forestibus nostris, ut ubicumque fueriut diligentis-—

sime inquirant quomodo salve sint et defenso, et ut comitibus
denuncierut ne ullam Forestam noviter institutant, et wht noviter

institutus sine nostra jussione invenerint dimittere praecipiant.’ —

From this it is to be presumed that when the kings gave

permission to any one to rear a timber forest and to keep

such, which was a Royal privilege, it was under burden — |

that they should have the jurisdiction of the same, the
profits which might be made by the sale, and some portion

of the fellings, as a third in some cases, and more or less

in others.

‘The Charter of Louis Hutin fur Normandy calls these {

rights the tiers et danger ; tiers, because the king takes the
third part of the price obtained by sale, as of 30 liv. 10s. ;

and le danger, which is the tenth part of the whole; and |
what supports my conjecture is that these rights are levied ~
only on ancient forests, the origin of which is unknown, ~
and not on those which have been reared in later times. —
Since that our kings have given a general permission to all —
their subjects to have forests and woods of timber trees, |
they have contented themselves with retaining the rights |
of grurie on the ancient forests, of which the origin is |

unknown, and not on those which have been erected —

7
}

»

OF THE FOREST ORDINANCE OF 1669. 59

latterly; and I may say that as these burdens seem to

mark the ancient authority of our kings, they should

not be lightly allowed to be so easily alienated as was

_ the case some years ago.’

Besides such woods, frequent mention is made of woods

. held by the king by appanage, by engagement, by usufruct,
_ by concession, and by indivis.

The last mentioned are woods held in conjoint tenure by

_ the king and others, the tenure relating to them in their
_ entirety, so that they could not at the option of either
_ party be divided and shared by them in the ratio of their

respective interests in them.
Woods held in appanage are lands set apart for the
maintenance of a prince, and appear to have been included

in woods held under the title Douaire.

Woods held under title of Hngagements and Usufruct,

as also lands held under title of Douaire and Concession,

are woods belonging to the Royal domain, but in posses-
sion of private persons, to whom the king has assigned
the enjoyment of them, on condition that they shall be
restored failing male issue of the holder of the appanage ;
or on termination of the period for which the concession
has been made; or on the death of the person holding the

_usufruct; or on the completion of the felling and clearing

away of the wood, in accordance with the terms of purchase.

_ Reference is also frequently made to Usagers. He who
had the usufruct of a forest may be likened to one who
holds an estate by entail, the usager had only some

limited right in it secured by immemorial usage, and

this may like the entire usufruct be, either in regard to
state forests or the forests of private persons, as the case
may be. The usages generally take one or other of two
forms, and may be in some cases claimed in both forms,
one relates to the depasturing of cattle, the other to the
taking of wood for prescribed purposes. The claim is
based on use and wont from times beyond the memory of
man, or otherwise established,

60 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

I have found much that is interesting in details of the
rights of usage in regard to pasturage prevailing formerly
in different parts of France. The general rights are —
defined in the ordinance.

The rights of usage in regard to wood was generally
the right to gather firewood in the forests; but there —
were rights of usage much more comprehensive than
this. 1
The number of usagers in France was at one time very
great; but much has been done to reduce and restrict
them, so as to keep their legal claims within what the ~
forests can meet without suffering devastation. 5

Important restrictions were imposed on dwellers in the —
vicinity of forests. They were prohibited from settling
within the precincts or on the borders of the forest; all
huts or other erections made by vagrants within a half ~
league of a crown forest were destroyed, and the people —
were prohibited from rebuilding them within two leagues —
of the forest under pain of exemplary punishment. No —
chateaux, farm steadings, or houses could be built within —
half a league of a crown forest under pain of arbitrary fine, —
and confiscation of the buildings. Certain trades were
prohibited within half a league of such forests. No one
could plant a wood within 100 perches of a crown forest ;
nor could any cne living within the borders of the forest
engage in the wood trade. No timber could be used as ~
firewood; nor could they make use of wood felled or cut —
in making boundary trenches. All dwellers within two ~
leagues of a forest were responsible at civil law for the
doings of their waggoners, herds, and domestic servants,
and they were liable for all misdeeds of their tenants.
Proprietors of estates and woods adjacent to crown forests —
were bound to separate them from these by ditches four —
feet wide and four feet deep. They were bound to declare
to the registrar of the Maztrise what they designed each |
year to fell, and they were forbidden to give wood to their —
workmen in payment of wages.

THE FOREST ORDINANCE OF 1669. 61
The following is a translation of the Ordinance :—

‘ORDINANCE OF Louis XIV., Kina oF FRANCE AND
NAVARRE, RELATIVE TO WATERS AND FORESTS.
GIVEN AT SAINT GERMAIN EN LEYE, IN THE
Monto or Avucust 1669.

‘Louis, by the Grace of God, King of France and of
Navarre: To all in the present and the future, Greeting.
Although the disorder which had slipt into the Faua et
Forets of our kingdom had become so universal and so
rooted that the remedy of it appeared to be almost
impossible; nevertheless, Heaven has so favoured the
application of eight years which we have given to the
re-establishment of this noble and valuable portion of
our domain, that we see it to-day in a more flourishing
condition than ever before, and producing to the public
all the benefits which could have been expected from it,
be it in the conveniences of private life; be it for supply-
ing the requirements of war; or be it, in fine, for the
adornment of peace, and the increase of commerce by
lengthened voyages in all parts of the world. But as it is
not enough to have re-established order and discipline, if
we do not by good and wise regulations see to it that the
fruit of this shall be secured to posterity, We have con-
sidered that it is simply an act of justice to consummate a
work so useful] and so necessary, and to cause to be reported
to us all the Ordinances, both old and new, which relate to
the matter, to the end that, having considered them along
with the opinions which have been sent to us from the
Provinces by the Commissioners dispersed in different
quarters for the reformation des Eaux et Forets, We may
be able, in view of the whole, to form a body of laws
simple, precise, and explicit, which shall dissipate all the
obscurity of the times past, and leave no longer any pre-
text or excuse to those who may do wrong.

‘For these causes, after having heard the report of
persons of intelligence well versed in the matter, with

62 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

the opinion of our Council, and our Royal will, We, with —
our certain knowledge, and full power and authority, have |
said, declared, and ordained, and We do say, declare, and ~
ordain that our pleasure is what follows :—

‘ CHapTeR I.—Of the Jurisdiction of Waters and Forests,

‘Article 1. The Judges appointed to deal with Waters
and Forests shall take cognisance of all matters civil and
criminal, pertaining to the Waters and Forests, to what-
ever persons and whatever subjects they may relate.

‘2. We declare as within matters assigned to them, all
questions which may be raised in regard to our forests,
woods, and shrubberies, fellings, sales, collecting and
delivery of produce, surveys, clearings, and replenishings
of woods, and of all tenures in grurie, in gratrie, in segrairie,
in ters et danger, appannage, sale, contract, usufruct, and
co-proprietorship, usages, commons, lands, marshes, pas-
turage, pannage, mast, right of passage and of movement,
and change of bounds and boundaries in our woods.

‘3. It shall also be competent to them to decide all
actions relative to undertakings and claims on navigable
or flotage rivers, both in regard to navigation and flotage,
and in regard to rights of fishing, passage, pontage, and other
matters, be it in regard to produce or cash, leading off of
water, rupture of banks, hiring of barges, ferries, and boats,
erections on the river, the construction or demolition of
sluices, fisheries of every kind, mills on rivers, the inspec-
tion of fish, as well in shops as in boats and reservoirs, and
of nets, implements, and articles made use of in fishing,
and generally of everything which might impede naviga-
tion, or transport and flotage of wood from our forests,—
all this, however, without prejudice to the jurisdiction of
Provosts appointed by merchants, in towns in which they
have a right to take cognisance in whole or in part of these
matters, and of that of officials in charge of causeways and
embankments, and of that of others who may have in
title and possession. a right: to take cognisance of them.

JURISDICTION OF WATERS AND FORESTS. 63

_ *4, It is equally Our will that they shall take cognis-
ance of all questions in regard to islands, islets, mud banks,
new deposits, encroachments, fish pools, dams, wharfs,
rectifications of river courses belonging to us, and of struc-
tures or ditches which may be on their banks.
_ ‘5, They shall take cognisance also of all actions arising
out of contracts, bargains, promises, bonds, co-partneries,
_as well between merchants as others, in making merchan-
_dise of wood, firewood, stave-wood, charcoal, and ashes;
provided always that the contracts, bargains, promises,
_ bonds, and co-partneries have been made before the goods
had been removed from the woods, rivers, and ponds; and
‘not otherwise. |
_ ‘6. Ifthere arise a difference in regard to the fees or
the payment of wages or salary of workmen, woodmen, and
_ other artisans working in our woods and forests, fishermen,
-boatmen, or passengers by ferries established on our rivers,
We will that such be prosecuted and decided in the Judi-
‘cial Courts of Waters and Forests,

‘7. The same courts shall take cognisance of all suits,
disputes, and cases raised in regard to matters relating to
the chase and to fishing, the taking of beasts in the forests,
thefts of fishes in the water ; making inquest into quarrels,

_ excesses, murders, or assassinations committed in connec-
tion with such matters, and they shall try, and give
judgment in the case, be it between gentlemen, officials,
merchants, burgesses, workmen, warreners, fishers, or any
others of whatsoever rank they may be, without any dis-

_ tinction whatsoever; there being assigned to them all that
is requisite thereto,—court, jurisdiction, and cognisance,
with express interdiction to all other judges, under

_ pain of nullification, and arbitrary fine against parties

_ appealing to them; but this is without prejudice to the

jurisdiction of Captains of the chase, whom we maintain
in their rights, as shall be affirmed in the chapter relat-
ing to the chase.

‘8. With regard to other crimes which do not concern the
chase and matters thus specified, such as robberies, murders,

64 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

rapes, brigandages, and outrages committed on travellers, —

they cannot take cognisance of these, although they may

ee te eyed ee es yp

}

have been committed in the forests or on the waters, ©

unless the criminals have been taken in the flagrant act
of misdemeanour, in which case they shall and shall only

take evidence and give decreet, and forthwith send on the ~
prisoner, with the charges, in all safety to the judges to
whom, according to the ordinances, it pertains to take ©

cognisance of the crime. | &
‘9, The competence of the judges in matters pertaining

to the waters and forests shall not be affected by the
domicile of the accused, nor by any privilege relating to

what has been done, or by anything soever, but simply

by the locality, if it relate to depredatiuns, abuses, or —
malservations, or by the situation of the waters and of

the forests, if it be a question relative to usages and of
proprietorships, or to the fulfilment ‘of contracts of merch-
andise which are brought before them. |

‘10. It is not our intention that in disputes of different —
parties our forest officials should take cognisance of the —

proprietorship of waters and forests belonging to com-

munities or private parties, except when there may happen ~
to be a necessary connection subsisting between this and —
some act of reformation and visitation, or where it may be —
started incidentally, and adduced in defence against pro- |
secution; but when the question relates to petitory or
possession, exchanges, subdivisions, sales by auction, —
family or feudal redemption, and other actions which
are directly and principally arising out of proprietorship —
unconnected with any act of reformation and visitation, ©
the cognisance of them shall pertain to the baillifs, —

seneschals, and other ordinary judges,
‘11. Our officers shall exercise in the waters and forests

of prelates, and other ecclesiastics, princes, chapters, —
regular communities, secular or lay, and of all private
parties, of whatsoever rank they may be, the same juris-
diction which they exercise in ours, in all that relates —
to matters of usage, misdemeanours, abuses, and malver- |

:

JURISDICTION OF WATERS AND FORESTS. 65

sations, provided they have been called upon to do so by
one or other of the parties, and that they have, in doing
so, anticipated the action of officers of the seigneurs,
«12. In the Jurisdictions in which the seigneurs have a
Ee pecial judge for forest matters, our officials shall not have
‘such right of anticipating them, except they have been
required to act init; but if there be only an ordinary
judge, they shall have this right and the same power, even
‘though they have not been called on to act in it.
_ ‘13. If, however, the abuses and depredations have been
“committed by beneficiaries on forests or woods connected
with their benefice, or by private persons on those which
are held by them, in this case our officials can take » Cog
“nmisance of them without their being called on to do so,
and notwithstanding that they may have been anticipated,
‘and this, whether there be a special judge of matters
‘pertaining to Waters and Forests or only an ordinary
judge.
an We expressly inhibit and forbid all our Provosts,
Castellians, Baillifs, Seneschals, Presidents, and other ordi-
ry Judges, Consuls, and persons belonging to the Court
of the Green Cloth, and our Grand Council, and even our
Courts of Parliament in first instance, to take cognisance
f the cases specified, or of any matter relating to waters,
‘ivers, shrubberies, forest appurtenances and dependences ;
| ae we so inhibit and forbid all communities and private
rsons, merchants or others, of whatsoever rank and con-
dition they may be, to prosecute, reply, or argue on such
Baatters before them, on pain of what may be done being
declared null and void, and, of an arbitrary fine against the
| parties.
| ‘15. We also axpmepaly forbid our Courts of Parliament,
and of Lords, to certify any Jetters patent on matters per-
taining to our Waters and Forests held in Grurie, Grairie,
Tiers et Uanger, appanage, sale contract, usufruet, and
€o-proprietorship, or of those of prelates, ecclesiastics,
communities, and holders of mortmain, which have not
} previously been submitted to the Grand-Master of the
F

66 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

Department, and ‘received his opinion, unless it be that
the letters have been forwarded on their reports with
opinion attached under their official seal. {
‘16. Nothing shall be in future received into any office
of Judicature of Waters and Forests, which has not been —
subjected to examination, with regard to the adequate and

full accordance of the matters in it with the contents of -

this Ordinance, by the principal officers of the Court in|

which the process is to be prosecuted; with regard to

the Registrars, Ushers, Sergeants, and other subordinate —
officers, they shall only be interrogated on the articles

which relate to their respective functions; all under pain —

of being null and void.

Cuapter I].—Officials Connected with the Maitrises, ;

‘Art. 1. The several Forest-Masters, Lieutenants, our -

Attorneys, Gardes-Marteau, and Grefiers—Registrars or

Recorders of the Maztrises shail be fully five-and-twenty
years of age; they shall be supplied by us, and receive —

at the Marble Table of the Department the information

previously obtained by the Grand-Master, his Lieutenant,
or other Officer of the Court commissioned by him, in regard —
to their life and conduct, of their being of the Catholic
Apostolic Roman religion, and of their fitness for the work -
of the Waters and Forests; with the exception of the —

Greffiers who shall receive theirs at the Maitrise.
2. An Audience shall be held on one day in each week,
in the Auditory or Audience-Hall of Waters and Forests ;

and they shall meet on the same day in the afternoon, ©

or oftener if need be, in the Council Chamber, to judge

on documentary deeds, and advance all other ordinary

business.
‘3. We will that there be in the Council Chamber a
chest closed with three keys, in which shall be deposited —

the Marteaw or Hammer-stamp, designed for marking —
corner trees, divisions, border trees, balliveauw or seed-—

bearing reserved trees, and others to be reserved; one

:

—

_—"

lg OFFICIALS OF THE MAITRISE. 67

‘of these keys shall be for the Master, or the Lieutenant,
‘to be used by him in the absence of the Master; another
for our Attorney or Procurewr: and the third for the Garde-
‘Marteau, so that the Marteauw cannot be taken out but with
‘the consent of all, and with an obligation to replace it
every day on which it is taken out, after the business for
‘which it was required has been done.

‘4. We will also that within or near the same Chamber
‘there shall be placed presses, in which shall be deposited
all the registers and papers of the Registry, to which the
Grand- Master, or the Forest-Master, our Attorney, and
other Officers, shall have access whenever seems good
‘to them, but without having a right under any cireum-
stances or any pretext to remove them, under penalty
‘of a fine of three thousand livres, and suspension from
office.

_ «5, From this time forward none of the Forest- Masters,
Lieutenants, King’s Attorneys, Gardes-Marteau, Survey-
ors, or Registrars shall be kinsmen, or so nearly related as
cousins- -german; nor shall they hold two offices in the forest
service, or any office of judicature or finance, excepting the
Lieutenant, who may combine with his office another royal
eat which may be in the judicature or the
ance
- ‘6. Neither can they give permission verbally, or in
writing, to cut or pull up any wood, or to send beasts to
hee in our forests, under penalty of a fine of three
ndred livres.
_ ‘7, We expressly forbid forest officials to take any wood
in payment of fees or salary due to them ; and to merchants
to give them any, under any pretext whatsoever, under
7 of suspension and a fine of a thousand livres against

e officers, and a fine of three hundred livres against the

merchants.
_ ‘8. We forbid all officials in a Maitrise to exercise by
appointment or commission any office, or to receive any
salary, or hold any farm belonging to seigneurs, communi-
ties, or private persons, directly or indirectly, under any

68 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

pretext whatsoever; but they shall, within six months,
decide what to do, and on that time having elapsed, we
declare their charges vacant and open to others; and if
any be in this position they shall be held as having
resigned, and others shall be appointed in their places, six
months after the publication of these presents; or other-
wise and that time having passed, the situations shall be
declared vacant, and requiring to be filled up.

‘9, Officers in the Maitrises received by commission shall |
enjoy while in office the same honours, privileges, and
exemptions as are accorded to officers by appointment.

‘10. Papers of process prepared by commission shall not
be issued, but shall be reported by the commissioners who :
have prepared them. |

‘11. Every officer suspended by authority of a Court
of Justice from the functions of his office, shall abstain —
from the exercise of these during the time of appeal
or dispute, under pain of their acts being declared null
and void. 4

‘12. We forbid to all ecclesiastics, and Officers of Parlia-—
ment, of Grand Council, of the Lords, of Courts des Aydes,
and others our Courts, to hold or exercise either by ;
appointment or commission, any charge in the jurisdiction —
of our waters and forests, under pain of their proceedings —
being declared void, and a fine of three thousand livres. _

‘13. The Forest-Masters, Lieutenants, King’s Attorneys,
Gardes-Marteau, Registrars, Surveyors, and Sergeants of the
Guard shall be exempted from having soldiers billeted on
them, from having to furnish implements, provisions, con-
tributions, or subsistence; or undertaking guardianship,
and curatorship, the collecting of our dues and other publi¢
burdens; and they shall have their judicial cases, both
civil and criminal, decided at the Presidial of the district,
and the same as with the towns liable for the land tax,
they shall be taxed from the office of the commissioners
of distribution, if they do not hold some like privilege
elsewhere, so long as they discharge the functions of their
office or commission,

9 re er ae

OF THE GRAND-MASTERS. 69

Curren Ill.—Grand- Masters.

_ ‘Art. 1. They shall take cognisance in first instance,
and subject to appeal, of all actions brought before them
in regard to inspections, sales, and reformations of waters
and forests, between whatsoever persons, and in whatever
circumstances, and relative to whatever matter they
may be.

' ‘2. To them shall it pertain by privilege and special
‘prerogative before al] other officials of the waters and
forests, to execute all our letters patent, orders, and man-
-dements in matters relative to waters and forests, be it in
regard to sale of wood, belonging to us or to ecclesiastics,
or to communities, and that for whatsoever cause the sale
“may be.

‘3, They shall have a deliberative voice in the Council
Chambers, and in the Audiences of the Judges in Final
Appeal, and their seat shall be on the left hand, next to
that of the Dean of the Chamber.

‘4; They can, in making tours of visitation, make refor-
mations of every kind, and judge all misdemeanours,
‘abuses, and malversations which they may find to have
been committed in their Department, be it by officers
or by private persons, and pronounce sentence on the
culprits. :

‘5. They shall proceed against officers whom they find
faulty, by informations, decreets, seizures, and arrests of
their persons and effects, and of their wages; they shall
institute proceedings, or delegate power to do so, and carry
on the process, notwithstanding opposition or appeals of
any kind, against the pronouncing of sentence inclusive, if
it seem to them good, saving only execution in case of
appeal; in any such case they shall carry or send to the
Registrar of the Marble Table a statement of the case; they
shall also cause the accused to be taken to jail,:if he be a
ad in order to his being judged by them or their

lieutenants, following rigorously the ordinances; and inter-

70 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

dicting to officers the discharge of their functions, and
even their entrance into the forests, and appointing other
fit persons in their room, according as has been by us else-
where ordered. ;

‘6. With regard to woodmen, chartérs or carriers,
herdsmen, shepherds, and other workmen employed
in the exploitation and transport of wood, the Grand-
Masters shall have full power to institute and prosecute
to final issue, any charges against them of abuses or
malversations committed in relation to, or connected with
waters and forests, which charges they shall try in the
Court-House of the locality of the misdemeanour, before
seven judges at least ; but with regard to all other persons
they can only judge them in criminal matters subject to”
appeal; they can, however, by themselves, and without”
appeal, dismiss sergeants, clerks, and overseers of the forest ~
guard, or in charge of forests, warrens, roads, meadows, —
woods, waters, rivers and streams, both in our domains,
and in those held in Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Danger. ;

‘7. They may make provisional appointments to the
situations of those whom they have dismissed, both in~
waters, woods, warrens of our domains, Grurie, Grairie,
Tiers et Danger, and in those of secular communities, and
they may oblige ecclesiastics to do the same, according to-
their power; and in case of refusal or neglect, they may
appoint to the office, and give all writs and orders.
necessary for the payment of wages.

‘8. When they carry processes to the local Court-House |
for judgment they have a deliberative vote in the first
sederunt, and a right to express an opinion in the final”
one, whether there be one or more sederunts; they also
appoint the day and hour of meeting; but the President, —
Lieutenant-General, or other official who presides, shall
propose or submit the case and call for opinions, collect
the votes, and throughout direct the procedure, as is the }
practice in cases in which the Grand-Master is not there. |

‘9. The Grand-Masters shall in each year make a tour |
of general visitation throughout all the Mattrises and

»

OF THE FOREST-MASTERS. 71

Gruries of their Departments, from ward to ward, from one
‘measured lot to another, informing himself in regard to the
_ conduct of the officers, surveyors, guards, usagers, borderers,
'merchants, purchasers, and overseers in charge of the
waters and roads, rivers, canals, public ditches, and water-
_ ways ; they shall see the registers of our Attorneys, Gardes-
- Marteau, Surveyors, and Sergeants of the Guard, also those
of the Registrars, and the minutes, reports, informations,
-and other deeds relative to visitations, misdemeanours,
abuses, undertakings, usurpations, malversations, and con-
‘traventions of all kinds, both in regard to waters and
‘forests, and in regard to game and fishings; see whether
'the guards have made their reports, the attorneys have
done their diligence, and the officers done justice, and
-make known defaults; and to this end Sergeants, Gardes-
-Marteau, and Forest-Masters shall be bound to represent
_to them on the spot, the depredation of which they
have made a register, so as to test their diligence; in
default of which they shall be personally condemned as
if they themselves had committed the depredation or
misdemeanour.

‘10. The Grand-Master shall attend the auction sales,
‘he shall appoint to officers and surveyors the places and
cantons in which to make surveys of places to be felled in
_ the following year, of which sites of sale he shall prepare
a formal report, and lodge a copy of this with the Registrar,
for the officers of the Maitrise, who shall be required to
conform strictly thereto, on pain of a fine of three thousand
livres against the whole body collectively of those who
have committed any contravention.

_ ‘11. He shall be bound to send every year before the
month of June, to the officers of the Maztrises, his order
and mandement to make assietes or plans and inventories
of sites of felling for sales, containing the designation of
the triages or lots, and cantons specified in his said
report; and also to send before the month of September
other mandements specifying the days of sales and
adjudications.

72 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘12, He shall cause to be marked with his marteau the
corner trees of the sites, and all the other trees to be
reserved, at all times when he thinks it proper to have this
done. |
‘13. He shall hold sales by auction of our woods, both
coppice and timber, before the month of January in each —
year, of the number, quantity, and quality stated in the
regulations approved by our Council, with explicit charge
to the purchaser to pay the amount of his bidding into the
hand of the Receiver-General or special receiver for woods,
whom he may have appointed there, or otherwise to the
Receiver-General of the domain, at such time as may be
fixed by the Grand-Master, but in no case later than St.
John’s Day in the year after the sale; besides which he ©
shall pay into the hand of the Receiver one sol or sou per
livre of the price bidden by him, in terms of sale, to be ©
spent in payment of wages, fees, and dues of officers, —
according to the allowance to be made to them by the —
Grand-Master, on their simple receipt; and if the one sol —
per livre do not suffice for this the remainder shall be paid —
out of the proceeds of the sales. €

‘14. They cannot increase or diminish sales of their own |
authority, nor the burden of any usage, supply of firewood, ~
rights or servitudes, nor can they grant or deliver wood in ~
kind, or order payment of money in consequence of any |
gifts, on pain of dismissal and a fine of ten thousand livres. —

‘15. They shall as often as possible make verifications |
by Reformations that it may be known if officers of |
Maitrises have abstracted, or have misrepresented, or have |
too lightly sentenced merchants for abuses and malversa-—
tions committed by them, in which cases they may condemn >
them to pay the penalties which the merchants would legi- —
timately have incurred.

‘16. If the Grand-Masters in their visitations and veri- —
fications in our woods and forests observe void and vacant
spots, and thin and stunted trees, they may cause these
spots to be sown or replenished to give to them value; and
they also may cause trenches to be made at our cost and

OF THE GRAND-MASTERS. 73

AO Aer Pe

expense for the conservation of the new young growth
where this is necessary, this being done by competitive
_ estimate, or abatement and reduction ; with regard to the
cutting down of trees they must prepare reports or minutes,
and address these to the Council to have this sanctioned.
‘17. They shall send every year to our Council, by the
hand of the Comptroller-General of our Finance, three
statements of sales made by them; the first shall contain
_ the quantity of wood sold in each Maitrise, forest, lot, and
ward, the price obtained for this, and the charges or
_ expenses, both in money and in wood ; the second shall con-
_ tain the amounts awarded to the officers of the Maztrise,
especially for their rights, allowances, day’s wages, and fire-
_ wood, to be met by the sol per livre on the sales, paid by
_ the buyer; and the third containing the amounts which
_ have been allowed for sowing and replanting void spots,
_ and for cutting down injured and stunted woods, to make
_ them productive, for making trenches, and for other outlays
and extraordinary expenses incurred in the management
_of our forests, the funds for which have been taken from
fines and cash received by the sergeant collector.
£18. We forbid them to permit or suffer any kilns, fur-
naces, charcoal-making, grubbing and up-rooting, lifting or
removal of beacons, acorns, and other produce from our
forests, contrary to the provisions of these presents, on pain
of arbitrary fine, and reparation of all our damage and
interests. |
_ ‘£19, They shall make in the woods in which we have
the right of Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Danger, and in those held
in appanage, sale-contract or usufruct, and by joint-pro-
_prietorship, the same visitations as in our forests, and
they shall proceed with sales and verifications with the
same formalities as in our woods and forests, without
suffering any advantage to be taken, or any preference
to be given to the rent-holders and possessors,
‘20. They shall keep a good and faithful register of the
minutes of sales and auctions which shall be held by them,
their visitations, grants, commissions, appointments and

-

ae

eee

74 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

dismissals of officers, inquests and decisions of prose-
cutions, and of orders and acts, which they shall issue ~
in their charges in the course of each visitation and —
verification, a duplicate of which register they shall on —
their return deposit with the Registrar of the Marble ~

Table, that it may be at command.

‘21, They may, when it seems to them good, make —
visitations in the woods and forests pertaining to ecclesi- —
astics, communities and holders by mortmain, to see if there —
have been committed any depredations and waste in the

timber forests, and whether in the fellings of coppice woods, ©
reserves and limitation in regard to age of trees felled

have been made conformably to our ordinances and regu-—

lations, in order that there may be done in these woods
what in each case may be required.

‘22. They shall regulate the partition of waters, wees ;

meadows, and pastures in commons, as well in regard to.
the lot claimed by the seigneurs as to the usage claimed,
and the division of the ground between them and ‘he'd

inhabitants; and when need be, they shall make sales, —

auctions of wood, or the giving up of woods to be felled,

we interposing our authority through them, so as to prevent ji

and repress any vexation.
‘23. They shall visit our navigable and flotage rivers,

together with the roads, fisheries, and mills upon our —
waters, to see if there be any encroachments or usurpa- —
tions whan may impede navigation or flotage, and to ©
remove these immediately that the course of the river 5

may be free of all impediment.

‘24, They shall cause themselves to be furnished with —
statements by the collectors of the fines imposed in each ~
Maitrise, and of the money paid as fines, confiscations, —

sales of stolen trees, restitutions, and damages awarded
in our woods and forests, and in those held in Grurie,
Grarie, Tiers et Danger, concession, mortgage, usutruct, and
co- proprietory ; ; which statements they shall collate with
the lists of items cited, signed by the Registrar, and of
the diligence used to recover these amounts and specified

4

OF THE GRAND-MASTERS. 75

charges 5 and it shall be seen by the Grand-Masters that
what, in consequence, is necessary and for our interest,
"de done.
_ £25. The Grand-Masters shall allot, from money appro-
_ priated to such work, the fees and extra wages of officers
of the Maitrises, and others whom they may employ, as
well for reviews and reformations, as for their regular
service in our waters and forests, according to work
done; and if, from the statements prepared by them for
the payment of fees and dues to the Officers, after taking
_ the sol per livre levied on ordinary sales of wood, there be
_ a deficiency, they may order payment of what is alacking
_ to be made from the pooceeds of sales, so far as they find
_ this to be necessary ; but no other official can interfere to
_ order payment of any sum from the fine fund or from any
' other, under penalty of repaying the same fourfold, and
suspension from office.
_ £26. All judgments, orders, and deeds which shall be
issued by the Grand-Masters on their tours of visitation
_ shall be sent to the Registrars of the Maztrises ; and all
_ those issued from the establishment of the Marble Table
~ shall be sent to the Registrar of the Court, to be delivered
_ by the Registrars, as are other documents of the Court,
without any other person having right to interfere, under
' punishment for forgery ; and orders which they may issue
_ for cutting firewood, or other matters, and all acts and
_ judgments they may issue in reformations shall be delivered
_ by the Registrar whom we commission in each Depart-
ment, gratuitously and without any expense or dues, on
pain of charge of exaction, saving when it is otherwise
_ provided by us.
_ ‘£27. The Grand-Masters can take no due, gratuity, fee,
or wage under any pretext whatsoever, on account of any
__ thing done by them in what relates to our waters, rivers,
forests, woods, shrubberies, woods held in Grurie, Grairie,
_ ers et Danger, appanage, sale-contract, usufruct, and by
_ ¢o-proprietorship; and the same in what relates to those
of prelates, ecclesiastics, communities, and holders of mort-

76 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

main, under pain of a charge of exaction and four-fold
restitution, and it shall pertain to us to see this attended
to. .
£28. We enjoin Provosts-General, Provincial Magistrates, —
Lieutenants of the Short Robe, Vice-Bailiffs, their Lieu- ~
tenants, Bailiffs, and Bowmen, and all other Officers of ©
Justice, to lend a strong hand in the execution of the ©
decrees, orders, and judgments of the Grand-Masters and —
Officers of Afattrises, under allowance by the Grand- Masters
for their expenses and extra salary, to be paid from fine- ~
money, confiscation, and restitutions, when on our business, —
or from that of parties when on the business of others.

CuapTerR I[V.—Of “ Maitres Particuleires” or Forest-Masters.

‘Art. 1. The Forest Masters, or their Lieutenants, take —
cognisance in first instance subject to appeal by parties or ©
by request of our Attorney, as well in civil as in criminal —
cases of all matters pertaining to waters and forests, and —
their surroundings and dependencies, following the restric- —
tions and limitations contained in articles of the present —
ordinance. a

‘2. When they are not graduates, the Lieutenants shall —
at the Court make the statement and the report in all ~
cases, civil and criminal, and the Masters shall have a ~
deliberative voice and pronounce sentence ; but when they —
are graduates the Lieutenants shail only have to report —
and vote; the instruction, the judgment, and the sentence —
following the plurality of votes remain with the Master, —
both in the Audience-Hall, and in the Council Chamber.

‘3. The Forest-Master shall hold an Audience once a ~
week at least, in the usual place; and the cases remitted —
from the preceding Audience shall be called first if there —
be any such; and they shall be judged summarily, so far ~
as this can be done, along with the other cases or busi- —
ness, especially the minutes of the Gardes-Marteau, —
Gruyers, and Sergeants, and the fines imposed without —
being referred, the roll of which shall be signed by them, ©

OF THE FOREST-MASTERS. 77

and be placed every three months in the hands of the
Sergeant-Collector, who shall be bound the next day after
_the first Audience day of the month to report his diligence,
and to render account to the Forest-Master, at the instance
' of our Attorney, to be forthwith prosecuted as may appear
meet, all under pain of their being held responsible in
_ their own names.
_ ‘4, They cannot give judgment eitherin Audience or in
the Council Chambers, nor can they liberate prisoners, or
_ deliver up animals which have been seized, excepting on
_ the conclusion arrived at by our Attorney, and the advice
_of the Lieutenant in the Maitrise, and that of the Garde-
_ Marteau, if they be present at the sitting.
_ ‘5, They shall so cut and page the registers of our
_ Attorneys, Gardes-Marteau, Gruyers, Registrars, Sergeants,
_ and Warders of our forests, woods, and shrubberies, and of
_ woods in Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Dangers, and held in appan-
_ age, mortgage, and in usufruct, so that nothing can be
_ added thereto or taken away.
__ ‘6. They shall every six months make a general visi-
tation of all our forests, woods, and shrubberies, woods
" subject to Grurie, Grairie, Segrairie, Tiers et Danger, and of all
_ those held in co-proprietorship, appanage, mortgage, and
_usufruct together with the navigable and flotage rivers in
_ their Alaitrises, assisted by the Gardes-Marteaux and Ser-
_ geants, without the exclusion of the Lieutenants and our
_ Attorneys, who can be there present if it seem to them
_ good, under pain of fine of five hundred livres against the
_Forest-Masters, and suspension from their functions for six
months, save when they shall be mulcted in a larger sum,
or punished more severely, as the Grand-Master may judge
| proper ; who shall so regulate the time of the visitation,
so that it may be made by the Lieutenant, if the Forest-
_ Master cannot accomplish it.

‘7. The minute of the visitation shall be signed by the
Forest-Master, and by all the Officers present, and it shall
state what sales ordinary and extraordinary have been
‘made of coppice and of timber in the course of the year ;

78 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

the condition, age, and quality of the wood of each ward —
:

.
13
rit.
2

and lot; the number and kinds of wood in windfalls,

the state of the trenches, king’s highways, bounds, and

Pent”

divisions, that the remedies which the Forest-Masters —
may consider proper may be executed at once; but these —

general visitations do not dispense with their frequently —

‘

making special visits, of which they shall prepare minutes, —
which they shall present to the Grand-Masters, to inform —

them of the conduct of the borderers, guards, and serge- —

ants of the forests, merchant-purchasers and their com- |
missioners, woodmen, workmen, and carriers, and of every —
thing else concerning the police and conservation of our —

woods and forests.

‘8. They shall, within fifteen days after they have made
these visits, decide the amount of fines to be levied for the
misdemeanours mentioned in the minutes of their visits,
under pain of being held responsible in their own names.

‘9. We order the Forest-Masters, within fifteen days

“=a eT ee Oe NS eee

after the completion of each quarter, to balance and sign, —

in presence of our Attorney, the roll of fines, restitutions, —
and confiscations which have been adjudged at the Court —
of the Maitrise, after these having been verified by them —
in the minutes and judgments rendered at the sittings, |
and they shall cause these to be delivered to the Sergeant- —

Collector, at the instance of our Attorneys, under pain
of being held responsible for the sums'stated in the rolls.

‘10. The Forest-Masters shall, six weeks after the time —

of felling and bringing out the wood has expired, make a

verification of the sales made in our forests, woods, and —
shrubberies, and of the auction sales of coppice woods
which are in Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Danger, co-proprietor-

ship, appanage, mortgage, and usufruct, and of windfalis,
stolen trees, small sales, panage, and mastage, conformably

to the orders given: they shall be bound to prepare, before —
the first of December in each year, a statement of the —
greater measurements and excesses which they have found ~
out in their verifications of sales in*our woods and —
coppice woods in Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Danger; and of

OF THE LIEUTENANT. 79

windfalls, and stolen trees which have been sold in the
course of the year, and of the auctions which have been
held of panage and mast; which statement shall contain
the sums in detail of each kind, and the names of the
purchasers and cautioners, which shall be signed by the
Lieutenant, our Attorney, the Garde-Marteau, and Registrar
of the Maittrise, and which they shall deliver to the Receiver-
xeneral of the woods, if there be one settled there, or other-
wise, to the Receiver-General of the domain, to make
recovery of the same; and it shall be sent to the Grand-
Master before the fifteenth of December, that it may be
embodied in the general statement which he is required to
make of the produce of our forests, to be by him sent to our
Council by the Comptroller-General of our finances; all
‘under pain, against the Masters, of suspension from office,
-and arbitrary fine.
_ 1). They can also visit, accompanied as stated, at all
times they may judge necessary, or be ordered by the
Grand-Master, the woods and forests within the bounds
‘of their Maitrise belonging to the prelates and other
ecclesiastics, commanders, communities, as well regular
as secular, infirmaries and hospitals, and holders of mort-
Main, to prepare minutes in the same manner, and under
the same pains as we have prescribed in the case of ours.
' £12. They shall be held bound to send also to the
Grand-Masters the minutes of the general visitations,
“signed by them and other officers of the Mattrise, within
“a month after they have been prepared, under pain of
fine of three hundred livres against the Master, along
With loss of wages, which the Receiver of the woods or
of the domain cannot pay or expend on their demand,
but only on the reported certificate of the Grand-Masters
that the minutes have been sent to them.

b | Cuaprer V.—The Lieutenant,
_ ‘Art. 1. The Lieutenant shall be a graduate, and shall,
‘in the absence of the Master, discharge the same functions

’

he

80 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

in all our woods and forests, woods in Grurie, Grairie, Tiers
et Danger, and in those of appanage, sale-contract, and |
usufruct, in visitations, surveys of fellings, sales, auctions, —
and verifications, as also in the Audience-Hall and in the
Council Chamber, and in all else; in which case, in all
he shall do for us, he shall have two-thirds of the dues, -
fees, and emoluments which the Master would have had ~
had he been present; and for special work he shall be paid
according to the regulations, and according to the work
done.
‘2. If the Master be not a graduate; the Lieutenant —
shall have preferentially all instructions to give in Court —
in all business concerning the Waters and Forests, and
which shall be raised by parties or at request of our
Attorney.
‘3. He shall be required to reside in the town in which ©
is the Court of the Mattrise, and he may not absent himself, —
particularly on the days and hours of the Audience, without _
previous notice to the Master or the Garde-Marteau, that ;
they may provide a substitute in his absence for the |
administration of justice, so that the Court may be always —
complete, under penalty of privation of wages.
‘4. If a month after the time prescribed for the Forest- -
Masters to make their general visitation, any have not
done so, the Lieutenant shall be bound to make a general |
visitation of the Waters and Forests of the Mattrise,
assisted by the officers, as directed in the chapter relating |
to Forest-Masters, and under the same penalties as have |
been prescribed in regard to him.

Cuaprer V1.—Of the “ Procureur du Row,” or King’s Attorney. —

‘Art. 1. Our Attorney shall be a graduate, and shall
discharge his functions as well in the Court of the Grurie |
as of the Maitrise, |

‘2. He shall be bound to have three separate and
different registers ; of these, the first shall contain a state- |
ment of all suits which he shall have had to undertake, |

OF THE KING’S ATTORNEY. 81

nd of all which have been reported to him, or to the
Registrar of the Maitrise, to whatever cause they may be
itributed ; and of all appeals which have been taken by
(im against judgments, sentences, and orders pronounced
% the Court, with the names of the parties, the days on
)which they were notified, and sent by him to the Attorney-
yeneral, and notice was given to the Grand-Master; the
cond shall contain all the preliminary and definite con-
lusions given; and the third all business relating to
roods held in Grurie, Grairie, Ziers et Danger, and in co-
roprictorship, and by appanage, sale-contract, and usufruct,
nd to those of ecclesiastics and communities within the
jounds of the Maitrise. .
_ ‘3. If any deed or minute shall not have been reported,
yr any reply, reference, or absolution which may have been
ranted, whether verbally or in writing, according to the
ature or arrangements of the business, shall not be
eported by him, this shall entail a fine of five hundred
ivres against the Master and other officers involved in the
gntravention, with suspension and deprivation of charge
n case of repetition.

‘4, He shall be bound to give, without hesitancy or delay,
is preliminary and definitive decisions on the minutes of
stions made by officers, on reports by Gardes-Marteau,
md Sergeants of the Guard, and generally on all deeds
presented to him, in relation to abuses, malversations,
defaults, and encroachments made in our waters and
ests, woods held in Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Danger, and
in co-proprietorship, and in those held under title of
} appanage, sale-contract, and usufruct, and in regard to all
jertaining to our service, and the prosecutions of the
Judgments and condemnations on his decisions, under pain

of being held personally responsible.
) ‘5. He shall be bound to prepare each month a state-
) ment of the appeals which have been made, and have been
if otified to him, or to the Registrar of the Court ; and of
peeotgmon’e and condemnations which have been pro-
}nounced affecting our waters and forests, woods and

$2. THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

shrubberies, and woods held in Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et
Danger, or held by title of appanage, sale-contract, and —
usufruct; these they shall send three days later to our
Attorney at the Court of the Marble Table, with the
documents and memoirs of instruction, for the preservation —
of our rights and interests; and if there be not notified to
him, within three months from the day of the appeal noti- —
fied ‘against the judgments or sentences, the discharge of —
the condemnations, be shall require to have prosecuted at
his instance the execution of these, under pain of being —
himself held personally responsible for the same. !
‘6. He shall undertake that the papers of the Registrar
shall be properly deposited in the presses appropriated to —
this purpose ; and that the Gardes-Marteau, the Surveyors,
and Sergeants of the Guard, have bound registers in which
to enregister all the minutes which shall be made by them, —
which registers shall be numbered, arranged, and kept by
him, that they may be produced when required. — a
‘7, He shall be bound to make all enquiries and prose-
cutions necessary in the effecting of fellings, markings,
sales, auctions, and verifications of our woods, and the
investigation and punishment of depredations, abuses, and
malversations, on advice given to him of these, within
eight days after the reports have been lodged with the
Registrar, on pain of privation of his wages for the first
time, and the loss of his appointment with arbitrary fine
on repetition. a
‘8. Fellings, auctions, verifications, and all other like acts
must not be deferred, unless this have been judged proper
by the Grand- Master, under cover of remonstrance and
requisition made by our Attorney, but made under condi-
tion of the repayment of expenses and outlay by the officer
guilty of contravention, if the requisition shall be found wel
founded by the Court to which the deed of remonstrane
or opposition has been sent, of which he shall be bound to¥
send advice to our Attorney-General within fifteen days of }
the copy of the judgment having been delivered, undery
pain of being responsible personally for whatever prejudi
we may suffer through his negligence. 3

OF THE KING’S ATTORNEY. 83

‘9. If there occur any abuse at any Audience, measure-
ient, or verification of sales, or if anything be dune pre-
idical to us by the Grand-Master, the Forest-Master, and
flicers of the Maitrise and Grurie, by proceedings and
indertakings contrary to our Ordinances and regulations
nd to their duty, he is bound instantly to remonstrate,
nd demand that action be taken, which cannot under any.
retext be refused by the judge present, under pain of
uspension from his office, of which paper there shall be
elivered to him by the Greffier a copy without delay,
nder pain of four hundred livres of penalty.
‘10. The rolls of fines and confiscations, restitutions,
md other condemnations shall be made, signed, and
etermined, by the officers every three months, and pro-
scuted with due diligence, and within fifteen days after
the expiry of each quarter they must be put into the
ands of the Sergeant-Collector of fines, to recover the
jme at his instance: this he shall get back with the
ion manual of the Registrar, and at the foot he shall
ut the receipt by the Sergeant-Collector, who shall
report to him, the day after the first day of Audience
in each month, before the Forest-Master or Lieutenant,
hat diligence be has used for the recovery of the same:
ad if he find there has been any default, negligence, or
ner failure in the prosecution by the Sergeant-Collector,
shall record such conclusions against’ him as he may
link good, to be confirmed generally as may be made to
ppear proper.
£11. There shall be communicated to him all decreets
Which may be made by Courts of Justice, enumerations,
agreements, assignments, contracts of sales, declarations,
new titles, recognaisances, and alienations of immovable
property and heritages of all kinds, situated in the vicinity,
and adjacent to our woods and forests, that he may advise
jhe Grand-Masters in regard to the same: and following
their orders and instructions, he shall reprimand if
lecessary, and prevent anything being sold, alienated, or
witached, which is dependent on our domains, or the

84 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

establishment of a servitude on our woods and forests,—
under pain of nullification of all deeds and contracts
which may be executed without this formality, whicl
deeds shall be of no force against us for the establishmen
of any pretended rights by the private parties, or the pro
prietors of any heritages and their contents, which ma
be disputed by us; and if our Attorney give of his own
motion any consent, it shall not be available against u
or any of our claims for expenses, damages, and interests.

‘12. He shall keep one of the keys of the chest 7
which is deposited the Marteau, serving to mark tree
corner pieces, reserved standards, and others, withou
permitting use to be made of it but in his presence;
shall also take in charge that it is redeposited in its plac
at the end of every expedition on which it is so used.

Cuarrer VII.—Of the Garde-Marteau, or Keeper of the
Stamping-Hammer. :

‘Art. 1. The Garde-Marteau shall assist at the Auditorie
and in the Council Chamber, in giving judgment on bus
ness, where he shall, along with the Master and Lieutenan
have a deliberative vote; and in their absence he sha
administer justice, to the exclusion of all advocates an
practitioners, if by us, through the Grand-Master, or hi
Lieutenant at the Marble Table, it have not been ordere
otherwise, and if it be not a question of judgment on h
own reports. | oe
_ 2, Heshall make all martelages or markings of trees 1
our forests, woods, and shrubberies within the Matéri
and also in localities where they have Gruyers, to whit
he shall himself go, being without liberty to commit
intrust the duty to another, save for legitimate hinderan¢
of which he shall be bound to give notice to the Mast
and King’s Attorney to provide some one in his place. —

‘3. He shall have a particular Marteaw to mark win
falls and stolen trees, which he shall never entrust
another person, because of the inconvenience which mig

4
+‘

OF THE KEEPER OF THE STAMPING-HAMMER. 85.

thence arise, and for this he shall be responsible; and he
hall prepare minutes for his register, which shall contain
notices of all the trees which have been marked as fellings
or sale, their size, quality, and species, this he shall cause
he Sergeants of the Guard to sign, and deliver to the
Registrar of the Maitrise three days after, on the same pains,
“4, There shall be kept by the Master or his Lieu-
tenant, a register of the markings of corner trees, rene a
andards, and other trees which they mark, of whi
there shall be prepared minutes, containing their number,
quality, size, and species, which shall be signed by them,
d by our Attorney, Garde-Marteau, Sergeant of the
Guard, and the Registrar, and also other minutes of the
recognaisances which shall be made of the trees marked
at the time of the verification of the sales.

-5. Besides the assistance they shall be bound to rendé¢ t
at the visitations of the Grand-Master, of the Forest-
‘Masters, and other officers, they shall themselves make
‘@ visitation every month of all the wards in our Forests
and Woods in Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Danger, and by title
‘of appanage, co-proprietorship, sale contract, and usufruct
“in the Maitrise, to see and know if the guards have faith-
fully reported all depredations which may have been com-
“mitted, and in order to this the guards of the forest shall
_be bound to assist them on these visitations ; and, besides
+ his, they shall visit every fortnight the open ‘fellings,
f ‘ogether with the roads and highways made use of for
‘the transport of wood, to know of the exploitation, and

f any misdemeanours and contraventions, and of any
seprcations of which he shall prepare minutes in his

egister, which minutes he shall cause to be signed by
the Sergeants of the Guard, and by the factors or guards
f sales, and this shall be by him, three days later, lodged
ith the Registrar, whereby he shall be relieved ; and
ese minutes, after having been communicated to our
Attorney, shall be reported and judged on the first day
of Audience, on pain of loss of wages the first time, and
privation of office on repetition.

a”

86 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

Cuapter VIII.—Of the Greffier, Recorder or Registrar.

‘Art. 1, The Registrar shall have eight registers, num-
bered and arranged by the Master, or his Lieutenant, and
by our Attorney. q

‘2. The first shall be for the entrance of edicts, declara-.
tions, decrees, regulations and ordinances, provisions and
receptions, appointments and dismissals of officers and
guards of the Maittrise. |

‘3. The second, minutes and appointments, sales of
fellings, publications and biddings, auctions and verifica=
tions of ordinary and extraordinary sales of timber, and
also of windfalls and captured stolen wood, pannage and
mast, in our woods and forests in Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et
Danger, and by title of appanage, co-proprietorship, sale-
contract, and usufruct in the Jfattrise ; in this shall also
be entered the statement which he shall cause to be pre-
pared annually by the Forest- Masters, of all that we ought
to receive in each Afaittrise ; which minutes and deeds shall
be signed by the Master, our Attorney, the Gardes-Marteau,
the special Receiver of our woods, if there be one appointed,
otherwise by the Receiver of the domain, and by other
officers who have executed the acts ee a

‘4. The third, minutes of visitations by the Forest-
Masters, their Lieutenants, Gardes-Marteaux, and Gruyers;
reports by guards and sergeants, which shall be without
delay signed by them on the register, so far as they have
been made in their presence, without alteration of dates,
or of confiscations, fines, restitutions, damages, and com-
pensations adjudged in consequence. és

5. The fourth, Cases of Audience, in which shall bi
pa ae the judgments given on pleadings and pro-
cesses by writings, that recourse may be had to these, an
thus be obviated the evils which might result from t (
embezzlement of minutes. :

‘6. The fifth shall contain the contracts of sales, both}
voluntary and judicial, enumerations, consents, leases}

OF THE RECORDER OR REGISTRAR. 87

assignments, and declarations of immoveable property and
heritages situated within the bounds of our forests, together
with replies, interdicts, cr consents which shall have been
given by our Attorney.

‘7. The sixth, all deeds and procedures which relate to the
navigation and flotage of rivers, to the chase, and to fishings.
_ ‘8. The seventh, what may have been done for the
Bods of ecclesiastics, communities, holders of mortmain,
and private parties, in reference to what is spoken of in
‘the first chapter of the jurisdiction ; and the eighth shall
‘be for the deposit of all other papers that shall be brought
or consigned to the Registrar.

_ ‘9. The Registrars of Mattrises shall make every three
‘months, at latest fifteen days after each quarter-day,
‘rolls of the fines adjudged at the Court of their establish-
‘ment, on which they may charge five sous for every deed
of condemnation as the fee for the sentence, and two sous
for the fee for every default which shall be pronounced,
and seven sous six deniers for the fee of the Sergeant, on
whose report there has been a conviction ; which fees they
shall cause to be paid by the Sergeant-Collector in propor-
tion to the total actual receipts—without the Registrar
having power to pretend to extra wage, under pretext of the
greatness of the rolls or otherwise; and they shall deliver
two clean copies of these rolls to our Attorneys, of which
one shall remain with them, and the other shall be supplied
eight days after to the Sergeant-Collector, to recover the
same.

‘10. They may not take more for each copy which they
deliver than three sous for each sheet of paper, and fifteen
sous for each roll of parchment, which shall be filled with
the number of lines, words, and syllables prescribed by
ordinance; as for other fees for papers of instruction,
these shall henceforth be regulated by opinion of the
Grand-Masters, after having heard the officers of the
Mattrises, without their having power to award any for
those which have been delivered to our Attorneys, or to

our other officers for our business, or put on parchment

88 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

any matters other than the definitive sentences pronounced
on sight of the documents.

‘11. If by fraud or otherwise the Registrar omit to make
use of any articles of the minutes of visitations and reports
in his registers, and the sentences in the rolls, he shall be
bound to pay quadruple the amount to our profit for the
first time, and be dismissed from office on repetition.

‘12. The Registrar leaving office shall be bound to

replace in the press placed in the chamber of the Maztrise —

for the purpose, the registers and all other papers of the —
registrary, of which there shall be prepared by the Master —

or his Lieutenant, and our Attorney, an inventory which
shall be signed by the Registrar, with a declaration that
neither of fraud or otherwise has he retained any docu-
ment; and the whole shall be put into the hands of the

Registrar or Commissioner who succeeds him, who shall —

take upon himself by writing at the foot of the same

inventory, the charge of it, nor shall his heirs or represen-

tatives be able to retain any documents under any pretext

whatsoever, and so on successively; but they shall be paid —
half of the emoluments of any business which may be in |
process handed over to the new Registrar, who shall retain ©
the other half for his own salary and those of his clerks —

and commissioners.

‘13. The widows, children, or heirs of a Registrar
remain responsible for the registers and documents of the
registry until they have been thus formally disposed of;
and in case of retention, they shall be constrained by any

means, even by force or bodily constraint, immediately to

deliver them up at the instance of our Attorneys, under

pain of being held responsible in their own names.

Cuaprer 1X.—Of Gruyers, or Officers in charge of Woods held in
Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Danger, and by Title of Appanage, Co-

Proprietorship, Sale-Contract, and Usufruct in the Maitrise.

‘Art. 1, The Gruyers shall have a fixed place in which |
to hold their court in each week, at a certain day and hour,

OF OFFICERS IN CHARGE OF WOODS, &c. 89

and shall have their residence within the bounds of the
Grurie, as near to the woods as possible, under pain of loss
of wages and suspension.

_ - 2. They shall have a particular marteau, with which

}| they shall mark injured trees and windfalls.

_ *3. They cannot judge misdemeanours or depredations
_ other than those for which the penalty fixed by our ordin-
-ance is twelve livres and under ; and if the fine be arbitrary,
or exceed this sum, they shall be bound to send the case
and the parties before the Forest-Master of their Grurie,
under pain of a fine of five hundred livres for the first time,
and suspension for repetition.
‘4, They shall make a visitation every fortnight of the
- waters and woods of their Gruries, of the same kind and
manner as is required of the Officers of Maztrises in their
visitations, making the same observations and reports of
depredations, damages, void places, malversations, cutting
down of reserved standards, of corner trees, border trees,
and others, of boundaries, ditches, and generally of all which

| may be contrary to the orders established by the present

regulation.

‘5. The Sergeants of the Guard of the woods of their
Grurie shall bring to them reports of all depredations,

these shall be declared and shall be registered in the regis-
- trary, twenty-four hours after the recognaisance has been
made; and the Gruyers shall remit to the Maitrise those
which may demand sentences exceeding twelve livres
in amount. :

‘6. They shail have a register numbered and arranged
by the Forest-Master or his Lieutenant, and our Attorney,
into which they shall transcribe the minutes of their visi-
ations, observations, markings, and recognaisances, the
reports of the Sergeants of the Guard, and all the other
acts of their charge, which register shall be signed by the
Sergeants; and three days after each act they shall pass
judgment on the articles within their competence, and of
others send a copy under their seal to the Registrar of
the Maittrise; they shall make minutes indefinitely of all

90 . THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

matters, make inquisition, decree, and also arrest in.
eases of depredations discovered in the act of being
committed in our waters, woods, forests in Grurie, Grairie,
Tiers et Danger, and by title of appanage, co-proprietor-
ship, sale-contract, and usufruct in the Maztrise.

«7. They shall be responsible for depredations, destruc-
tions, and disorders which may occur in the woods and

forests in their Grurie ; and failing their having attended | —

to them and passed judgment, they shall be liable for the
fines and restitutions which delinquents and usurpers
would have incurred, under twelve livres, or in default of
having sent the minutes and advice to the Registrar of
the Maitrise eight days after the misdemeanour committed
or usurpation made in more serious cases.

‘8. They shall every three months deliver the roll of
fines which they have imposed, signed by them and by the
Registrar to our Attorney of the Maztrise, to be by him
supplied to the Collector of Fines, that he may recover
these, in doing which they shall charge on each article of
condemnation three sous for the Registrar, and three sous
for the Sergeant of the Gaurd, for which they shall be paid
as has been prescribed for the Maztrise.

‘9. They are expressly forbidden, under any pretext, to
dispose of the fines incurred in their Gruries, under pain
of suspension, save on their being authorised by the Grand-
Master for diligence done by them and extraordinary dues
to take what shall appertain to them from the moneys
accruing from those on their rolls.

Cuaprer X.—Of the ‘Hussiers Audienceiers,’ or Audience Ushers,
General Guards, Sergeants, and Guards of the Forests and
Woods held in ‘Grurie, Grairie, Segrairie, Tiers et Danger,’
in Co-proprietorship.

‘Art. 1. We have restored, and do reinstate, two
Audience Ushers in each of our Mattrises, who shall
serve alternately every eight days in the Audience Hall,
and who shall be substituted, when occasion requires, in

OF USHERS, GUARDS, SERGEANTS, &c. 91

our forests in the place of suspended Sergeants of the
Guard, or deceased or disabled to do or perform there the
same functions, by order of the Grand-Master, or, in his
absence, by order of the Officers of the AMaitrise ; and
they shall enjoy the same privileges and exemptions as
as are granted to the Sergeants of the Guard, and the
same wages in proportion to the time that they serve in
the forests in the place of those for whom they are
substituted.

‘2. None shall be received as Sergeants of the Guard
without the testimony of our Attorney in the Maztrise to
their life and conduct, and who are not able to read and
write, even though they may have had experience in time
past in the presence of those who may be now officers of
the court.

‘3. We suppress the Sergens Traversiers, Masters, Guards,
Routiers, and Sergens Dangereux in all our waters, woods,
and forests, save to provide such indemnity to them as
may be reasonable; and in their place we will that there
be established General Mounted Guards of our Waters,
Forests, Woods in Grurie, Gratrie, Tiers et Danger, and held
by. title of appanage, co-proprietorship, sale contract, and
usufruct in the Maitrise, who shall wear helmets bearing
our arms, that they may be recognisable ; and they shall be
paid reasonable wages, according to statements which shall
be approved in our Council, on the advice of the Grand-
Master.

‘4. The Mounted General Guards of our waters and
forests shall move about continuously in the forests and
woods and along the rivers, to keep the ordinary Guards at
their duty ; following the orders and directions which shall
be given to them by the Grand-Masters, each in his depart-
ment. They shall lend their main force to private
Guards; shall make all kinds of captures, and reports to
the Masters in the districts in which depredations have
been committed, in the same way as other Guards do.
They shall be in the suite of the Grand-Master in such
numbers and such times as these may think proper. They

92 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

shall execute their mandements, judgments, and orders,
and those of the Forest-Masters; and generally they shall
execute all acts and business in relation to our waters,
rivers, forests, woods, and shrubberies, and others afore-
mentioned. |

‘5, And in place of the Sergens Dangereux, there shall
be established Sergeants of the Guard of rivers and
wuods which may be entrusted to them, who shall dis-
charge the same functions as those in our other woods
and forests.

‘6. The Sergeants shall manifest all assiduity in their
wards, and shall not absent themselves from these but
for sickness or other legitimate excuse, and after having
obtained the permission of the Master and of our
Attorney, and after they have commissioned or sub-
stituted the nearest Guard, or some other person in
their place.

‘7. They shall each have a register, numbered, paged,
and arranged by the Forest-Master and our Attorney,
containing the minutes of their visitations, reports,
summonses, and all other acts of their charge, together
with abstracts of sales, ordinary and extraordinary, and
the compass, quality, value, and state of trees overturned
or entangled by the wind, and generally of everything
done for or against our interest or service within the
extent of their wards.

‘8. The Sergeants shall be divided into two bands, who
shall appear alternately at the Audience of the Maitrise
or Grurie, and also at the Assizes when so ordered by the
officers, to inform them of the state of their wards, and to
present, attest, and cause to be enregistered the reports
which they may then have in hand, upon which it is Our
will that the officers may condemn to pecuniary fine,
although there may be no other proof or information,
provided that the accused do not present sufficient cause
for challenge.

‘9. The Sergeants shall be responsible for the depreda-
tions, uprootiags, abuses, and damages occurring in their

;

OF USHERS, GUARDS, SERGEANTS, &c. 93

wards, and they shall be condemned to fines, restitution,
and damages as if they themselves had been the delinquents,
unless they have reported these, and have themselves
deposited their report in the registry of the Maztrise or
Grurie, two days at most after the misdemeanour has been
committed, and unless they have named in their report
the delinquents, and specified the places where the wood
and trees stolen have been found, or the number and
kinds of cattle caught doing damage, and declaring the
owners of them.

‘10. They shall every three months make a report of
the number of boundaries surrounding and marking the
limits of our woods and forests, the state in which these
are, and that of the ditches and hedges in their ward, and
embracing the defects which they may have observed,
which report they shall deliver to the Registrar of, the
Maitrise, to be attended to; and on their failing to give
advice and necessary information, they shall be held
responsible, and shall be punished by fine, dismissal, or
both, according as may be judged fit by the officers, respect
being had by them to the nature of the deed. |

- ‘11. They shall be bound to reside within half a league
of their ward, and no one shall henceforth be admitted to
office, or continued therein, until he have given good and
sufficient security to the amount of three hundred livres,
which shall be taken by our Attorney as security for fines,
restitutions, and damages to which they may be responsible
or condemned, |

‘12, They cannot trade in wood, keep a workshop or
collection of wood in their houses, undertake a sale of
wood, or associate themselves with the merchants, or hold
a drinking house or hostellery, or drink with delinquents
of whom they have the cognisance, under pain of fine of a
hundred livres the first time, and a greater with depriva-
tion of office on repetition.

‘13. It is permitted to them to carry pistols as well for
the protection of their own persons from passengers and
carriers as the conservation of our forests; and we forbid

94 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

all persons to maltreat them or trouble them in the dis-
charge of their duty, under pain of rigorous prosecution
according to our ordinances.

‘14, If it be found that they have abused the use of
their arms, hunted or shot any game of whatsoever kind
in our forests or in the open country, they shall be punished
by fine, deprivation of office, or banishment from the
forests, or even corporal punishment if condemned thereto.

‘15, The General Sergeants and Sergeants of the Guard
of our woods and forests, rivers, open country, and
reserves, can do no official work but for the waters, forests,
and the chase, under pain of being held unfaithful; and
we revoke to this extent all letters and duplicates which
we may have granted to them.

CuHapTeR XI.—Of Surveyors.

Art. 1, There shall be selected and commissioned in each
department, a Surveyor, a man of experience and tried
probity, to accompany the Grand-Master while he is on
his visitations, auction sales, and reformations, and under
his orders to make all surveys, measurements, and ordinary
verifications, and those of reformation; and two others
shall be appointed ia each bailliwick or azérise,

‘2. They shall only be accepted on testimony to their
good life and behaviour, and they shall, before they enter
on their duties, give security of a thousand livres, which
shall be taken by the Grand- Master as assurance against
abuses or malversations which they may commit in their
work. They shall make of all fellings to be sold a figured
plan, on which they shall indicate the corner trees, with
their marks, the partition and boundary trees, with a
statement of their number, quality, and all the marks
upon them, the distance from one to another of the
corner trees, and the outline of the felling, both in straight
lines and in angles, and all the circumstances necessary to
serve for the recognisance or conservation of all the trees
reserved.

OF SURVEYORS. 95

‘3. They shall make all the surveys and measurements

_ required in their district, as well as in those held in
_ Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Danger, and by title of appanage,

co-proprietorship, sale contract, and usufruct in the
Mattrise, in our woods, grounds, and domains, and the
same for those of ecclesiastics, communities, and holders ,
of mortmain, together with all that may, for whatever
reason, be ordered by authority of Courts of Justice. This

f they shall do preferentially to all other Surveyors, on pain

of nullification of what may be done by others; but with
permission to private persons to avail themselves of all
acts, measurements, and voluntary deliverances of other
Surveyors selected at their option, as may seem to them

ood.
‘4. The Surveyor of the Grand-Master shall be bound

1 to follow him when ordered, and to make by his orders all

allocations of sales, surveys, measurements, and verifica-

F tions, plans, diagrams, determinations of fellings, and

recognaisances of bounds, borders, and ditches, and
generally all acts pertaining to his profession; and to
keep a good and faithful register, of which he shall
deposit a duplicate, with plans and diagrams, in the
hands of the Grand-Master or the Registrar of the Mattrise
eight days after the completion of the work, and obtain a
receipt for it, under pain of of suspension the first time,
and deprivation of office on repetition.

‘5. If the Surveyor of a Mavztrese be sick or absent, the
officers shall give advice of this to the officers of the
adjacent Maztrise, who shall be bound to send their ordi-
nary Surveyors, or one of them, according as may be
required. This we enjoin them to do under the same
penalty, and it shall be forbidden to our officers to employ
other Surveyors than those whom we have provided and
commissioned, under pain of nullification and their remain-
ing personally responsible.

‘6. They shall be bound to hold a visitation every
year of all the ditches, bounds, and boundary trees
separating and distinguishing our forests and woods ia

96 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

which we have an interest, to ascertain if there be any-
thing to complete, change, fell, stop, or transport ; and, if
it be necessary, they shall make sites of sales and altera-
tions, or replacement of bounds which have been taken
away and removed, or which may be awanting, following
in this the orders of the Grand-Masters and the formal
judgments of the officers; and they shall mark all the
allignments of ditches to be made and repaired, of which
they shall make a minute on the register signed by the
Sergeant of the Guard, and this they shall deliver at the
registry of the Maztrise within three days after the visit
has been made, under pain of suspension for the first time,
and punishment on repetition.

‘8. If any Surveyor have, by connivance, favour, or
corruption, concealed a removal or alteration of boundaries,
have suffered, or have himself made, a change in corner trees,
he shall, for the very first case, be deprived of office, con-
demned to a fine of five hundred livres, and be banished
for ever from our forests, unless the Officers, under pain of
possible loss of office, mitigate or alter the sentence.

—— ee ll elle

Cuapter XII.—Of Assizes.

‘Art. 1, The Forest-Masters or their Lieutenants shall
hold their Assizes or High Courts twice a year at the
customary times and public places, where all the Officers
of the Mattrises, Gruries et Graries shall be bound to assist,
on pain of a fine of a thousand livres against defaulters
without legitimate excuse.

‘2. The Chapter relating to Assizes contained in the
General Regulations shall be read and published at the
entrance and the opening of the Assizes.

‘3. The Assizes cannot be prolonged beyond two days,
during which the forests shall remain closed ; when, if any
one enter them, they shall be fined; and if he commit a
depredation, he shall be punished as a robber.

‘4, Our Attorney shall formulate his complaints against

OF ASSIZES. 97

those who have committed faults, on all which justice shall
be done as speedily as possible, parties being heard or
duly called.
; 5. He shall also remonstrate against abuses which have
come to his knowledge, which shall be provided for as each
case may require.
_ ‘6. There shall be drawn up by the Registrar a register
_of all that has been required and ordered by the police of
‘the forests, and the masters and officers shall be bound
; to conform themselves to these presents ; and if there be
anything requirig explanation or addition, they shall
' give notice immediately to the Grand- Master and to our
| Attorney of the Marble Table, for their advice, and that
' it may be by us attended to.
_ ‘7, All sentences and judgments which shall be given
during the time of the Assizes and High Courts shall be
.

embodied by the Registrar in his register, and shall be

signed by the Master, the Lieutenant, and our Attorney

before they separate.
‘8. All the reports sent or brought to the Assizes shall
_ be adjudged by the Master in Audience, on advice of the

' Lieutenant and Garde-Marteau; and if there be _pre-

E sented any case requiring a forinal instruction, or legal
_ statement of the case, it shall be sent on the first day of
| Audience to the Ordinary Court of the Maitrise to have
_ the formal statement prepared by the Master or his
_ Lieutenant.
_ ‘9. The merchants and factors may make complaints
against any who have occasioned trouble to them in the
_ exploitation of their purchases, or have been guilty of
exaction or violence, on which complaints justice shall be
done as shall be made to appear proper.

‘10. No officers, workmen, and merchant-factors, or
any others who may be obliged to appear at the Assizes,
can be condemned without knowledge of the cause or
disproportionately to the misdemeanours, or for reasons
and motives not embodied in the judgments, excepting
that the officers can levy certain sums to be paid: All
this under pain of nullification and arbitrary fine.

H

98 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘11. We forbid to officers who shall hold Assizes to —
levy, take, or receive any thing in money, presents, or 7
what may be equivalent to such, under pretext of fees and
signatures to judgments given, or otherwise in whatso- ~
ever form, under pain of charge of exaction. ‘

‘12. Eight days before the opening of the Assizes, all —
the fishermen of each Maztrise, summoned by separate —
notice given to each, or left at their houses by the ©
Sergeant of the Fishery Guard, shall compear to elect —
Masters of the communities.

CuapTeR XIII.—Of the Marble Table and Judges in
Final Resort.

‘Art. 1. The Marble Tables of our Palaces of Paris and
of Rouen, and others, shall give judgment in all civil and
criminal processes relating to lands and property in our
woods and forests, islands and rivers, woods held in
Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Danger, and by title of appanage, —
co-proprietorship, sale contract, and usufruct in the —
Maitrise, and in all cases which shall be remitted to them
by the Grand-Master of Waters and Forests in their depart- —
ments, subject, however, to appeal to Parliament when the
jurisdiction is in a case subject to appeal.

‘2. They shall take cognisance also of all appeals from —
sentences and judgments pronounced by the Officers of |
Maitrises and other inferior Judges of their district, as |
also of judgments given by Seigneurial Courts in matters —
concerning the waters and forests; but we expressly forbid
them to supersede the execution of judgments rendered ~
for depredations, malversations, confiscations, and dis- —
missals appealed to them, under pain of suspension and —
arbitrary fine. , 2

‘3. The appeals of Grand-Masters, their Lieutenants, —
and other Officers of the Marble Tables, shail be taken up
and adjudged in our Courts of Parliament in the ordinary
manner in cases which it shall not be competent for the |
established Judges to decide without appeal.

OF THE MARBLE TABLE, &c. 99

‘4, If, however, there be an appeal from a judgment
given in one of our Maitrises touching the land of our
woods and forests in Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Danger, and by
title of appanage, co-proprietorship, sale contract, and
usufruct in the Maztrise, we will that it be taken direct to
our Courts of Parliament to which it pertains, and that
without passing through the intermediate Court of our
Marble Table. : ,

‘5. All appeals from judgments relating to usages,
abuses, depredations, and malversations committed in our
_ waters and forests, or in those of our subjects, shall be
_ judged in the Court of the Marble Table, established as
_ Court of Final Appeal, and that even though it should
issue in asentence of Court-death or of capital punishment,
or of any other punishment whatsoever.

‘6. The Grand-Master can assist in all audiences, judg-
_ ments, regulations, and deliberations which shall take

place at sittings of the Tables de Marbre; shall preside
there in the absence of the Judge, en dernier ressort, and
shall have a deliberative vote; and all acts, sentences, and
_ judgments which shall be given there shall be entituled
_ by the name and quality of Grand-Masters, whether they
be present or absent.

‘7. We leave our Attorneys free to prosecute in the
localities before our Officers of Waters and Forests, or to

_ bring before the Grand-Masters, or before the Courts of the
_ Marble Tables, the communities or individuals whom they
allege to have encroached or usurped on our waters, rivers,
woods, and forests, and other property to which we lay
claim; on condition, however, that the Officers of the
Marble Table shall send down all the instructions to the
Court of the Maitrise, or to the nearest one, unless they see
fit to retain them, or to commit to one of their number
to prepare the instructions or go down and make inquest
in the locality. |

‘8. The Licutenants and Officers of the Marble Table
cannot undertake any reformation if they have not been
commissioned to do so by us or by the Grand-Master ; but

100 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

always in any case requiring immediate action, and the ©

Grand-Master happening to be more than ten leagues
distant from the jurisdiction in which the disorder has
occurred, they may draw up legal instruction, after having
made attachment and given interlocutary judgment, though
they have no power to pass a definitive judgment excepting
in the presence of Grand-Masters.

‘9, Also they cannot decree on simple minutes or
instructions drawn up by Ushers and Sergeants, nor give
or address their commissions to other than to the Officers
of the Maitrises, or to other Judges-Royal in places where
there are no Courts of the Waters and Forests, on pain of
nullity, and responsibility for the loss and damages of the
parties. |

‘10. Neither can they, when it so happens, decree or
summon, on report of charges, minutes or informations
by commissioned officers, or oblige the parties to compear
before the Courts of the Marble Table, to be heard, and to
proceed to verification of testimony confronting the parties ;
but they shall be bound to send the instruction to the
same Officer who drew up the instruction or to another
on the nearest Mattrise, if there be cause of suspicion or
complaint, to carry out the process to a definitive conclu-
sion, under pain of nullification, and payment of expenses,
loss, and damage of the parties.

‘11. The Forest-Masters, the Lieutenants, our Attorneys

and the Gardes-Marteaux, shall receive at the Courts of ©

the Marble Table the information concerning their life
and conduct in the localities, previously lodged by the
Grand-Masters or other Officers of the Waters and Forests
commissioned by him; and there shall be paid to cover all
expenses, fees, and dues, twelve livres to the Judges, eight
livres to our Attorneys, and a like sum to the Kegistrar,
and six livres to each of the Ushers, and that is for all acts
and business done in the case, it being expressly forbidden
to the Officers of the Marble Table to take a larger sum,
or receive any present under any pretext whatever, under
pain of prosecution for exaction,

Sh rd

Pe EE SF LS 5 RS EN Sa a

+o Sa eeee -pe >

OF APPEALS. 101

Cuapter XIV.—Of Appeals.

‘ Art. 1, Appeals from Gruries cannot be carried directly
te the Marble Table; but they must necessarily pass
through the Maitrise, where they shall be at once defini-
tively settled.

‘2. They shall be sent up or remitted, and prosecuted
within a fortnight after sentence is pronounced, otherwise
the sentence shall be executed provisionally ; and a month
being allowed to pass without appeal or further prosecution
of the case, this sentence shall have the force of a matter
decided in the Court of Final Appeal.

‘3. Appeals from Forest-Masters shall be carried imme-
diately to the Courts of our Marble Table within a month
after the sentence has been pronounced or notified to the
parties, and it shall be put in a state to be adjudged
within three months from the pronouncing or announce-
ment of the sentence, otherwise the sentence shall be
carried out as final whether there have been an appeal or
not’; to which effect we enjoin on the Judges of the Marble
Table that they shall be charged to make a report within
one month, as covering ali delay, after they have disposed of

them, under pain of being themselves responsible.

_ ‘4, Always, if the sentence contain any punishment,
personal or infamous, the right of appeal shall not expire
for twenty years, but after the expiry of the aforesaid
three months it shall be executed in regard to pecuniary
penalties and civil condemnations, without being open to
any change in regard to these.

‘5 Appeals by the Grand-Masters or their Lieutenants -
from the Marble Table cannot be carried elsewhere than
to our Courts of Parliament; and We will that the time
for carrying and deciding these shall be the same, both in
civil and criminal cases, as has been prescribed for Forest-
Masters; otherwise that the sentences be executed in the
form and manner settled in the preceding article.

Ԥ, All interlocutory judgments pronounced by the

102 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

Grand-Masters or Forest-Masters shall be executed without .

prejudice to appeal both in civil and criminal cases, not-
withstanding that the judgment may afterwards be pro-
nounced incompetent, provided always that it be a sentence
which can be repaired in the definitive judgment.

‘7. The definitive judgments and sentences of Grand-
Masters, which do not exceed two hundred livres in prin-
cipal, or twenty livres of interest, and those of Forest-

Masters not exceeding one hundred livres, or ten livres of —

interest shall be executed provisionally, without prejudice
to appeal. :

‘8. Appeals from the Gruyers and other officers of
private seigneurs, in regard to waters and forests, shall be
carried direct to the Courts of the Marble Table, and
execution stayed till their definitive sentence be given.

‘9, All appeals from sentences given in Audiences, and —

on minutes of visitations, and on reports, shall be pleaded
in the Audience of our Courts of the Marble Table; but
if they embrace questions of law, the parties shall conclude
their appeal as in process by writing.

‘10. We premit to parties at their choice to carry their
appeals by letter or by petition.

CHAPTER XV.—Of Fellings, ‘ Ballivage,’ ‘Martellage,’
and the Sale of Woods.

‘ Art.1. There can be no sale made in our forests, woods,

or thickets, excepting in accordance with the regulations
which shall be ordered in our Council, or in letters patent, —

formally and duly registered in our Courts of Parliament

and Chambre des Comptes, under penalty of restitution of —

four-fold the value of the wood sold, against the purchasers,

ane against the officials ordering such sales, the loss of their
office.

‘2. The auction sales of our woods, whether timber, —
forest, or coppice, can in future only be made by the
Grand-Masters, it being forbidden to the Officers of —
Maitrises to acknowledge other persons, on pain of being ©

made responsible in their names.

yea den aaa

OF FELLINGS, SALES OF WOOD, &c. 103

_ ‘8, All adjudications or auction sales of our woods, be it

timber trees or coppice, shall be made in the Audience
_ Halls in which are held the ordinary Courts Des Haux et
_ Foréis, and they cannot be held elsewhere, under pain of
_ being held null and void, and a penalty of ten thousand
livres against the Grand-Master, or any other who shall
have contravened this law.
‘4, The Grand-Masters shall every year, before the peneres
sales of our woods, make a visitation of the lots
' appointed to be sold, in making which they shall be
' accompanied by the Surveyor thereto appointed, to whom
they shall point out the woods to be allotted for sale in the
_ following year; and they shall mark out for him in what form
_the boundaries shall be made for our greatest profit and
1 advantage, of which they shall prepare an official report,
_ which shall be signed by the Forest-Master or his Lieu-
| tenant, our Attorney, the Garde-Marteau, and the
k ‘Sergeants of the Guard. A copy of this shall be delivered
[ ‘to the Surveyor to serve as his guide, and to this he shall
be bound to conform himself, under pain of suspension or
declaration of his incapacity for the office; another shall
_ be sent to the Record Office of the Mattrise, and fifteen
| days after his return to the principal town of his depart-
| ment, he shall lodge a general statement of all the allot-
F ments in the Record Office of the Marble Table for
_ reference.
__ ‘5, Every year the Grand-Master shall make a copy of
| his mandements and ordinances for the allotments of the
_ ordinary sales of our woods and forests, conformably to the
| regulations ordered in our Council, where he shall enter
| the number of arpents or acres, and the kind of wood to be
sold; and in which he shall designate i in detail the wards and
; triganometrically measured lots, one or more of which
_ may be embraced in a ward, so far as shall be practicable,
| following the observations which shall have been made in

the official reports after visitation, which he shall send to

the Officers of the Mattrise, before ‘the first of June in each

year, who shall be bound forthwith to assemble and together

104 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

devote a day to the making the allotments, which shall be

done in their presence by the Surveyor.

‘6. The Surveyor shall make, in presence of the Ser-
geant of the Guard, the lanes and trenches required for
the boundary; shall mark with his stamp as near to the

ground as he can, such a number of corner trees, and divi-
sion and partition trees marking the angles and connecting
lines of the boundaries, as he shall consider sufficient,
with indications of the side on which he shall have im-
printed his stamp, the royal stamp, and that of the Grand-

Master. He shall make mention of the fact if he have so ©
imprinted any trees for corner standards, and of their age, -
quality, nature, and size, and of their distance from one
another in poles and feet; as also he shall observe the ©
names of the sales in which they occur, if there be any —
void spaces and their areas; he shall be required to —
avail himself of at least one of the corner trees of the for-—

mer sale; and he shall prepare plans and diagrams of the
place which he shall have portioned out; and of all this
he shall make his official report, which shall be signed by
the Sergeants and Guards, and he shall place a copy of it in
the Registry of the Mattrise three days after having made
it, which shall be initialed by the Forest-Master and
our Procurator, with mention of the day on which it shall
have been delivered, and another copy of it shall be by
him sent forthwith to the Grand-Master.

‘7. We forbid Surveyors and Sergeants to make roads
exceeding three feet in breadth, for the passage of the
bearers of measuring poles, and of merchants who shall go
to see the sale lots, under pain of a hundred livres of

penalty, and the restitution of double the value of the wood —

felled.

‘8. The wood felled in the lanes and trenches cannot :
be taken away, but shall remain for the profit of the pur-—

chaser, and shall appertain to him without either the

Surveyors or the Sergeants being able to claim any portion ©

of it; to them it is forbidden to take it away under pain

of a hundred livres penalty and suspension, and to adjacent —

OF FELLINGS, SALES OF WOOD, &c. 105

proprietors it is forbidden under any pretext whatsoever,
under pain of exemplary punishment.

_ £9, The trees marking the margin and the side of the
_ plot shall be marked with the royal stamp and the stamp
_ of the Surveyor on one side, differing in this from the
corner trees, which shall be marked on each side facing a
lot for sale. |

‘10. The Surveyors can neither measure more nor less
in each triage than that which shall have been prescribed
to them by the Grand-Master for allotment, under pretext
of rendering the outline more regular, or for any other
consideration whatsoever, to such an extent that the
reduction or addition shall exceed one arpent for twenty,
or in this proportion, under pain of suspension and an
arbitrary fine, to be determined by the Grand-Master ;
and if three times such an error have been committed
_ by him, he shall be discharged and declared incapable of
acting as Surveyor.

‘11. The official report of the Surveyor being in the
Registry, he shall cause it to be delivered in like
manner to the Garde-Marteau for the martellage or mark-
ing of the trees, which he shall make in presence of the
Officers of the Mattrise, and to this effect the royal stamp
shall be delivered up to the Garde-Marteau by those who
have the keys, and he shall proceed with the officers to the
triages in which the sales shall have been allocated, and by
their advice he shall select ten trees in each arpent, of

| lofty growth, of great vigour, and of fine proportions, of
_ oak, and if possible of good wood and competent size,
_ which he shall mark as dalliveaux or reserved trees with
_ the royal stamp, and together with them the corner trees
and the trees marking out the boundary, and forthwith
_ after the martellage the stamp shall be brought back and
shut up in its case.
_ ‘£12. When the auction sales of fellings in our woods’
have been made, all the balliveaux, ancients et modernes, or
_ reserved trees of older growth, those newly marked, and
those reserved in former fellings which are therein, to

—LSS ST

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A OF

106 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE,

be reserved with those of older growth; and if it shall be —
found that the balliveaue, by their size and quantity, —
hinder by their shade or otherwise the coppice-wood
from shooting and making growth, the Grand-Masters ~
shall prepare official reports on this, which they shall send —
with their opinion to our Council through the Comptroller- —
General of our finances, that there may be provided by us —
what may be appropriate in the case. :

‘13. No wood shall be given as remplage, filling up, or —
compensation under pretext of void spaces, and of roads —
which shall be found in the purchase; but the sales —
shall be made of the woods in the condition in which ~
they shall be found, under pain of fourfold restitution —
against the merchant who shall have obtained the rem-
plage, and of three thousand livres fine, with deprivation —
of office against the Officers who shall have given it.

‘14, The purchases cannot be changed in whole or in
part, under any pretext whatever, after the auction sales, —
on pain of exemplary punishment against the Officers, —
with deprivation of office, and of restitution fourfold of
the price of the purchases changed, together with penalty —
against the merchants, without the possibility of this —
penalty being moderated under any pretext whatever.

‘15. We revoke dues de cire et de Greffer, or charges
for sealing and recording the purchase; but the sales of —
our woods shall be made in future subject to the sole —
charge of payment. of one sol per livre by the purchaser
into the hands of the Receiver-General or Special Receiver —
of Woods, if there be such an Officer, or otherwise of the —
Domain; out of which sum shall be paid the dues and ~
claims of the Officers of Maitrises and Gruries, according to —
allotments of these, which shall be ordered by the Grand. —
Masters, on which, and the receipts of the Officers, the —
amounts shall be passed and allowed in the accounts of
outlay by the Receiver.

‘16. If the amount of one sol per livre prove insufficient, —
the Grand-Master can take the supplement out of the |
proceeds of sale, but so that the Officers receive nothing ©

_ OF FELLINGS, SALES OF WOOD, &c. 107

excepting by the hands of the Receiver, under pain of
“fourfold restitution and suspension from their office.

‘17. The days for the auction sales having been inti-
mated by the Grand-Masters to the Officers of the
Mattrises, they shall cause announcement of them to be
made, and our Attorney shall be bound to send forth-
with to the usual place proclamation bills stating the
number of arpents, the situation, the quality, the reserves,
‘the day, the place, the hour, and before whom the sales
‘shall be made.

‘18. The day following such publication, the Hussiers
and Sergeants who shall have been engaged in making
_the publications and posting the bills, shall be bound to
deliver to our Attorney official reports signed by them
and by their Recors or assistants, with the certificates
of the curés and vicars of the parishes, to’ be produced
and credibly avouched before the auction of the sales, in
_ presence of the Grand-Master, or of the Commissioner who
shall have been deputed to attend thereto; and the curés
and vicars shall be bound to give their certificates free of
_ charge, under pain of a hundred livres penalty, payable by
_ seizure of their temporalities. .

‘19. There shall be at least eight free days between the
_ final publication and the auction.

‘20, All persons shall be allowed to bid ; if, however, a
bidder be notoriously insolvent, the Receivers of our
woods and of the domain can demand of him the names
of his cautioners; and if he have none; the Receiver shall
_ at the sale give his opinion or advice to the Grand-Master
_ to arrange in the case as by him shall be considered well.
_ ‘£21, There cannot in future any Ecclesiastics, Gentle-
| men, Governors of cities and places, Captains of chateaux
_ and Royal mansions, the Lieutenants and Officers of these,
_ Magistrates of Police and of Finance discharging the duties
of Judges or of Attorneys in our Courts of Justice, become
_ purchasers, directly or in concert with others, of the sales
_ which shall be made of our woods, either in whole or in
_ part, nor can they take reconveyance of these, or become

108 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

security and caution for purchasers under their own namé
or under that of other persons interposed, under pain of
confiscation of the purchases, or of the price for which they —
have been made, and of forfeiture of their privileges, and”
their being declared plebians, and subjected to the ¢azlle or
tax levied on villains, or those holding land byservile tenure;
and under pain of deprivation of office against our Officers
who shall have made and consented to the sale, or suffered —
the exploitation, or the felling and the disposal of the pro-_
duce of the wood, with even greater pains and penalties, if
so happen.
‘22. We forbid in like manner to the Officers of our”
Forest and of the Chase, both those of the Mazérises in which —
the sales take place and all others in whatever department —
they may be, without distinction, and to their children,
sons-in-law, brothers, brothers-in-law, uncles, nephews, and
cousins-german, to take part in the auction sales, be it as —
principals, associates, securities, or cautioners, under pain
against the officials who may be purchasers, of the confis-
cation of the purchase and deprivation of office, of fine
to be determined at the time, and banishment from the
department of the Maiztrise in which they shall have their
residence, and against their relatives and allies of like pain —
of confiscation and arbitrary fine. y,
‘23. Neither the merchants, purchasers, nor other indi-—
viduals, of what quality soever they may be,can make any |
secret combinations, or hinder, by indirect ways, the bid-
dings for our woods; and when they shall be convicted of 7
monopoly or combination or agreement between them by |
word or writing not to bid against one another, We will it
that besides the confiscation of the purchases, they shall
be condemned to an arbitrary fine, which shall not be
less than a thousand livres, and to banishment from the
forests.
‘24, The purchaser cannot have more than three part-
ners, the names of whom he shall be bound to lodge in |
the Registry of the Maitrise in the week of the auction,
and to lodge therewith a copy of their contract of co-

OF FELLINGS, SALES OF WOOD, &c. 109

partnery, and there to make, he and his partners, their
engagement to fulfil all the conditions of sale, under pain
‘of penalty of a thousand livres against him, and of for-
feiture of partnership against his partners.

_ £25. It shall be free to the merchants to revoke their
biddings at the Registry of the Maitrise the next day
after the auction, at noon, causing it to be intimated in the
‘meantime to the preceding bidder at the domicile given
by him, and to the Receiver, to whom they shall pay in
cash the bidding revoked.

‘26. In case of a bidding having been revoked, the pre-
ceding bidders shall be one by one successively put in the
om and place of those who have revoked their biddings ;
‘and all persons who sball have bidden shall be held
to have chosen a domicile in the place in which the
uction sales shall be held, both to render valid the deeds
which should follow the auction and for the execution of
their biddings, revocations, and adjudications, and biddings
of a third or of half a third sum, and of all other deeds
nd acts which it may be necessary to execute; in default
which choice having been made, assignations to them
‘shall-be made at the Registry of the Maztrise, which shall
be considered valid.

_ £27. 1f a merchant purchaser withdraw from the bidding,
nd renounce the purchase, he shall be arrested until he
hall have paid or given good caution for his abandoned
bidding, and the purchase shall revert to the preceding
‘bidder, and successively from one to another, as has been
prescribed above.

| ‘28. The auction sales shall be signed on the spot by
| the Forest-Merchant, Grand-Master, or him by whom the
/ auction has been held, together with the Forest-Master,
our Attorney, and the other Officers of Mastrise, in the
_ register of the Registrar immediately at the bottom of the
deed, and without leaving blank space between the text
of the deed of sale and the signatures; and each of the
‘sheets on which are copied the acceptance of biddings
and sales shall be initialed by the Grand-Master,

Loar]

110 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘29. The merchant-purchasers shall be bound within
eight days after the auction sales, before making use of
their purchase, to provide good and sufficient security, and
a cautioner, who shall be accepted by the Receiver, or, on
his refusal, by the Forest-Master and our Attorney; and
they shall bind themselves conjointly to pay into the
hands of the Receiver of our woods, if there be such, or of.
the Domain, the principal of the price in two equal pay-
ments, which shall be done at the time specified in the
conditions of sale ; and, further, to fulfil the other burdens,
clauses, and conditions there mentioned.

‘30. The Receiver shall be bound at the end of the
eight days to cause to be notified, without delay, and by
day, to him who gave the pen-ultimate bidding that he is”
substituted in the room and place of the purchaser who-
shall have failed to give caution, and that from that
moment the purchase is at his charge.

‘31. All persons not prohibited may bid a third or
half a third sum for the whole of the triages generally, or
for each in particular as they shall have decided on the
next day at noon after the day of auction sale; after
which time there shall be no room for tercement and
doublement under any pretext, or for any consideration
whatsoever. |

‘32. The teercements and doublements shall be made at
the Registry at the time specified above, and notified
the same day to the purchasers and receivers by word of
mouth to them personally, or at their domicile, if they
have made choice of one, if not at the Reegistry of the
Maitrise, by writ, which shall state precisely the hour at
which it has been served, and the name of those to whom
the Sergeants shall have spoken it, under pain of the writ
being made null.

‘33. The tiercement is a bidding which augments by a
third the price bidden at the auction, and constitutes thug
a fourth of the sum thus bidden; and the demi-tiercement ig
another bidding above the teercement, which is a half of the
third, so that if the price at the auction be fifteen hundred

_ OF FELLINGS, SALES OF WOOD, &c. 1)1

livres, the téercement will be five hundred livres, and the
demi-tiercement two hundred and fifty livres.

_ ‘34. We enjoin on the Registrars to mark the day and
hour precisely in the deeds which they shall prepare, and
deliver on the adjudications, tiercements, and doublements,
under pain of three hundred livres of fine, and all
expense, damages, and loss for the first time ; and for the
second, like compensation for penalties, with deprivation
_ of office.

*35. The demi-trercenent can only be received in advance
of the éiercement, but there may be made in one bidding
| the tiercement ana the demi-tiercement, This it is which is
' called doublement, which being notified in the way above
prescribed to the last bidder, he shall be allowed to make
_a simple bidding in advance of this, and on this bidding
he, and the téerceur, and the doubleur shall be received to
vote one against another between themselves alone, and
the purchase shall rest with the highest bidder without
further disturbance ; all which shall be done before the
-Grand- Master, or the Commissioner who shall have held
the auction, if they be present; if not, before the Officers
- of the Maitrise,

_ ‘36. After the merchants shall have produced their
_ securities and cautioners, the Receiver shall give them their
f certificates to be presented and to be registered in the
' Registry free of charge—a copy of which shall be put
into the hands of the Gardes-Marteaux, to whom and to the
; Officers it is ferbidden to suffer any fellings to be com-
_menced, in regard to which they have not seen, and seen
registered, the certificate of the Receiver, under pain of
having to answer for the same in their own name and person.
‘37. The purchaser of timber trees in our forests, of
| which they make use in work, shall be bound to have a
stamp, an impress of which ‘shall be deposited in the
Registry, to mark the wood which he shall sell standing,
without his having power to sell wood of this quality
without having this mark, and to have for himself, or
his factors, or Gardes-Ventes, a register, in which shall be

PE RT IE DT

Tar *

“—~

112 THE FORESTS OF FRANOE.

written the names, surnames, and domiciles of those to.
whom he shall sell wood, and the quantity and the price,
under pain of a hundred livres fine, with confiscation ; and

this without several partners having more than one stamp, -
or marking other trees than those of their purchase, under

pain of being punished as forgers.

‘38. If, however, a merchant hold many purchases, and
on account of the distances of the places from one another
he be obliged to keep different registers, in that case he
may have as many stamps as registers, and those of the
same mark, provided he have caused to be made an
official report and an imprint, as is said above. |

‘39. The Factors and Gardes-Ventes appointed by the
merchants for the using up and sale of their purchases
shall make oath between the hands of the Grand-Master,
the Forest-Master, or of the Lieutenant, without expense
or dues; they shall make report of offences which may
have been committed, within the bounds of their pur-—
chases or circumjacent ground, which they shall cause to —
be signed by two witnesses, or attested, if they cannot —
sign, before one of the Judges of the Maztrise, under pain ©
of its being declared null; and if the offence have been ©
committed by night, by fire or by saw, this official report —
shall be valid testimony after having been verified by —
oath, which official reports they shall lodge in the Registry,
and receive the certificate of the Registrar of this having —
been done, at latest within three days after the offences ©
have been committed ; and doing this the merchants shall —
thereby be discharged of responsibility, and the delinquents |
shall be condemned aw pied le tour, together with other —
offences, by the Officers of the Maitrise, at the suit of our —
Attorney, within eight days after the day on which the
report was made; all this under pain of being held —
personally responsible. i

‘40, The woods, both timber and coppice, shall be cut
and felled by the fifteenth day of April, and the time of
vuidance, or bringing out the produce, shall be regulated
by the Grand-Master according to the possibilité or yield

OF FELLINGS, SALES OF WOOD, &c. 113

of the forests, under pain of arbitrary fine and confiscation
of the merchandise against the purchaser, and this without
the Officers ‘being able to grant any prolongation for the
felling and vuidance under like pain of arbitrary fine and
deprivation of office.

‘41. If, however, the merchants be obligated by just
considerations to ask some prolongation of time to fell and
bring out the purchases, they can do so in our Council,
that in the report of the Comptroller-General of our
Finances there may be made provision for this on the
advice of the Grand-Master.

‘42, The timber forests shall be cut as low as this can
_ be done, and the coppice wood felled by axe, level with the
ground, without there being any splints or splitters, so
that if possible the stems of the shoots may not spring
from above the level of the ground, and that all the old
knobs covered up and caused by previous fellings may
disappear.

‘43. The trees shall be felled in such a way that they
fall on the purchase, without damaging the trees remain-
‘ing, under pain of damage and loss against the merchants ;
and if it happen that the trees shall remain and rest
_ encronés, or entangled in the boughs of another tree, the
' merchant cannot cause to be felled the tree upon which it
has fallen without the permission of the Grand-Master or
of the officers after having provided for our indemnifi-
cation. .

_ ‘44, The wood of shoots shall not be felled or cut with
_ the bill-hook or saw, but only with the axe, under pain
against the merchants who exploit them of a hundred
livres of fine, with the confiscation of the merchandise,
_and the implements of the workmen.

‘45, We enjoin on the purchasers to cause to be cut or
_ cut over as near to the ground as possible, all stumps of
stolen, damaged, and destroyed trees in their purchases,
and to the officers to keep an eye on this, and lend a
helping hand in this, under pain of suspension from their
_ office.
4 I

.

114 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘46, If, during the using up of the purchases, any of the
reserve trees be torn or borne down by the winds ane
storms, or by other accident, the merchants or their factors
shall leave them on the spot, and give immediate advice
of it to the Sergeant of the Guard, who shall be bound te
notify the Garde-Marteau to betake himself immediately
to the place in order to prepare an official report in regard”
to it, which he shall present immediately to the Officers of
the Afaitrise that others may be marked, all without
expense. |

‘47. The time for felling and vuddance, or bringing out
the wood, specified in the conditions of sale, being expired,
if there be wood on the purchase site felled or standing,
this shall be confiscated to our profit, and what is lying
forthwith transported out of the forest. |

‘48. The merchant-purchasers cannot include in their
purchase other woods than those which have been specified, ©
under pain of being punished as having stolen the woods ~
so included notwithstanding our prohibition. ? :

‘49. No merchant nor other person can cause work to ~
be carried on by night, nor on holidays, in the purchases _
which are being felled—nor take and carry out wood,
under pain of a hundred livres of penalty. 4

‘50. Before exploiting the purchases, the merchants -
can cause to be made, in presence of the Forest-Master, in
presence of the Garde- Marteau, and of the Sergeant, of the
Guard, a souchetage, or survey of the stumps, by two experts,
of whom one shall be appointed by our Attorney of the
Maitrise, and the other by them, by whom shall be pre-
pared an official report without. expense or fees, under
charge of exaction, reserving the day’s wages ‘of. the
Soucheteurs, which shall be determined by the Master, }
and paid by the Sergeant-Collector of Penalties ; in which
official report shall be inserted the number of stumps
which have been found, their quality and size; and it
shall remain in the Registry of the Matérise for reference,
and it shall afterwards serve in case of re-survey. |

‘51, The merchants shall remain responsible for all }

OF RE-SURVEYS AFTER THE FELLINGS. 115

depredations which shall be committed within hearing of
‘the axe in the environs of their purchases, estimated for
woods of fifty years’ growth and upwards at fifty poles, and
wenty-five poles for those of fifty years and under, if
the merchants or their factors do not report them.
‘52. The transport, passage, carriage, or flotage of the
wood by land or water cannot be hindered or stopped
under any pretexts of rights of way, transport dues, pon-
tonage, or other, by any private person whatever, under
pain of answering for all expense, damage, and loss of the
merchants, save by those who claim to have rights to levy
dues, which they have brought before the Grand-Master,
and shown him that these pertain to them.

{ CHAPTER XVIL—oOf ‘Recollemens, or Re-surveys of Fellings
after the Fellings.

_ ‘ Art. 1. The recollemens of all the purchases shall be

made at latest six weeks after the time for clearing away

and bringing out the produce has expired by the Forest-

Master, in presence of our Attorney, the Garde-Marteau, or

Keeper of the Stamp, the Registrar, the Sergeant of the

‘Guard, the Surveyor, and the Soucketewr who shall have made

the survey and the souchetage or enumeration and specifi-

zation of existant stumps, and of the Lieutenant, if so

‘seems to him good, but without his interfering, excepting

in the absence of the Forest-Master; and to this end the

‘merchant-purchasers shall be summoned eight days before

to meet on that day with other Surveyors and Soucheteurs,

to make the new survey and souchetage of the purchase.

‘2. When the Surveyors and Soucheteurs, with those

irst employed and those who have been appointed specially
or the verification, shall have arrived on the ground, the
Official report of the felling to be sold, of survey, of balli-
| vage, or specification of reserved trees, and of souchetage
_ which shall have been made for the auction sale shall be
| produced, and they shall reconnoitre the trees reserved by
_ the official reports and by the conditions of sale; and to

6 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

this effect the Officers shall inspect carefully the purchases
from end to end in all their parts, the pied cornieres, parois,
lizieres and balliveaux, or trees marking the angles, the sides,
and the margins of the allotment, and the trees reserved
for seed, so as to see that the lots have been well cut, ~
treated, cleared out, and freed of all encumbrance, of which
they shall prepare their official reports, containing details
of encroachments, malversations, defaults, and defects
which they may have seen, and of any deficiencies of trees
retained by the official reports of martellage and ballivage,

‘3. Our Attorney in the Maétrise shall appoint on his ~
part a Surveyor and Soucheteur, and the merchant also a
Surveyor and Soucheteur on his part. But if the merchant —
raise difficulties, or refuse to attend the meeting, it shall be~
proceeded with by the Surveyor and Soucheteur appointed
by our Attorney, and the report shall be considered and~
held as if made in the presence of the adverse parties. ;

‘4, The souchetage shall be extended to the environs of ©
the purchase within the sound of the axe. This shall be ©
done in presence of the merchants, if they be willing to”
take part, and of our Attorney, the Garde-Marteau, and_
the Sergeant of the Guard, who shall prepare their official
reports containing details of the stumps which they shall
have found, and of the depredations which may have been —
committed during exploitation, tree by tree, with mention
of their quality, nature, kind, and size, all omissions being”
forbidden under pain, against the Souchetewrs, of fourfold
the value of the depredations which they have not reported”
in their official reports, which official reports they shall be
bound to lodge in the Registry within twenty-four hours
after they shall have been made. 4

‘5. The official reports of the second souchetage shall be
examined and collated with those of the first, and any”
difference which shall be found between them shall be
noted minutely and in detail; to which effect there shall
be produced all the official reports of exoneration which
shall have been made for the merchants and their factors,
and there shall be observed any defaults and malversations

OF RE-SURVEYS AFTER THE FELLINGS. 117
a hich may be found to have been committed in the course
‘of the use and exploitation of their purchases, of which
they have not been validly exonerated.

‘6. The official reports of re-survey shall contain exactly
the quantity of arpents and of poles which the Surveyors
shall have found in the purchase re-surveyed, and if they
find any encroachments or extensions beyond the pieds
corniers, they shall measure them, make an exact descrip-
ion of them, and distinguish them in the diagram which
shall be prepared by them.

_ ‘7, After that our Attorney in the Maitrise shall have
taken cognisance of the official reports made by the
Officers, Surveyors, and Soucheteurs, he shall state in writing
the conclusions to which he shall have come in relation
‘thereto, and shall cause these to be notified to the
ants, who shall be bound to give an answer in
writing in three days; and the whole shall be lodged in
the Registry, and adjudged at the first Audience or
hearing at the Court by the Forest-Master, with the
‘Lieutenant and the Garde-Morteau, without the Officers
k peing able at the close of the Court to claim any dues or
other fees than those which shall be allotted to them by
‘the Grand-Master, to be taken out of the sol per livre,
under pain of bribery.

; “8. lf by the official reports of re-survey there be found
am excess of what had been stated between the
preds corniers, the merchant shall be adjudged to pay for
his’; in proportion to the original price and the charges of

‘the purchase; and if there ‘be found to be a deficiency,

‘there shall be a reduction made in proportion from the
amount of his bidding, or he shall be reimbursed in cash
Ee the purchases of the following year, without its being
rmitted to give compensation in wood, or to make com-
nsation in kind for excess or deficit.

9, If there be found any encroachment or extension
yond the pteds corniers, the merchant shall be condemned
pay fourfold the rate of the highest sum of his bidding,
in case that the wood cut by him shall be of the same

Ife

118 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

kind of tree as that of the purchase; and if it be of a”
better kind, quality, or age, he shall be bound to pay that
penalty, and to make restitution aw pied le tour, :
‘10, The purchaser who shall fail to exhibit ballweaua,
corner trees, or boundary and partition trees left in his
charge, shall be bound to pay for them as is said in the
chapter on Penalties.
«11. All merchant-purchasers shall be bound at the
end of the exploitation of their purchases to deliver the
stamps of which they have made use, to be broken. 4
‘12. If by the judgment which shall be given the dis-~
charge of the Court shall be granted to the merchants, our ~
Attorney shall cause the same to be delivered to the Garde a
Marteau, in order that he may put the lot in charge of the”
Sergeant, and in case there be only a penalty or pecuniary
fine, he shall be bound to cause delivery of copies to be~
made to those who are charged with the recovery of our
monies; and if the judgment carry any condemnation —
against the merchants or others, he shall be bound to ~
prosecute these to their execution, under pain of being ~
personally responsible for the same.

Cuapter XVII.—Of Sales of Windfalls and of Wood in
Small Parcels. iM

‘Art. 1, If there be found any trees injured, uprooted, ©
or broken over by the force of the wind, or by any other
accident, the Sergeant of the Guard shall prepare a minute
of this in his register, stating the quality, kind, and size
of them, and the ‘place where they have been found ; and
he shall state whither in falling they have injured or
broken any others by their fall. Of this he shall be bound -
to lodge a copy, under his seal, with the Registrar of the
Maitrise, within three days, and for this he shall take a
receipt from the Registrar, under pain of fifty livres fine. —

‘2, The Garde-Marteau and the Sergeant of the Guard |
shall see to the preservation of the wood of windfalls, and
prevent this being taken, carried off, or lopped by usagers |

OF SALES OF WINDFALLS AND SMALL LOTS. 119

or others, whoever they may be, under pretext of use and
_ wont; and in case of their meeting with any felled trunks
or loppings, they shall make their report of these the
_ same as if they had found them felled standing; and the
Officers shall pass sentence according to the loss sustained
in the future as well as the present, under pain of arbitrary
fine, and being answerable in their own name.
‘3. As soon as the Officers shall have been advertised
of this, they shall proceed to the localities, accompanied
_by the Garde-Marteau and the Sergeant of the Guard,
_ with his minute, to see the trees of the windfall, and see
if the report of the Sergeant be correct, and the wood
shall be marked with our marteau, under pain of arbitrary
_ fine, and their being held personally responsible.
{ ‘4, The trees of a windfall cannot be laid aside or
trimmed under pretext of being cut up for sale and to be
debited to our advantage at some other time, but they
‘shall be sold forthwith in the state in which they are
found, and the auction shall be held by the Grand-Master
| in the Audience Hall of the J usticiary of Waters and
Forests by extinction of candle, after two announcements
of sale have been made in the Audience Hall, or in the
' market of the place, and at the sermon of the mass by the
_curés of the parish of the Court of the Maitrise, and of
_ the towns Re villages of the environs of the forest ; and
to this end proclamation bills shall be sent, and shall be
_ affixed so as is prescribed for ordinary sales; and the time
_ allowed for clearing away the wood when bought shall be
one month at most, under pain of nullification, and of
confiscation of the wood bought.
| ‘5. We forbid to the Garde-Marteau to mark, and to the
| Officers to sell, any trees under pretext that they would
have been split or stripped of branches by the fall of the
| windfalls; but we will that they be preserved, under pain
of arbitrary fine.
‘6. Immediately after the sales of windfalls, and the
_ auction of small parcels of wood, there shall be prepared a
statement of these to be within eigh t days delivered by

ae oo aL

120 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

the Registrar to the Receiver of the Woods, if there be
one, or otherwise to the Receiver of the Domain, who
shall give a receipt for the same.

‘7. The fees of the Officers and of the Registrar for the
sales of windfalls and stolen trees, as well as for recognai-
sances and for martellages, shall be determined by the
Grand-Masters when they are present, according to the —
trouble and the time consumed, and be Jevied on ‘the fines
and proceeds, of which recovery shall be made by the
Sergeant-Collector; in order to this they shall present to
them their minutes, ordinances, and other documents ; and
the proceeds of sales shall be paid in to the Receiver, and

by him to the Receiver-General, and their fees, as well
as the principal price received of our woods, shall be com- 4
prised in the statement of the recovery made. q

Cnaprer XVIII.—Of the Sale or Letting by Auction of
Pannage, Mast, and Pasturage.

‘Art. 1. When there shall be a sufficiency of acorns and ~
beech-nuts to allow of a sale being made, without injury —
to the forests, the Forest-Master or the Lieutenant and 4
our Attorney shall visit the spot, and in presence of the ©
Garde-Marteau, and of the Sergeant of the Guard, they |
shall prepare a minute of the number of hogs which may
be put on pannage in the forests of the Mattrise, with a —
statement also of the number which may be placed there —
by usagers and the officers; and there shall be made on ©
the spot by the Grand-Master a tax for their salaries to be —
paid out of the fines and other monies recovered by the ©
Sergeant-Collector, on their simple quitance, which tax ~
shall be in accordance with the ordinances, and the ©
amounts shall be allowed. f

‘2. The auction sale shall be held at the Audience Hall —
before the fifteenth of September by extinction of candle, —
and to the highest and last bidder, after publication of the
same as is done in sales of windfalls, with express charge |
to the purchaser to make payment into the hands of the —

OF THE RIGHTS OF PASTURAGE AND PANNAGE. 121

Receiver according to conditions of sale, caution being
given, and recognition by the auction-purchaser of
the number of other hogs which shall have been deter-
mined, both in regard to those of officers and those of
usagers.

_ ‘8. The ground shall only be open from the first of
- October to the first of February; and neither the usagers,
nor the officers, nor the lessees shall put in hogs in greater
numbers than was specified at the sale, and this after
' having branded them,.and deposited with the Registrar
the stamp used, under pain of a fine of a hundred livres,
' and confiscation of all in excess of that number or found
marked with a false brand.

‘4, We forbid all persons other than those specified in
the statement which shall be issued by our Council, to
send or put their hogs on the acorn grounds of our forest,
unless they have the authority of the auction purchaser,
_ under pain of a fine of a hundred livres and confiscation,
one half to go to our treasury, and the otber half to the
_ auction purchaser; and the owners shall be responsible
_ for all that may be done by their swine-herds,

CHAPTER XIX.—Of the Rights of Pasturage and Pannage.

‘Art.1, We permit to communities, inhabitants, and
private persons designated Usagers in the statement
_ sanctioned by our Council, to exercise their rights of
_ pasturage and pannage for their hogs and black cattle in
_ all our forests, woods, and shrubberies in the places which
_ have been declared by the Grand-Masters on their visita-
tions, or on advices received by them from the Officers of
_ Maitriszs,to be capable of enclosure, and on all the lands
' and heaths of our domains.

_ ‘£2, The inhabitant usagers shall make a declaration of the
_ number of kinds and quantities of the beasts which they
possess or hold on hire; in regard to which last there
shall be a list, containing the names of those to whom they
belong, which declaration and list shall be taken to the

129 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

Court of the Mattrise, to be transcribed into the register —
which is kept by the Registrar, and paraphed by the
Master and by our Attorney. '
‘3. The Officers shall assign to each parish, hamlet,
village, or community, being usagers, a particular spot of
land, the most convenient possible, to which, and in enclos-
able places only, the cattle may be taken and guarded ~
apart, without their intermixing with herds from other

places, under pain of the confiscation of the cattle, and of

arbitrary fine against the usagers, and privation of office
against the Officers who may permit or suffer the contrary
to take place; and all deliverances thereanent shall be
made without expense or any claim of dues, under pain of
charge of exaction.

‘4, The declaration of the locations, and of the liberty ~

to send cattle there, shall be published after sermon in
the morning Mass of the usager parishes on one of the
Sundays in the month of February, at the instance of our
Attorney; and the certificate of the curé, or of the Ser-
geant of his diligence, shall be lodged with the Registrar
of the Maztrise, and enregistered there free of expense; all
with prohibition to the usagers and to all others to send
their beasts to pasture in other places, under pain of con-
fiscation, and of deprivation of their right of usage,

‘5. The customs, franchises, usages, and pannages, shall
be limited to the fiefs and usager houses alone, following
the statements made by the Commissioners who have ~
travelled in this matter, with a view to reformations, or
those which have subsequently been prepared by the
Grand-Masters in regard to Mattrises in which this had

not been done. The number of cattle shall, with like ~

power, be regulated by the Grand-Masters, regard being
had by them to the condition and capabilities of the
forests.

‘6, All the animals belonging to the usagers of the
same parish or hamlet having right of usage, shall be
marked with the same mark, an imprint of which shall be
lodged at the registry, before they can be sent to the

OF THE RIGHTS OF PASTURAGE AND PANNAGE. 133

pasturage ; and every day they shall be gathered together
in some one place, which shall be designated for each
burgh, village, or hamlet, and they shall be driven in one
herd, by one way only, the most fit and best fenced, which
shall be designated by the Officers of the Maztrise, without
their being permitted to take any other route in going and
returning, under pain of confiscation of the beasts, and an
arbitrary fine against the owners, and exemplary punish-
ment against the herds and the guards.

‘7. Private persons shall put a bell on the neck of their
beasts, the sound of which may give notice of where they
are, and doing damage, that the herds may run after
them, and the guards may seize animals wandering and
doing damage out of the place designated and declared
fencible. 3

‘8. It shall not be allowable to any inhabitant to lead
forth his cattle under a separate guard, nor to send them

_ into the forest under the charge of his wife, his children,

or domestics, under pain of a fine of ten livres for the first
offence, confiscation for the second, and for the third
total deprivation of usage. Thisshall be equally enforced
in regard to ecclesiastical seigneurs, gentlemen, and others
indiscriminately who may enjoy the right of an inhabitunt,
notwithstanding rights of keeping their flock apart, and
all customs or possessions to the contrary.

‘9. The herds and guards shall be selected and appointed
annually, at the instance of Attorneys of the Office or
Syndics of each parish, or of the principal inhabitants of
the hamlets and villages, by the inhabitants assembled in
presence of the Judge of the place, who shall deliver
the deed thereof free of expense, or in presence of the
Notary or like official of the place, and the community
shall be held responsible for those whom they may have
chosen. |

‘10. Private usagers cannot lend their names or houses
to the merchants and inhabitants of neighbouring towns
and parishes to take their cattle there; and if any be
found to have been taken there thus, or through a fraudu-

j24 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

lent declaration, they shall be confiscated, and the usager
shall be condemned for the first time to pay a fine of fifty —
livres, and in case of repetition, to total deprivation of
usage. | |

‘11. We forbid all private persons to send their beasts to
pasturage under pretext of leases, and of permission given
by the officers, receivers, or farmers of the domain, or even
by contractors or usufructiers, under pain of confiscation
of the beasts found in pasturage, and a fine of a hundred
livres.

‘12. If there be young shoots of timber trees, or coppice
woods, along the roads or routes by which the beasts pass
to go into the places destined for pasturage, so that brow-
sing cannot be certainly prevented, the officers shall take
in hand that there be made ditches sufficiently broad and
deep to secure the conservation of these, or that the old
ones be cleared out and maintained, at the expense of the
communities of usagers proportionally to the number of
beasts which they send on pasturage. .

‘13. We equally forbid to the inhabitants of usager
parishes, and to all persons having right of pannage in our
forests and woods, or in those of ecclesiastics, communities,
and private persons, to take or send their sheep or goats,
ewes or lambs there, or even to lands and heaths, or void
and bare places on the borders of the woods and forests,
under pain of confiscation of the beasts, and a fine of
three livres for each beast ; the shepherds and guards of
such beasts shall be condemned to a fine of ten livres for
the first offence, and flogging and banishment from the
province of the Mattrise in case of repetition; and the
master proprietors of the beasts, and fathers of families
shall be civilly responsible for the sentences given against
the shepherds.

‘14, The inhabitants of usager houses shall enjoy the
rights of pasturage and pannage for the beasts kept for
family benefit alone, and not for those of which they make
trade or traffic, under pain of fine and confiscation.

‘15. The Forest-Master cannot put more than eight

CLAIMS FOUNDED ON USAGES REVOKED. 125

hogs on the acorn ground, and the Lieutenant, our Attor-
ney, and Garde-Marteau, six each; the Registrar, four;
and the Sergeant of the Guard, three; all under pain of
confiscation, and the whole in case of their being actually
resident there and not otherwise.

Cuapter XX.—Of ‘ Chauffage’ or Firewood, and other Claims,
Founded on Usage, for Wood for Buildings and Repairs.

‘ Art. 1. We revoke all and every of the rights of usage
with which our woods are at present burdened, of whatever
nature and condition they may be.

‘2. We will, nevertheless, that those who possess them
on account of exchanges or indemnities, or who shall
establish by a possession previous to the year 1560, or
otherwise, their right, shall be compensated according to a
valuation, which shall be made before our Council, and
until actual reimbursement, they shall be paid annually
from the proceeds of sale the value of their chauffage.

‘3. We will also that chauffage assigned to the Officers
of our waters and forests by edicts or declarations, in con-
sequence of money paid by them, shall be valued in our
Council, in order that they may be reimbursed, or paid
annually the value of these from the proceeds of sales,
following a statement relative thereto which shall be

‘determined by us.

‘4, The communities and private persons who enjoy, on
account of rent or tenure, or of allegiance, a right to chauf-
fage in money, or in kind, or of personal service in the
Guard, of corvées or husbandry service, or other charges,
shall remain free in the enjoyment of these, and be, in
consequence, exempt from this revocation.

‘5. With regard to chauffages given and granted by us,
or our predecessors, founders, and benefactors, as endow-
ments and donations made to churches, chapters, monas-
teries, hospitals, infirmaries, and other communities,
ecclesiastical, secular, and regular, we will that these
should retain them in kind, following the statements

126 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

which in regard to these have been, or shall be hereafter
determined in our Council, in regard to the possible yield
of our forests; and where these shall be found to be so
devastated and ruined that they cannot yield that without
considerable prejudice and diminution of our revenue, the
value of the chauffage shall be paid in our Council, on
advice of the Grand-Masters, and entered in our accounts,
to be paid to them in money annually out of the proceeds
of sales, without diminution or reduction.

‘6. The religious houses, hospitals, and communities,
which have chauffages from us, or from our predecessors, in
alms, shall not have delivery of these in kind in future,
but only in money, the funds for which shall be entered in
our accounts in the Chapter Of Fiefs and Alms.

‘7. There shall be made in our Council a general state-
ment of all the chauffage in kind or money coming under
the name of usage, and of the number and quality of
the woods, and from what forests they should be supplied,
copies of which shall be sent to the Chambre des Comptes and
to the Grand-Masters, who shall deposit extracts in the
Registries of the several Maztrises in which the forests
within their bounds are burdened, to be delivered accord-
ing to our statements and ordinances, without their having
power to make any augmentation thereof, under penalty of
privation of their office against directors, and of quadruple
restitution against those who have received any.

‘8. If any of the Officers of our waters and forests be
convicted of having received or claimed from merchants
or their factors and commissioners any wood under pretext
of chauffage, or in any way whatever, to the prejudice of
our prohibitions, we order the Grand-Master to punish
them according to the rigour of our ordinances,

‘9. The Officers shall not be paid the money which
shall be assigned to them by our statements in lieu of
their chauffage if they be not in service and in actual resi-
dence; therefore they shall be obliged to take to the
Receivers the certificates and attestations of the Grand-
Masters.

OF BUILDING TIMBER, &c. 127

‘10. We furthermore revoke, extinguish, and suppress
all usages of grant: of wood for buildings and repairs for
whatever account, and under whatever pretext, the con-
cession may have been made, notwithstanding all confir-
mations, letters, titles, and possessions, saving if they be
found to have been acquired or conceded under title of
foundation or dotation, or by possession previous to 1560,
or otherwise established as a burden-right, with provision
to indemnify or discharge the parties interested, as may
be seen to be reasonable.

‘11. There shall not in future be made any gift or |
allowance of chauffage for any cause whatever; and if by
importunity or otherwise any letters or warrants have
been granted and issued, we forbid to our Courts of Parlia-
ment, Chambres des Comptes, Grand-Masters, and Officers to
regard them.

Cuaprer XXI.—Of Building Timber for Royal Mansions
and for the Navy.

‘ Art. 1. There shall not be made any extraordinary sale
by arpent of trees for construction and repairs of our royal
dwellings or navy; but the Grand-Master can charge the
auction-purchaser of ordinary sales, &c., to supply the
wood necessary for these works on payment to him of the
price according to estimate of this by advice of people
conversant with the mattter, on the estimates of the
undertakers or architects, and conformably to a statement
by the Superintendent of our buildings, or by the Con-
_ troller-General of our Finances, passed in good and due

_ form, which shall be inserted in the schedule of the
charges, and deposited in the Registry of the Maitrise,

‘2. If at times there be required pieces of such size and
length as cannot be found in the ordinary sales, in that
case the Grand- Master, on statements made in our Council,
and letters patent duly verified, may cause such to be
marked and felled in our forests in places in which this
can be done with least damage ; and if none can be found

128 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

there, they shall be selected and taken in the woods of —
our subjects, as well those of ecclesiastics as of others, —
without distinction and quality; but under burden of being
paid for at their just value, which shall be determined by —
experts, in regard to whom our Attorney in the Mattrise —
and the parties shall agree before the Grand-Master, who
in default or refusal, shall officially nominate them.

‘3. We forbid the Grand-Master to proceed to mark the
wood thus required beyond ordinary sales, excepting in
virtue of letters patent issued in conformity to the state-
ments and advice of the Superintendent of our Buildings ~
or of the Comptroller-General of our Finances,in execution —
of which, and after the enregistering of which in the Par-
liament, and Chambre des Comptes in the Province of the
Maittrise, he shall go to the localities and shall make a
minute of the number, situation, age, girth, and quality of |
the trees selected; mark them then with our mark and
his own, in presence of the Officers, and the contractor for
the work or other tenderer for the delivery shall sign the
minute along with all the assistants, and he shall cause it to
be immediately transcribed on the Register of the Maitrise,
of which minute the Registrar shall deliver a copy gratis
to those who have charge of the exploitation of the woods.

‘4, The trees which may be found bent over or broken
by the fall or bringing out of the pieces taken shall like-
wise be marked with our marteau and with that of the
Grand-Master, who, after having made a minute of their
age, girth, and quality, and also of their value on report of
an expert in the form above described, shall deliver them
to the contractor to make an account of them to our —
profit, and to take them away immediately without per-
mitting any abuse or depredation to be committed by the
workmen whom he has employed, and he shall be respon-
sible for the same.

‘5. The branches, tops, and remains of the trees thus
taken for our buildings, and those which may be bent over
or broken by their fall and transport, shall be sold at the
Court of the Maztrise with the formalities prescribed for the

OF WATERS, FORESTS, WOODS, AND WARRENS. 129

sale of windfalls, and the proceeds shall be paid to the
Receiver of woods or of the domain, without the woodmen
having power to carry them away or ‘dispose of them under
pretext of hearth-wood or otherwise, under pain of
arbitrary fine and of restitution of double the value, for
which the contractor also shall be equally responsible.

Ԥ. Those who fell and work up the trees spoken of
above shall, before the delivery of them, furnish to the
Garde-Marieau of the Maitrise, and to the Sergeant in the
ward in which they have been marked, for each of them
to make mention of it on their register, the number, height,
size, and quality of them, the time at which they were
taken away, and the names of those who took them away.

‘7. If there shall be more wood marked than is required,
the contractor, or he who has charge of the work, after
having taken what is necessary, shall make and sign on the
Register of the Registrar of the MVaitrise his declaration of
what he leaves, in order that the mark may be effaced
within three days at the very latest on the pieces which
shall be still standing; and if it be felled, it shall be sold
for our profit, and the price paid to the Receiver to be
accounted for.

Cuaprer XXII.—Of the Waters, Forests, Woods and Warrens held
under Title of Douaire, Concession, Sale-Contract, and Usufruct.

‘Art. 1. We forbid all persons of: whatever rank or
quality to intermeddle in any way whatever, or commence
operations on any waters, woods, and forests in our domain,
_ held under title of douaire, concession, sale-contract, usu-
fruct, or otherwise, under any title or pretext whatsoever,
if the Grand- Masters, in the several departments, have
not previously visited the places, and made a minute of
the state in which they found them, containing in detail the
nature and quality of the trees, the state, kind, and number
of balliveaux in the coppice woods in each separate ward or
_ lot, the density and value of the ordinary fellings, as esti-
mated by him, and a report of the last six sales,
K

\

130 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘2, We will further that the minute contain also a
statement of the warrens, rivers, fish-ponds, forges, furnaces, —
sanctioned sluices, floodgates, water-gates, discharges, —
and causeways, ‘with an account, on the report of an ~
expert, of the repairs which it would be proper to have —

made; and in regard to these the holders of douatre,

endowment, usufruct, and contract, shall come to an agree-—
ment with our Attorney of Waters and Forests, in the |
presence of the Grand-Master, who shall cause the whole —
to be signed by all the Officers of the Mattrise, and by the

parties interested, or their Agent or Attorney specially

authorised to do so, to be deposited and enregistered —

within a fortnight in his Registry, and in that of the

Maitrise in the locality in which the Waters and Forests —

Assizes are held.

‘3. The contractors cannot avail themselves of their
contracts and purchases to take advantage of these in the
waters, woods, and warrens in question until these have
previously been appraised in the Chambre des Comptes, in

the presence of the Grand-Master, or on advice and

minutes sent by him in regard to the matter, under pain
of a fine of ten thousand livres, and of the reversion of the
waters and woods in question to our Domain. ‘
‘4, Whenever the term of tenure or enjoyment expires,
new visitations, estimates, and reconnaisances shall be
made, with the same formalities, by the Grand-Masters,
the contractors, or usufructiers, or their heirs, being pre-—
sent, or duly summoned, to ascertain the condition and
denseness of all things mentioned in the first minute, that
in case of their being found any degradation, destruction,
or prejudicial changes, the holders, their successors, and —
representatives may be obliged forthwith to restore every-_
thing to the condition in which they were received, and
indemnify us for loss which may be sustained, conformably
to the ordinances, in what relates to the woods, and in
what relates to anght else, according to the deliverance of
experts, who sball be called or appointed to the office.
‘5, The holders under title of douatre, concession, usu-

:

OF WATERS, FORESTS, &c., IN DOUAIRE, &. + 131

fruct, and contract can dispose of no timber forest, old
andard trees, anciens, or trees which have stood over four or
three growths felled, modernes which have stood over two, or
| balliveaux which have stood over one felling in coppice
woods, or even of trees the age of wood reserved in the
last sales, nor of windfalls, nor of stolen trees, nor of fines,
| restitutions, or confiscations accruing to us; but the whole
shall remain entirely for our profit, and the proceeds shall
be paid entirely to our account to the Receiver of our
| Domains, or of our Woods in places in which there are such,
along with the other money in their charge, and this shall
oe done notwithstanding all attested letters, clauses, gifts,
decrees, contracts, adjudications, usages, and possessions to
the contrary.

‘6. Neither, moreover, can their farmers, attorneys,
agents, or receivers take or cause to be felled any trees
anciens, modernes, or balliveaux in coppice woods, by the
‘arpent or by the piece, to maintain and repair houses,
mills, and buildings belonging to the same domain, or
under any other pretext, excepting in virtue of letters
well and duly registered in the Court of Parliament and
Chambre des Comptes of the Province, on advices and
minutes by the Grand-Master under pain of deprivation, of
fine, and of restitution of entire loss likely to be sustained
against the possessors, and of condemnation against all,
severally and conjointly, against their farmers, agents, and
Teceivers, and against the merchants and contractors who
have exploited “them, to like fine and restitution, and of
suspension against the Officers who have given the delivery,
together with payment of like fines, restitutions, damages,
‘and compensations without modification and without
appeal.

‘7. There shall be observed by all, in the treatment of
the waters and woods thus held, the same conditions and
‘reservations which ought to be observed in the treatment
of our waters and woods in possession, and sales and
auctions shall be held by our Officers in waters and woods
with all the formalities which are prescribed by the present

132: THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

Ordinance without any farmer or merchant being able to —
intermeddle with the subjects, excepting in virtue of the
allocations, martellages, and delivery so made to them by
our Officers, under pain of fine of three thousand livres for —
each contravention, and confiscation of the purchase made, —

‘8. Our Grand-Masters, and the Officers of the several —
Moitrises, shall have the same cognisance and jurisdiction —
Over the waters and forests of ecclesiastics, Commanders of —
St. John of Jerusalem, administrators, communities, and —
holders of mortmain situated within the extent of our |
domains purchased, conceded, or held by whatsoever title
it may be which they have and ougbt to have in the —
domains which we own, without the contractors, holders in —
possession, or usufructiers or their officers having power to —
intermeddle with the subjects under any pretext, any more —
than in woods held in Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Danger, if
they be not parties specified in the grant or contract. wie

Cuaptrr XXIIIL—Of the Woods in Grurie, Grairie,
Trers et Danger.

—

‘Art. 1. In all the woods subject to the rights of Grurie,
Grairie, Tiers et Danger, the execution of law and all profits
thence resulting pertain to us, exclusive of all others,
together with the rights of chase, pasturage, and pannage,
if it do not be the case that in regard to the pasturage and
pannage there be any title to the contrary. ;

‘2. The parts and portions which we take out of the
fellings and usances of the woods subject to the rights of
Grurie and Grairie shali be taken up and collected for our
profit, in money or in kind, according to the ancient usage
of each Maitrise in which they may be situated, without
any change or innovation in this respect ; and no wood of
whatsoever quality can be sold but through the agency of
our Officers, and with the same formalities as in our other —
woods and forests. E

‘3. The Ziers et Danger shall be levied according to
the ancient custom, which is to destrain for our profit on —

OF THE WOODS IN GRURIE, GRAIRIE, &c. 133

the total of the sale in kind or money, at our option, the
third part and the tenth, in such a way that if the sale be
one of thirty arpens, for a sum of three hundred livres, we
shall have the produce of ten arpens for the third part, or
thirty in all, and three for the tenth part of the same
quantity, which will be thirteen arpens for thirty; or, if
| we take it in money, a hundred livres for the third part of
| three hundred livres, and thirty livres for the tenth of the
same sum of three hundred livres.
‘4. If there be found some woods in our Province of

_the nine kinds specified in Art. ix. of the Norman Charter
of King Louis the Tenth, of the year 1315, which are
these :—Willows, morsaules, thorns, pwisnes, seur, alders,
_brooms, junipers, and briars, and dead wood in trunk or
‘Toot, or lying on the ground.

_ ‘6. We declare the right to Tiers e Danger in the
‘woods of our Province of Normandy to be imprescribable
‘and inalienable, as constituting part of the ancient Domain
‘of our Crown.

RES.

_ ‘7, All woods situated in Normandy, beyond those
which are hand-planted, and dead wood excepted by the
Norman Charter, shall be subject to this right if the
possessors be not endowed by authentic titles and usages
to the contrary.

‘8. The rights of properties held in co-proprietorship
with other seigneurs, and those of Grurte, Grasrie, Tiers et
Danger, cannot be given away, sold, nor alienated in whole
or in part, nor even farmed out under any reason or pre-
text whatever, there being renewed, in so far as may to
this end be necessary, the prohibition to this effect con-
tained in the tenth article of the ordinance De Moulins,

134 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

without even its being the case that in time coming such ~
rights can be disposed of by contract or farmed, but their —
ordinary produce shall be given on recovery to the
Receiver of Woods or of the Domain, for which he shall
account as for money coming from the sale of our forests,
‘9. The Grand-Masters and Officers of particular —
Maitrises shall take cognisance of all depredations, abuses,
and malversations which shall be committed in woods of —
this class, not embracing so much what relates to police, _
sale, and conservation, as in what relates to the execution —
of justice and to the chase. 4
‘10. The ordinary sales shall be made by the Grand- —
Master, or by the Officer of the Maitrise, with the same
forms as ought to be observed in regard to determination —
and survey of sites of fellings, martellage, balliveaux, publi-—
cation, auction sales, dublication, tertiating, and verifica-—
tion of our woods; and extraordinary sales shall be made —
by the Grand-Master alone, in virtue of our letters patent
duly registered, under pain of restitution and of deprivation —
of all rights against the possessors, and arbitrary fine and —
confiscation of purchase against the merchants. Bi
‘11. The sale of windfalls, broken over or uprooted,
shall be proceeded with in the manner ordered for our
woods, subject to payment to us of the same proportion of
the price as pertains to us in our ordinary sales. if
‘12. All fines and confiscations which shall be awardec
for these woods shall appertain entirely to us, without the
possessors having power to take anything therefrom; bu
they have the same part of restitution, damages, and com:
pensation for losses which they have by right and custom
from sales.
‘13. The reserves of balliveaua in coppice woods, and the
same penalties and condemnations prescribed for om
woods, shall be made and exacted for those held in Grurie,
Grairie, Tiers et Danger ; and we enjoin on the Officers to hold”
a tight hand, and we will that their dues be paid for this”
according to the allocation which shall be made by the }
Grand-Master on the whole price of the sales, i

OF THE WOODS IN GRURIE, GRAIRIE, &c. 135

‘14. There shall be made a register, prepared by the
Master and our Attorney, of all sales, auctions, and verifi-
cations, which all the Officers present shall sign, together
with the possessors and their Attorneys; and the merchants
and their factors, if they kuow how to sign.

‘15. There shall be in each Jaitrise one or more Ser-
geants, according to the number and distances of the woods
held in co-proprietorship, and in Grurie, Gratrie, and Tiers
et Danger to keep ward, and make report of depredations,
abuses, and malversations, the same as is proposed for our

forests.
‘16. The possessors cannot take any live tree without
| the mark and delivery of the Grand-Master, such tree
_ shall be instantly felled and sold for our profit, at the price
_of the value of the proportion which is our right.

‘17. When there shall be ordinary sales the possessors
may take their chauffage or firewood from their part of the
sale; but if there have not been an open sale no chauffage
can be taken except in dead wood, or dead trees of the
nine kinds specified.

‘18. The Grand-Masters shall in each year visit all the
' woods of this class; they shall cause to be shown to them
_ the registers held, and judgments pronounced on depreda-
_ tions and malversations, with a statement of sales and
_ verifications ; and they shall make reformations in these
_ woods when this they judge necessary.

‘19. The Forest-Masters, or their Lieutenants, shall be
_ obliged to make a visitation, along with our Attorneys, at
_ least once a year ; the Gardes-Marteaux, every six months;
and the Sergeants without intermission, of which visita-
_ tions they shall make minutes, each of what he has himself
_ seen, and these they shall without loss of time deposit in
_ the Registry of the Maztrise ; all under pain of deprivation
_ of their charges, and of being held personally responsible
_ for depredations, abuses, and malversations.

£20. We ordain that within six months after the day of
the publication of these presents there shall be made a
survey, diagram, and description of ali of the forests, woods,

136 | THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

and shrubberies in which we have a, right, as well by co-
proprietorship as by Grurie, Graurie, and Tiers et Danger, by —
the Surveyor of the Maitrise at the instance of our Attor- —
ney, each in his province, and.in the presence of the parties
interested, of the Garde-Marteau or the Gruyer, and of the —
Sergeant of the Guard, of which the minute and diagram ~
shall be enregistered in the Registry. :

‘21. The Masters, or, in their absence, the Lieutenants, —
shall also, with our Attorney, make a minute of the num- —
ber, situation, and contents of the woods of this class, with
statements of the kind and age of the woods with which ~
they are planted, and of the rights which we have in them,
and they shall sign and deposit the whole in the Registry _
of the Maitrise ; and they shall send also copies of this to —
the Grand-Master, who shall make from these a general —
statement of his department, a copy of which he shall send
to our Council by the hand of the Comptroller-General of
our Finances, and another to the Registry of the Marble
Table. |

‘22. All the expenses of the Surveyor’s diagrams and
descriptions shall be taxed by the Grand-Master definitely
for each wood, and paid out of the gross price of the first —
sale which shall be made, on the average of which the —
burden shall be borne by us and by the possessors in just —
proportion to our different interests. 3

‘23. If it be found from the minutes that there have —
been any usurpations or clearances made without our —
express permission, the authors of these shall be condemned.
to re-establish everything in its original condition, and to —
pay fines, restitution, damages, and compensation for loss, —
following the rigour of our ordinances, :

CHaPtes XXIV.—Of Woods Belonging to Ecclesiastics and
Holders of Mortmain.

‘ Art, 1. All priests, abbots, priors, officers, and ecclesi+ fs
astical communities, both secular and regular, stewards, —

OF WOODS BELONGING TO ECCLESIASTICS, &. 137

administrators, rectors, and principals of colleges, hospi-
tals, and infirmaries, Commanders and Attorneys of the
Order of St. John of Jerusalem, shall be bound to cause
their woods to be surveyed, figured, and defined, within
six months, reckoned from the day of publication of these
presents, and to deposit within fifteen days thereafter with
the Registrar of the Maztrise the minutes, along with the
diagrams and figures, on which shall be marked the
bounds, with their just outline and distance; if not, on
the lapse of six months, this shall be done at the instance
of our Attorneys in each Maitrise, at the expense of the
defaulters, who shall be constrained to make payment by
the seizure of their temporal goods, following the taxation
which we will to be made by the Grand-Masters.

‘2. We will that, conformably to the ordinance of the
year 1573, confirmed by that of 1597, the fourth part, at
least, of the woods pertaining to bishoprics, abbeys,
benefices, commaderies, and ecclesiastical communities,
be always kept as timber forests; and if there be not any
timber forest throughout the whole extent of their woods,
or that what there is be in extent less than a fourth part
of the whole, what is alacking shall be taken from their
coppice woods to complete this proportion, to be reserved
to grow as timber, the selection and measurement of
which shall be made by the Grand-Master in the most
proper places, and where the ground will best bear it; and
this shall be separated from the remainder of the coppice
woods by bounds and enclosures, and it shall be reputed
of such nature and quality, without its being permitted to
use or cut any trees, excepting in accordance with the
forms prescribed for timber trees.

‘3. After the reserves have been taken off and separated,
the rest of the coppice woods shall be subject to regular
ordinary fellings of ten years’ cycle at least, with an ex-
press charge to leave sixteen balliveaux of mature wood in
each arpent, besides all trees of greater age, anciens et
modernes, which shall also be reckoned timber trees, and
ag such shall be reserved in all ordinary fellings, without

138 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

being touched in any case, excepting in virtue of our —
letters patent, well and duly certified, as shall hereafter be
stated.

‘4, Ecclesiastical communities, commanders, stewards,
rectors, and administrators, cannot fell any timber trees,
or balliveaux in coppice, or touch the reserved fourth, or
undertake anything beyond the ordinary and regular
fellings, excepting in virtue of our letters patent, well and
duly registered, under pain of an arbitrary fine to us, and
restitution fourfold of the value of the wood felled or sold;
which, if it exceed five hundred livres, shall be invested as
capital for the benefice, college, commandery, infirmary,
or other community, and the revenue shall be applied to
the hospitals of the localities during the life or the in-
cumbency of the beneficiaries, commanders, rectors, or
administrators guilty of the contravention; and if the
restitution be less than five hundred livres, it shall
appertain entirely to the hospital.

‘5. Our letters shall not be granted for sales of timber
trees, or reserved balliveaux, except in cases of fires, ruins,
demolitions, losses, and extraordinary accidents, happening
by tresspass, war, or fortuitous occurrence, and not through
the act or fault of the beneficiaries and administrators,
who, to obtain these, shall address their remonstrances to
the Grand-Master, who shall inform himself of the causes
and the necessity, shall visit the places in presence of our
Attorney in the Mattrise, shall cause to be appraised by
experts the reparation necessary, and shall send to the
Council, by the hand of the Comptroller-General of our
Finances, his minute, which shall contain a true statement
of the value, condition, and quality of the woods to fell,
which permission is required, together with the number
and the quality of the trees which shall remain to the
benefice or the community, and his advice, which shall
be joined with the minute to the letters, under the counter-
seal,

‘6, The execution of our letters for extraordinary fellings
in woods of ecclesiastics and communities cannot be

errs Te

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ari
.

OF WOODS BELONGING TO ECCLESIASTICS, &. 139

carried out but by the Grand-Master, who shall cause the
officials to proceed in his presence to the defining and >
estimate of the fellings and martellages, and who shall
make the auction sales and verifications with the same
formalities observed for our woods; he shall determine the
expenses and dues of our Officers and others employed by
him according to their work, for which they shall be paid

from the proceeds of the auction.

‘7. We enjoin on ecclesiastics and communities ex-
pressly to charge their farmers, stewards, receivers,
merchants, and purchasers at auction to make in their
woods the same reserves as are ordered in ours; and we
will that these be made by the receivers, farmers, or
merchants, to the number and in the form ordered,
although they may not be bound to this by their lease,
bargain, or term of sale, under pain of arbitrary fine to our
profit, and confiscation of the purchase-money, and of the
wood felled, with restitution, damages, and compensation
for loss to the benefice or community, which money shall
be funded, and the revenue appropriated to the hospital
nearest to the place during the life of the beneficiary.

_*8, The purchaser by auction of the woods thus sold
shall consign the price into the hand of some notable
burgess commissioned by the Grand-Master, under nomi-
nation by the ecclesiastics, commanders, stewards, receivers,
and administrators, to be paid to the contractor, who shall
not be discharged of liability for reparation until after his
works shall have been taken over by the people having
cognisance of them.

‘9. The purchaser by auction shall be bound to observe
in exploiting all that is prescribed for this in our woods by
the present ordinance, and to cause the verification to be
proceeded with as soon as the time for bringing out the
wood has expired, under pain of arbitrary fine, and of his
remaining responsible for any depredations committed on
the sale and in the returns without appeal or modification.

‘10. All contracts, letters, minutes, and other deeds
concerning visitations, estimates, calculations, permissions,

140 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

sites and subjects of sales, martellages, verifications, and
receptions of works, shall be deposited and enregistered
both in the Registries of the Grand-Master and of the
Maitrise that recourse to it may be had when necessary.

‘11. The same fines, penalties, and condemnations
ordered by these presents for our waters and forests, shall
hold good for the waters and forests of ecclesiastics, com-
munities, and holders of mortmain, also for the chase and
fishing, in virtue of which parties may be summoned to
appear before the Grand-Masters and Officers without any
person of what quality soever having a right or being
allowed to decline the jurisdiction.

‘12. Our Officers may visit, when it seems to them
good, without expense or dues, the waters, woods, and
forests of ecclesiastics, communities, commanders, hospitals,
and communities ; and if they find malversations, abuses,
or contraventions of the ordinance, they shall make minutes
of the same, which shall be attended to by the Grand-
Master having cognisance of the matter. |

CHaPpreR XXV.— Of Woods, Meadows, Marshes, Pastures,
_ Bisheries and other Property belonging to Communities
and Inhabitants of Parishes,

‘Art, 1, All woods appertaining to parishes and com-
munities of inhabitants shall be surveyed, figured, and
bounded within six months, at the instance of the Syndies,
and the minutes and charts or diagrams shall be forthwith
taken to the Registrary of the Maztrises ; and we enjoin on
our Attorneys all diligence to see that this be done.

‘2. The fourth part of communal woods shall be reserved
and allowed to grow as timber forests on the best ground,
and in the most convenient places, by the appointment and
mensuration of the Grand-Master or of the Officers of the
Maitrise by his orders.

‘3. What remains after these reserves have been made
shall be felled regularly as coppice at least every ten years,
with the marking and retention of seventeen badliveaux of

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OF WOODS, &c., BELONGING TO COMMUNITIES, M41

the age of the wood in each.arpent, being the finest shoots
of oak, beech, or others of the best kinds, over and above
trees of older growth, anciens and modernes, and fruit trees.

‘4, If, however, the woods were a gratuitous grant from
the seigneurs without burden of any quit-rent, rent or
service, allegiance or servitude, the third part may be set
aside and separated for their profit,in case they so require
and the two other parts be sufficient for the use of the
parish, otherwise this partition shall not take place: but
the seigneurs and inhabitants shall enjoy them in common
as before. This shall also be done equally with meadows,
marshes, islands, wild pastures, lands, heaths, and grass
pastures, where the seigneurs have no other right than
that of usage, and send their beasts on pasture as do first
inhabitants, without partition or measurement, if there be
not a grant from them without quit-rent, service, or servi-
tude.

‘5. The concession cannot be reckoned gratuitous on
the part of the seigneurs if the mhabitants can prove to
the contrary by a purchase they have made of them, or
if they be held by other burden. If they pay or make
some recognition in money, field work, or otherwise,
the concession shall pass as burdened, and although the
inhabitants cannot show their title this will hinder all
separation of any part for the profit of the seigneurs, who
shall enjoy only their usages and chauffages as they were
wont.

‘6. The seigneurs who shall have their measured lots
can take nothing from the portion of the inhabitants, and
can have no right of usage on this, nor chauffage or pastur-
age for themselves or their farmers, domestics, horses, and
beasts; but they shall remain to the community free and
discharged of all other usage and servitude.

‘7. If in the pastures, marshes, meadows, and wild
pastures fallen to the lot of the inhabitants, or held in
common without partition, there be found some useless
and superfious spots by which the community might profit
without inconvenience to the pasturage, these may, after

142 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE,

a formal resolution of a meeting of the community, be let
out to farm for one, two, or three years by auction made
by the Officers of the locality, without expense, and the
proceeds be employed in repairs in the parish for which
the inhabitants may be liable, or other urgent business of
the community.

‘8. We forbid to Seigneurs, Mayors, Baillies, Syndics,
Church Wardens, and inhabitants of the parishes, without
distinction, to make-any sale or survey of the fourth part
reserved for timber forest; and to the Officers to permit or
suffer it to be done, under pain of a fine of two thousand
livres against each private person contravening this, and
moreover against the Officers, of deprivation of their charge,
saving in case of fire or notable ruin of churches, ports,
bridges, walls, and other public places, for which they can
obtain our letters as is ordered for ecclesiastics.

‘9. The preliminary surveys of sites of ordinary fellings
for sale shall be made, without expense, by the Judge of
the localities, in presence of the Attorney of the office,
the Syndic, and two deputies of the parish, and the corner
trees, border trees, and balliveaux shall be marked with the
marteau of the seigneury, which shall be kept in a chest
with three keys, one held by the Judge, another by the Pro-
curator-Fiscal,and the third by the Syndicof the community.

‘10. The Judge may employ for the survey of the
fellings the ordinary Surveyor, or such other as he may
judge more proper; but the verification shall be made by
the sworn Surveyor of the Maztrise, whose fee shall be
determined moderately according to his work; the whole
under pain of nullification, five hundred livres of fine, and
suspension of the Judge guilty of the contravention.

‘11. The fellings shall be made @ tire e¢ atre,level with the
ground, and by skilled people chosen at the expense of the
community, and capable of answering for bad exploitation,
the produce to be then distributed according to custom ;
and in case of complaint or dispute about the partition
or distribution, the Grand-Master shall see to this on his
visitation,

. eS Pee ee were

Pt Tat ei? arty com teary” Sh Nai

OF WOODS, &c., BELONGING TO COMMUNITIES. 148

‘12. If for the greater advantage of the community it
be judged expedient by the Grand-Master that the ordin-
ary fellings should be sold, he shall remit the auction sale
to the Judge of the locality, who shall be bound to proceed
with the formalities prescribed for the sales of our woods,
if there be not a Court of Maztrise or Grurie in the same
parish, in this case our Officers shall make the sale free of
expense, and the proceeds must be employed exclusively
on extraordinary repairs or urgent business of the com-
munity, under pain of fourfold restitution, and five
hundred livres fine against the Mayor, Baillie, Syndic, or
principal inhabitants, who may have diverted the money
to other purposes.

‘13. Injured woods shall be pruned at the expense of
the community, and be kept enclosed like all other coppice
wood until the shoots are ac least six years old, under the
penalties enjoined in this matter for our forests.

‘14. We enjoin on the inhabitants to appoint annually
one or more Guards for the conservation of their communal
woods, in default of which the Judge of the locality shall
see this done, and officially determine the salary which
shall be paid by the community.

£15. The Guards shall take the oath, and make their
reports before the Officers of the Mattrise or Grurie, if
their residence be not above four leagues distant; but, in
case the Court be more distant, the oath and the reports
may be made before the ordinary Judge of the localities,
who shall be bound to conform themselves in instructions
and judgments relative to abuses and depredations, to
forms and penalties prescribed for abuses and depredations
committed in our woods.

‘16. Our Officers may make visitations when they think
good in the woods of the parishes, to take cognisance of
the good or bad exploitation there, and if they find depre-
dations, abuses, negligencies, or malversations have been
committed by private persons or by Officers, Guards, or
Syndics, they shall repress them by fines and penalties,
following the rigour of our ordinances; and in these cases

144 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE,

they shall have their fees and dues paid from the fines

and restitutions resultant, according to the decision there-
on which shall be given by the Grand- Master. |

‘17. The portion of the inhabitants in the fishery shall
be alloted, by auction in the Audience Hall or usual place
in which pleadings are held, by the Judges of the localities,
in presence of the Attorney of the office and of the Syndic
of the parish, to the highest offer and last bidder, without
expense or fees, after publication at the sermon of paro-
chial morning masses on the two preceding Sundays and
at two public markets, and the proceeds of the sale shall
be devoted to the repair of the church, and other repairs
for which the inhabitants may be bound, or more pressing
necessities of the community.

‘18. We forbid to all private inhabitants, other than the
auction purchasers, who cannot be more than two in each
parish, to fish in any way, even with line, hand, or basket,
in waters, rivers, fishpools, and ditches, marshes, and com-
munal fisheries, notwithstanding all customs and possessions
to the contrary, under pain of a fine of thirty livres and a
month’s imprisonment for the first offence, and a fine of a
hundred livres, with banishment from the parish, on
repetition.

‘19. All partitions between seigneurs and communities
shall be made by the Grand-Master, in knowledge of the
case, based on the titles presented, with the advice and
report of experts, and they shall be paid the expenses by
the seigneurs and by the inhabitants in the proportions to
the rights which they respectively have in the thing
divided.

‘z0. The Grand-Masters and Officers of the Maitrise
shall instruct and summarily dispose of differences which
may ensue in the execution of partitions of woods, meadows,
wild pastures, aud communal waters between the seigneurs,
officers, syndics, deputies, and private inhabitants, without
the ordinary Judges of the places having power to take
cognisance of them.

‘21, All fines and confiscations which may be imposed

OF PRIVATE WOODS. 145

for the waters, meadows, wild pastures, and communal
woods against. private persons, shall appertain to the
Seigneur High-Justiciary, and the restitutions, damages,
and compensations for losses, to the community, excepting
in cases of reformations, in which all fines and confiscations
shall appertain to us, and the damages and compensation
for loss, to the parish.

‘22. We will that the restitutions, damages, and com-
pensation for losses adjudged to communities for encroach-
ments and abuses, or depredations committed in their
woods, waters, and usages, shall be put into the hand of
the Syndic, or of a notable inhabitant, who shall be ap-
pointed for this purpose by a majority of the votes, to be
employed entirely, as above-described, in repairs and
public necessary work, under pain of a fine of five hundred
livres, and quadruple restitution against those who may
_ have otherwise ordered or disposed of the same.

CuarteR XXVI.—Of Woods belonging to Private
Proprietors.

‘Art. 1, We enjoin on all our subjects, without exception
or difference, to regulate the felling of their coppice woods
so as to secure at least ten years’ growth, with reserve of
sixteen balliveaux on each arpent, and they shall be bound
to reserve also ten per arpent on ordinary of timber, to
be disposed of, however, for their profit after the age of
forty years for the coppice wood fellings, and of a
hundred and twenty years for the timber trees, and more-
over that they shall observe in exploitation what is pre-
scribed for practice in our woods, under the pains borne
by the ordinances,

‘2. We give permission to the Grand-Masters and other
Officers of the Waters and Forests the right to visit
and inspect the woods of private proprietors, to cause to
be observed the present Ordinance, and to repress contra-
ventions, without exercise of other jurisdiction; and
they may take cognisance of sales, watching, police, and

L

146 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

ordinary offences, if they shall be required to do so by the —
_ proprietors.

‘3. Those who possess timber woods situated within ten
leagues of the sea, and two of navigable rivers, cannot sell —
or exploit them unless they have six months before given
advice to the Comptroller-General of the Finances, and to —
the Grand-Master, under pain of three thousand livres of —
fine, and confiscation of the wood cut or sold. ’

‘4. Possessors of woods adjoining our forests, either in ©
property or liferent, shall be bound to declare at the Re- |
gistry of the A¢attrise the number and the quality which —
they wish to sell each year, under pain of arbitrary penalty —
and confiscation.

‘5. It shall be free to all of our subjects to cause to be
punished delinquencies in their woods, warrens, fish-ponds,
and rivers, likewise in chases and fisheries, by the same
pains and reparations ordered by these presents for such
occurring in our waters and forests, chases and fisheries :
and to this effect they can, if they see meet, bring them
before the Grand-Master and the Officers of the Maittrise, to
whom, in so far as it may be requisite, we assign all cog-
nisance and jurisdiction in such matters.

CuapreR XXVII.—Of the Police and Conservation of the
Forests, Waters, and Rivers.

‘Art. 1. We repeat the prohibitions made by the —
Ordinance De Moulins against making any alienations in ©
the future of any part whatsoever of our forests, woods, —
and shrubberies, under pain against the Officers of depriva-
tion of their charges, and of a fine of ten thousand livres —
against those acquiring such, beside the reunion of the
ground to our domain, and the confiscation to our profit —
of all that may have been sown, planted, or built upon
places of this kind.

‘2. All reserved trees and balliveaux in coppice woods
shall, in time coming, be reckoned as part of the capital
of our woods and forests, without the dowagers, donees,

OF CONSERVATION OF FORESTS, &c. 147

- contractors, usufructiers, and their receivers, or farmers, —
being able to make any pretensions to them, or to any
fines which proceed from them.

‘3. The Grand-Masters, making their visitations, shall
_ be bound to make mention in their minutes of all void
places not alienated or given under title of quit-rent or of
lease, which they shall have found within the enclosures
and in the heart of our forests, to be devoted under their
advice, to be re-sown and replenished, or have done what-
ever may be suitable to the condition of our affairs.

‘4, All border inhabitants possessing woods adjacent to
our forests and shrubberies shall be bound to separate
them from these by a trench four feet wide and five feet
deep, which they shall maintain in this state, under pain
of their woods being joined to ours.

5, Our Officers of the Maitrise, making their visits, shall
make mention in their minutes of the state of the
boundaries and trenches between us and the borderers,
and repair all usurpations and changes recognised as
having been made since their last visitation; they shall
likewise make mention in their minute of the following
visitation, of the re-establishment of things in their first
state, and of the judgments which they have pronounced
against culprits, under pain of being conjointly and
severally held responsible for these in their own names.

‘6. We forbid all persons to plant wood within a hundred
perches of our forests without our express permission,
under pain of a fine of five hundred livres, and of cunfisca-
tion of their woods, which shall be uprooted or felled.

‘7. Our Attorneys in Maitrises shall have communicated
to them, by the hands of the published promoters of sales,
all minutes of proclamations, handbills, and advertisements
of all sales which shall be made in future of houses, lands,
woods, and other heritages situated within the enclosure,
or oa the banks, or within a hundred perches of our
forests, woods, and shrubberies, which documents for this
purpose shall be delivered in the Registry of the Maztrises
at least fifteen days before the adjudication of the decreet,

148 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

which shall make express mention of their consent or
opposition, under pain of nullification; and the Judge —
who shall have sold them without this formality, or before —
judgment was delivered on the objection, in case of one
being taken, shall be condemned to a fine of a thousand
livres for the first time, two thousand for the second, and —
deprivation of his charge on repetition. |
‘8. There shall also be communicated to our Attorneys
in Maitrises all consents, lists, contracts of purchase, and
declarations of heritages held in manors within the en-—
closure, and within a hundred perches of our forests,
woods, and shrubberies, without their being able to be
received, verified, enregistered, or invested by our Officers
in the Chambre des Comptes, Finance Bureau, nor by the ©
lords superior, lords of the manors, their farmers, re-
ceivers, or Officers, excepting after this communication, or
consent of our Attorneys, or the judgment of the objection,
if there have been any, of which mention shall be made in
the deeds of reception, registration, and investiture, under
the above-mentioned penalties agaiust the Officers, and of
re-union or resumption of the feudal rights and manor
rights against the seigneurs, and of the confiscation of the
goods given by consent and declaration against the private
persons who shall have made them without this formality.
‘9. In the communications which shall be made to our
Attorneys of AJatirises, all the heritages joined to the forests —
as seized or acquired and given by consent and list shall
be stated with their contents, number of arpents, nature, —
and quality; and if need be, shall be resurveyed by the |
sworn Surveyor of the Maitrise, whose minute shall be —
declared before the Forest-Master, and registered in the ©
registry, without expense in the case of the deed of com-
munication being truthful, but at the expense of the parties —
who shall be found to have been attempting fraud with
the survey alone, which shall be paid according to the
decision thereon which shall be given by the Forest-Master.
‘10. We enjoin on our Attorneys to give, within fifteen |
days from the day that the documents have been lodged |

OF CONSERVATION OF FORESTS, &C. 145

in the registry, their conclusions in writing, and, in case of

| opposition, to cause these to be intimated to the declared

pursuers, to those who have acquired the heritages, to the
holders or tenants, and to all others having an interest in
them, to be answered in a week, and to be forthwith
forwarded for the instruction and judgment of the Grand-
Master or of the Officers of the Mavtrise, without any
expenses or dues, on pain of their being responsible for the
whole in their own names.

‘11. We make it to be very expressly forbidden to root
up any plants of chesnes, yoke elms, or other trees in our
forests, without our permission with countersignature of
the Grand-Master, under pain of exemplary punishment,
and a fine of five hundred livres,

‘12. We forbid to all persons to take away throughout
the extent of our forests, sand, earth, marl, or clay, or to
cause lime to be made within a hundred perches distant,

| without our express permission, and to Officers we forbid
| to suffer it to be done, under pain of five hundred livres of
| fine, and confiscation of the horses and harness.

| £18. There shall not be made any delivery of copsewood
| or small wood, green or dry, of whatsoever quality and

| value it may be, to powder manufacturers or saltpetre

makers, to whom, and to dealers in gunpowder and salt-
petre, we make it to be very expressly forbidden and
prohibited, to take any, under any pretext, under pain of
| five hundred livres fine for the first time, and exemplary
| punishment on repetition, notwithstanding edicts, declara-
| tions, decrees, permissions, and concessions to the contrary,
_ £14 No measure shall be used or recognised in our
_ woods and forests, and in those held by co-proprietorship,
| Grurie, Grarie, Segrairie, Tiers et Danger, appanage, sale-
contract, usufruct, and also those of ecclesiastics, communi-
ties, and private persons our subjects, without any excep-
_ tion, but the measure of twelve lines for an inch, twelve
' inches for a foot, twenty-two feet for a perch, and a hundred

# perches for an arpent, under pain of a thousand livres fine,

: notwithstanding and without regard to all usages and

150 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

possessions to the contrary which we have abrogated and —

do abrogate, and we will that in the Registry of each
Maitrise, and other Court of Justice, there shall be placed a
standard of the measure above described.

‘15. If all our forests and woods, and in those of eccles-

iastics, private persons, and others, referred to in the

preceding article, there shall not be made any delivery of

firewood, be it in case of sale or of deliverance of chauffage,
by other measure than the cord, which shall be eight feet

long, four high, and three feet and a-half deep, including ~

the dressing: the faggot-wood shall be two feet long, and

the faggots from seventeen to eighteen inches thick, —

abolishing rotteés, mesures, moules, loads, burdens, voyes,
and all other measures different from those now prescribed.

‘16. There shall be left and preserved at the Registry
of each Mattrise the charts, diagrams, and descriptions
approved by the Grand-Master of our woods, shrubberies,
and forests, and of those held by co-proprietorship, Grurie,
Grairte, Tiers et Danger, appanage, sale-contract, and usu-
fruct, which are within the bounds of their district, and
also in the Registries of the Marble Tables, all at the in-

stance of the Forest-Masters and of our Attorneys, under —

pain of withdrawal of their wages.

‘17. All huts built of stakes within the circuit or
border, or within half a league from the forest, by rogues —
and vagrants, shall be immediately demolished, and these —

shall be prohibited from building in future within a dis-
tance of two leagues from our woods and forests, under
pain of corporal punishment.

‘18. We forbid to all persons to cause to be constructed —
any chateaux, farms, and houses, within the enclosure, on

ee eee oe all

the borders, and within half a league from our forests, —
without hope of any remission or reduction of the penalties —
of fine, and confiscation of the ground and of the buildings. —

‘19. We forbid to merchant-buyers, usagers, and all

other persons to make ashes in our forests, or ia those of —

ecclesiastics or communities, and to usufructiers and our
officers to permit it to be done, under pain of confisca-

OF CONSERVATION OF FORESTS, &c. 151

tion of the wood bought, and of the works and utensils,
and of arbitrary fine and deprivation of charges against
Officers, unless there be letters patent. verified on the
advice of the Grand-Master.

‘20. The sales which may be made in virtue of letters
patent shall be enregistered in the Registry of the Maitrise,
and ashes cannot be made excepting at the places and
spots indicated to the merchants by the Grand- Masters or
Officers.

‘21. We make it to be forbidden to all other persons to
keep manufactories of ashes, or to make them elsewhere
than in the fellings, or to cause them to be transported
except in casks marked with the marteau of the merchant,
under pain of arbitrary fine and confiscation.

‘22. We forbid all persons to char or burn trees, or to
remove the bark under pain of corporal punishment; and
charcoal pits shall be put in the most void places, and the
most remote from trees and young new growths, and the
merchants shall be bound to replenish and restore these
places, if this be judged expedient by the Grand-Master,
before they obtain their legal discharge, under pain of
arbitrary fine.

‘23. Coopers, tanners, turners, sabot makers, and others
of like occupations, cannot keep workshops within a dis-
tance of half a league from our forests, under pain of
confiscation of their stock-in-trade, and a fine of a hundred
livres. |

‘24. We enjoin on Officers of Maztrises to prevent the
delivery of stolen wood in farm towns, which are within
a distance of two leagues of our forests, and to this end it
is permitted to them to make search in the houses for
wood in staves and building timber of which they have
advice that it has been taken there, and to proceed as
circumstances may require, and the guards of our forests
can, in presence of an Officer of the Maitrise, or, failin
this, in presence of the ordinary Judge, or the Attorney
of the office, make such visits, of which they shall prepare
minutes, which they shall take to the Registries of the

152 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

Mattrises, and the culprits shall be punished by the Grand- |

Master or Officers of the Majérise, according to the rigour
of our ordinances.

‘25. We order that the monasteries, governors of the

laces, commanders of troops, seigneurs, and gentlemen
Pp ? ? ? >

shall cause to be opened the gates of towns and chateaux —

to the Grand-Masters, Forest-Masters, Lieutenants, and

our Attorneys, to make any searches, quests, and proceed-

ings which they find meet for our service, and to deliver
into the hands of our Officers all accused of depredations
in our forests, as shall also dragoons and soldiers, passing or
keeping garrison, on the first requisition made to them,
without their being able to retain or keep back such, not-
withstanding all privileges, or under pretext of military,
police, or other justice, under penalty of charge of dis-
obedience, and of being answerable in their own private
names for the fines, restitutions, and interests involved.
‘26. We forbid to all merchants, purchasers at auctions
of our woods, or of those of private persons contiguous to
our forests, and also to the proprietors of these making
use of them, to give of them to woodmen and other work-
men for their wages, under pain of being responsible for
all depredations which these may commit in our forests
during the time of their occupancy, and previous to the

verification of the sales; and we forbid to the woodmen,

and other workmen working in our forests, to carry, going
out. of workshops, any sawn or cleft wood, or any wood of
other descriptions, under pain of fifty livres fine for the
first offence, and punishment on repetition.

‘27. We make it to be forbidden to all usagers, and to
all others, to pluck or knock down pannage and mast, and
other fruits of, trees, to gather them, to carry them away,
or to do so with what may have fallen, under pretext of
og? or otherwise, under pain of a fine of a hundred

ivres.

‘28. We forbid to all merchants to peel the wood of
their purchase while it is standing, under pain of five hun-
dred livres fine and consfication.

>

ee

OF CONSERVATION OF FORESTS, &c. 153

*29. Neither can merchants or their partners hold any
workshop or hut, or cause wood to be wrought elsewhere
than on their fellings, under pain of a hundred livres fine
and confiscation.

‘30. Those who inhabit houses in our forests and on
their borders cannot trade there, nor keep workshops for
wood, nor make of this wood a larger collection than is
necessary as firewood, under pain of confiscation, arbitrary
fine, and demolition of their houses. ,

‘31. Neither can the Sergeants of the Guard, nor other
Officers of our forests, keep a tavern, or exercise any trade
in which wood is used, under pain of discharge, and of
fifty livres fine, besides confiscation of the wood which may
be found in their dwellings.

‘32. We make it also forbidden to all persons to convey
or kindle fire at any time or season whatsoever in our
forests, heaths, or shrubberies, and those of communities
or of private proprietors, under pain of corporal punish-
ment and of arbitrary fine, besides the reparation of an
damages which the fire may have caused, for which the
communities and others who have selected the grounds
shall be responsible to the civil law.

‘33. We abrogate the permission and rights granted
relative to fire, huts, and all deliverings of trees, perches,
and dead wood in a dry or a new state, unless it have been
made to some usagers, on whatsoever conditions they may
have been granted, and to take, or cause to be felled, and
to carry away other wood than is lying on the ground,
notwithstanding all titles, decrees, and privileges to the
contrary, which shall all remain null and abrogated, under
penalty against those contravening of fine, restitution,
damages, and compensation for loss, and of deprivation of
right of usage.

‘34, Usagers, parties having rights of usage, and others
found by night in the forests, off the highway, with. bill-
hooks, hatchets, saws, or axes, shall be imprisoned and
condemned for the first time to a fine of six livres; for
the second, to one of twenty; and for the third to banish-
ment from the forest,

154 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE,

‘35. Immediately that any person has been declared a

useless vagrant, our Attorney shall cause commandment
to be given to him and his family to go forth and remove
two leagues distant from our forests, with a prohibition to
all persons to shelter them within the range of that dis-
tance ; this prohibition shall be published at morning mass,
and if any persons belonging to the parish be found to
have given them shelter in the parish after such publica-
tion, these shall be condemned to pay three hundred livres
of fine, and they shall, moreover, be held liable for all
penalties which shall be imposed on these idlers.

‘36. We ordain that within three months after the
publication of these presents, there shall be drawn up in
each Maitrise an exact roll of the names of all the vagrants
and idlers who have appeared several times on previous
rolls, and these shall be required to withdraw immediately
two leagues from our forests, under pain of exposure in the
iron collar on three consecutive market days, and a months’
imprisonment. |

‘37. If the Gardes-Marteaux, or the Sergeants of the
Guard, mention their names in their minutes after they
have, in consequence of any of their previous reports, been
declared idle and vagabond, they shall be themselves con-
demned and compelled to make payment of the fines and
penalties for which they have been found liable.

‘38. There shall be sent a statement containing the
name and description of all the rogues and vagabonds in
the Maitrise to the Registries of the other adjoining or
neighbouring Maztrises, and if it be found that any have
‘changed their name to escape recognition, We will that
they be condemned to the galleys if they be able to serve
in these; and if not, to such other corporal and exemplary
punishment as shall be arbitrarily appointed by our Officers
of the forests.

‘39. We enjoin on our Attorneys of Maztrises incessantly
to cause to be arrested rogues and vagabonds of the kind
referred to, and to cause them to be taken from the prisons
of the localities on the eighth day after their arrest, to be

ad

—
“> Sa

OF CONSERVATION OF FORESTS, &c. 155

at their requisition and instance removed to the prisons of
the towns nearest to the place of the Maztrise where the
chain is wont to pass, to be attached thereto; which
removal of the prisoners shall be made by the vice-bailiffs,
criminal lieutenants of the short robe, or provosts of the
merchants, on the first communication which shall be
made to them at the requisition of our Attorneys of
Maitrises ; which thing we also enjoin on and to their
lieutenants, officers, and bowmen, under pain of loss of
their office; and the expenses and fees shall be paid
from the proceeds of fines and confiscations, according to
the determination of these which shall be made by the
Grand-Master.

‘40. There shall not be taken away sand, earth, or other
material from within six toises from navigable rivers, under
pain of a hundred livres fine.

‘41. We declare the proprietorship of all streams and rivers
bearing boatson their waters,excepting that of structuresand
manufactories, throughout our kingdom, and lands which
are subject to our orders, to constitute part of the domain
of our Crown, notwithstanding all titles and possessions to
the contrary, saving, however, rights of fishing, mills, ferry-
boats, and other usages which private persons may have
therein established by titles and valid possessions, in all
which they shall be maintained.

‘42. No one, be he proprietor or contractor, can erect
mills, dams, sluices, fisheries, confined channels, walls,
barricades of trees, heaps of stones, earth, and facines, or
other obstructions hurtful to the flow of the waters, in the
streams and navigable and floatable rivers; nor to throw
into them any ordure or filth, or to make collection of
such on the quays or banks, under pain of arbitrary fine.
We enjoin on all persons to remove such within three
months from the day of the publication of these presents ;
and if any be found existing after that time we will that
they forthwith be taken away, and removed at the instance
of our Attorneys of Mattrises, at the expense and cost of
those who may have made or caused them, under pain of

156 THE FORESTS OF FRANCK,

five hundred livres fine, both against the private persons, -
and against the Judge and our Attorney who have
neglected to do this, and who are responsible in their own
name for the damages and compensation for loss.

‘43. Those who have caused to be built mills, sluices,
water-gates, fisheries, and other edifices within the limits
of navigable and flotage rivers, without having obtained
our permission, or that of our predecessors, shall be re-
quired to demolish them; this, if not done by them, shall
be done at their expense and cost.

‘44, We forbid all persons to draw off water from
navigable and floatable rivers, or to alter their course by
water leadings, trenches, or canals, under pain against
those contravening this of being punished as usurpers, and
having the former state of things restored at their expense.

‘45, We rule and fix the chommage, or charge for loss of
time, of each mill which may be found established on the
navigable and floatable rivers, with duetitles and concessions,
at forty sous for the period of twenty-four hours, which shall
be paid to the proprietors of the mills or their farmers and
millers, by those who shall cause the stoppage of work for
their navigation and flotage, and this we do with very ex-
press prohibition to all persons to exact more, or to retard in
any way the navigation or flotage under pain of a thousand
livres fine, beside the damages and compensation for loss
and repayment of outlay and expenses, which shall be
determined by our officers of Maitrises without their having
it in their power to modify it.

‘46. If there shall arise any difference in regard to the
rights of chommage pertaining to the mills and salaries of
bridge-masters, and guards of bridges, and sluices of navi-
gable and floating rivers, these shall be determined by the
Grand-Master, or, in his absence, by the Officers of the
Maitrise, the merchants engaged in the traffic, and the
proprietors and millers being previously heard if need be;
and that which shall be by them decided shall be at once
executed provisionally, notwithstanding and without pre-
judice to appeal.

OF ROADS AND ROYAL HIGHWAYS IN FORESTS. 157

Cuarrer XXVIIL—Of Roads and Royal Highways in Forests,
and Footpaths by Rivers.

‘Art. 1. In all the forests with thoroughfares where
there has been, or ought to be, great royal highways
serving for coaches, carriages, waggons, and carts, from town
to town, the great roads shall be at least seventy-two feet
broad, and where they happen to be more they shall be
maintained so in their entirety.

‘2. If it have been judged necessary to make new roads
to facilitate commerce and public safety in any of our
forests, the Grand-Masters shall make their minutes of the
projected line, and of the number, kind, and value of the
woods which it will be found necessary for this purpose to
fell, which they shall send with their advice to our Council
by the hands of the Comptroller-General of our Forests, to
be by us attended to.

‘3. We order that within six months from the day of
publication of these presents all woods, thorns, and bushes
which shall be found within the space of sixty feet on the ©
great roads serving for the passage of coaches and public
carriages, both in our forests and in those of ecclesiastics,
communities, seigneurs, and private persons, shall be
felled and grubbed up, that the way may be free and
more sure: all this at our expense in the forests of our
domain, and at the expense of the ecclesiastics, com-
munities, and private persons in the woods belonging to
them.

‘4, We will that after the lapse of six months those who
are found to have allowed these to remain shall be mulcted
in an arbitrary fine, and constrained, by seizure of their
goods, to make payment both of the expense of the works
which shall be necessary for the clearing of them, which
shall be adjudged at the Court of the Maitrise, and of the
expense and outlay which may be made after the six
months, which shall be determined by the Grand-Masters.

‘5. The trees and woods which it shall be found expedi-

158 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

ent to fell in our forests to make the roads of sufficient —
breadth, shall be sold as the Grand-Master shall advise for
our greatest profit, and those of ecclesiastics and com-
munities shall remain theirs in compensation for the
expense to which they may have been put for the uproot-
ing of them.

‘6. We will that at angles or corners where two roads
or three roads cross, which may be met with in the great
roads and royal highways of the forests, our Officers of
Maitrises shall immediately, at our expense in woods which
belong to us, and in others at the expense of the towns
nearest and most interested, plant crosses, posts, or pyra-
mids, with inscriptions and marks indicative of the place
to which each road leads, without it being permitted to any
person to break, remove, tear, or deface such crosses, posts,
inscriptions, and marks, under pain of three hundred
livres fine, and exemplary punishment.

‘7. The proprietors of heritages abutting on navigable
rivers shall leave along the banks a space of at least twenty-
four feet broad for a royal road and horse tract, without
their being able to plant trees, or maintain any fence or
hedge, within thirty feet on the side on which the boats
are dragged, and ten feet on the other side, under pain of
five hundred livres fine, and confiscation of the trees, and
those guilty of the contravention shall be compelled to
repair and put the reads again in good condition at their
own expense.

CuapTER XXIX.—Of Dues of Tolls, Crossings, and others,

‘Art. 1. We suppress all the dues which have been
established within a hundred years without title on the
rivers, and we prohibit them to be levied under any pre-
text whatever, under charge of exaction, and of quadruple
restoration to the profit of the merchants and passengers
against the seigneurs or their farmers; We will also that
all barriers, dykes, chains, and other obstructions to roads,
embankments, bridges, passages, rivers, sluices, and narrow

OF DUES OF TOLLS, CROSSINGS, AND OTHERS. 159

passages for the indication of dues being claimed shall be
taken away and broken up.

‘2. With regard to tollsand dues established more than
a hundred years by legal titles, the possession of which
has never been interrupted, we order that ecclesiastics,
seigneurs, and proprietors, of whatever rank they may be,
shall establish before the Grand-Master their right and
their possession in order that the minutes may be approved
by us in our Council, on the report of the Comptroller-
General of our Finances, as he shall advise.

‘3. We forbid to the proprietors, farmers, receivers, and
tollmen, to seize and stop horses, equipages, boats, and
barges in default of payment of the dues which shall be
comprised in the posted list which shall be made and
approved: they can only seize moveables, merchandise,
and commodities sufficient to meet what may be legiti-
mately due according to a reasonable estimate, and hand
these over to the Commissary to proceed with the sale of
them, if they be awarded to them.

‘4. In case of contravention, there shall be prepared
immediately a minute, and the matter shall be prosecuted
summarily to decision, by the first officer of waters
and forests of the place; and if there be none such,
by the ordinary Judge, without fee and without expense,
save what may be incurred at the Court of the Maitrise
in case of vexation, where we will that it be promptly
and severely rectified with a sentence of fine, and of
damages and compensation for loss through detention
and stay of the passengers, against the farmers and toll-
keepers who may be found to have been unjustified in
what was done by them.

‘5. We do not design that any of these dues shall be
continued, even where there may be title and possession,
where there are no causeways, ferry-boats, sluices, and
bridges, to be maintained, and this at the charge of the
seigneurs and proprietors.

‘6. All orders and judgments by Grand-Masters and
Officers of the waters and forests, in regard to dues of

160 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

tolls on the aforesaid impediments in ports, bridges,
narrow passages, and sluices, shall be executed provision-
ally notwithstanding, and without prejudice to appeal.

‘7. We order that of the legitimate dues established
by title and possession held above a hundred years, there
shall be made a tariff-bill of charges, which shall be put
up and attached on the posts at the entrances of the
bridges, passages, and narrows, or where the dues are
levied, without power otherwise to levy or exceed them
under any pretext, notwithstanding any contrary usage,
under pain of exemplary punishment against the contra-
veners of this, and also the restitution of fourfold to the
merchants, besides an arbitrary fine to us.

CHAPTER XXX.—Of the Chase.

‘Art. 1. The Ordinances of the kings, our predecessors,
in regard to the Chase, and especially those of the month
of June 1601 and July 1607, shall be observed in all their
provisions which we have not abrogated, and which con-
tain nothing contrary to these presents.

‘2. We forbid to our Judges, and to all others, to con-
demn for anything relating to the Chase, whatever it may
be, if there be no other crime combined with it deserving
this penalty, notwithstanding Art. XIV. of the Ordinance
of 1601, which we expressly abrogate in this respect.

‘3. We interdict to all persons, without distinction of
rank, of time, or of locality, the use of firearms, gun-stock,
or gun-barrel, and bamboo or hollowed stick, likewise to
carry such under whatever pretext it may be; and to all
workmen to make or fashion them; under pain against
private persons of fine of five hundred livres, besides con-
fiscation, for the first time, and corporal punishment for
the second, and against the workmen of corporal punish-
ment for the first time. |

‘4. We also make it to be forbidden to all persons to
hunt with fire, or to enter or remain over night in our
forests, woods, and shrubberies connected with them, or in

OF THE CHASES. 161

the woods of private persons, with fire-arms, under pain of
a fine of a hundred livres, and corporal punishment, if
this be deemed befitting.

‘5. Nevertheless, our subjects of the rank required by
the edicts and ordinances, passing along the highways of
the forests and woods may carry pistols and other arms
not prohibited, for defence and preservation of their
persons.

‘6. Likewise may the Guards of the open country, and
the Sergeants of the Guard of our woods, when on duty,
wearing the uniform and casques of our livery, but not
otherwise, carry pistols, both by night and day, for the
defence of their persons.

‘7. Neither foot nor mounted Guards of the open
country in our Capitaineries can carry any arquiebuss
with a gun-lock, or musket, in our forests or open country,
if they be not in the suite of their Captain or of Lieutenants,
under pain of fifty livres fine, and discharge from their
office.

‘8. We forbid all persons to take, in our forests, warrens,
bushes or reserve grounds, any nests of birds of what
species soever it may be, and in all other places, the eggs
of quails, partridges, and pheasants, under pain of a
hundred livres fine for the first time, of double that for
the second, and of flogging and banishment to six leagues
from the forest for five years for the third.
£9, The Sergeants of the Guard, when they find nests,
| shall be charged with the preservation of them as a special
| duty, and shall remain responsible for them.

‘10. We will that those who may have been convicted
of having opened and ruined coney-burrows, or other
' burrows which are in our warrens, or in those of our sub-
| jects, shall be punished as robbers.

(| ‘11. The Officers of our chases shall be bound within

} six months after the publication of these presents to cause

to be whipt and driven away all greyhounds which they
shall find in our forests, under pain of a fine of five

| i! hundred livres, and of suspension from their office for a

M.

162 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

year; and in case they shall have failed to do so within —
that time, we enjoin on Forest-Masters, their Lieutenants, )
our Attorneys, and other Officers of our Maitrises to do it ©
instantly, and to take the coneys only with ferrets and (
bags, under the same penalties. ;

‘12. All holders of lakes, draw-nets, drag-nets, tunnels, f
snares of cord or of brass wire, fragments and flaps of ;
nets, gins, quail nets of wire or of silk, shall be sentenced |

to the lash for the first time, with a fine of thirty livres,
and for the second, flogging and infamy, with baticlinain
for five years from the bounds of the Maitrise, whether it —
be that they have committed depredations in our forests,
or in those of ecclesiastics, communities, or private persons —
of our kingdom, without exception.

‘13. We make it to be expressly prohibited and for-
bidden to all seigneurs, gentlemen, high justiciaries, and
other persons of whatever rank and condition soever they
may be, to shoot or hunt with noise in our forests, bushes, —
warrens, and open country, if they have not license or per-
mission to do so, under pain against seigneurs of charge of —
disobedience, and of two thousand five hundred livres fine,
and against commoners of fines and other penalties,
according to the edicts of 1601, with the exception of
death, which is hereafter abolished as a punishinent for
this crime. |

‘14. We permit, nevertheless, to our seigneurs, gentle-
men, and nobles, to hunt nobly by dog or bird in their”
forests, bushes, warrens, and open country, provided they —
be a league distant from our preserves, and also roebucks —
and wild boars at a distance of three leagues,

‘15. It is permitted also to them to shoot with arque-
buses all kinds of birds of passage, and also game, except-—
ing the stag and the hind, at a league from our preserves, —
both on their own lands and on our ponds, marshes, and —
rivers.

‘16. We interdict hunting with setters in all places, and
the practice of shooting flying within three leagues from
our preserves, under pain of two hundred livres fine for |

OF THE CHASES. 163

the first offence, of double this for the second, and of
triple for the third, together with perpetual banisment
from the bounds of the Maitrise.

‘17. The liberty of shooting flying at three leagues
distance from our preserves is only granted to seigneurs,
gentlemen, nobles, and seigneurs of parishes.

‘18. We forbid to all gentlemen and others having the
right of chase to hunt on foot or horseback with dogs on
sown lands after the grain is in blade, and in vineyards
after the first day of May, until after harvest, under pain
of deprivation of their right of the chase, five hundred
livres of fine, and of all expenses, damages, and compensa-
tion for loss, to be paid to the proprietors or usufructiers.

‘19. No one can in future establish a warren if he have
not the right to do so from these presents and specifica-
tions, from possession, or from some other sufficient title,
under pain of a fine of five hundred livres, and besides
having the warren destroyed and demolished at his
expense.

‘20. We forbid to all persons, of whatsoever rank or
condition they may be, to hunt with the arquebus or with
dogs in the Capitaineries of our royal residences of St.
Germain en Laye, Fontainbleau, Chambort, Vincennes,
Livry, Compeigne, Bois de Boulogne, and Varenne du
Louvre, and also to seigneurs, high justiciaries, and all
others, though claiming rights founded on titles or per-
missions, general or particular, declarations, edicts, and
decrees, which we revoke in this respect, reserving to us
to grant new permissions, or to renew the old ones, in
favour of whom it may seem to us good,

‘21. Our subjects who have parks, gardens, orchards,
and other enclosed heritages within the bounds of the
Capitaineries of our royal mansions, cannot make in their
walls any holes, standing doors, or other passage which
may give admittance to game, under pain of ten livres of
fine; and if any have now been made, we enjoin the
closure of these immediately, under the same penalty.

“22. We do not at all intend to comprise in the above

164 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

prohibition the holes or arches which serve as water- £
courses for streams, nor the gullies, vent-holes, and other

openings necessary for the escape of water, which shall — }

remain in their entirety. }
‘23. We forbid to all our subjects having islands,
meadows, and unenclosed bouwrgognes within the bounds
of the Capitaineries of St. Germain en Laye, Fontainbleau, _
Vincennes, Livry, Compeigne, Chambort, and Varenne du
Louvre, to have them mown before St. John the Baptist’s
Day, under pain of confiscation and arbitrary fine.
‘24, We make it to be forbidden to all persons to make —
in future any parks, and enclosures of heritages with
masonry, within the extent of the open country of our
royal mansions, without our express permission. 7
‘25. We do not intend, however, to oblige our subjects —
to ask permission to enclose heritages which they may —
have behind their houses situated in towns, villages, and
hamlets outside of the open country thus specified, which —
they may make to be enclosed in walls, if this seem to

them good, without our captains having power to hinder $

them.

‘26. We declare all seigneurs who are high justiciaries,
whether they have leases or not, to have the right of chase
within the extent of their high justiciary, although the —
fief of the parish may belong to another, without, however, _
their being able to send any of their domestics or other

persons to hunt on their behalf, or to hinder the proprietor

of the fief of the parish from also hunting within the ~
extent of his fief. .

‘27. If the high jurisdiction be dismembered and
divided among many children or private persons, he only
to whom belongs the principal portion shall have right to
hunt within the extent of the jurisdiction, to the exclusion —
of the other co-justiciaries, who have not part in the fief; —
and if the portions shall be equal, that which belongs to
the share of the oldest shall carry this prerogative, in this —
pari eali alone, and without consequent title to the other —
rights

OF THE CHASES. 165

* 28. We make it to be forbidden to merchants, artisans,
burgesses, and inhabitants of the towns, burghs, parishes,
villages, and hamlets, peasants and commoners, of whatever
condition and rank they may be, not possessing fiefs,
seigneuries, and high jurisdiction, to hunt in any place, or
sort, or manner, any game whatsoever of fur or feather,
under pain ofa fine of a hundred livres for the first offence,
of double that for the second, and for the third to be put
three hours on a market day in the iron collar of their
place of abode, and banished for three years from the
Province of the Maitrise, without the judges having power
on any account whatever to moderate the penalty, under
pain of suspension.

‘29. The Captains of. the Chase, their Lieutenants, and
our Attorneys in Capitaineries, shall be received and
appointed at the Court of the Marble Table, and the
Registrars, Ushers, and Guards, both foot and mounted,
before the Captains, or their Lieutenants, after informa-
tion in regard to their life, habits, Catholic Apostolic
Roman religion, fidelity and devotion to our service; and
for each reception there shall be paid to the Registrar for .
the engrossing and enregistering of these prerequisites,
six livres and no more: there are excepted, however, the
officers of the Capitaineries of our royal mansions named
above.

‘30. We order that in three months from the day of the
publication of these presents, all Captains, Lieutenants,
and other Officers of the Chase, who claim jurisdiction
beyond and excepting those of our royal mansions specified
above, shall present before the Grand-Master of each
department their titles of institution or establishment, and
their grants and deeds of reception, on his advice approved
by us in our Council, on the report of the Comptroller-
General of our Finances, as to the maintenance or abolition
of their appointment, as to him may appear desirable, and
failing to present these at the time stated, they are for-
bidden to exercise their functions under pain of their
being considered false,

166 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘31. We will that our Officers of Waters and Forests, —
and the Captains of the Chase should take cognisance
concurrently and by previous arrangement between them-
selves, of what relates to the capture of delinquents, to the
seizure of arms, batons, dogs, nets, and forbidden imple-
ments, in contravention of the present ordinance, and to
informations in first instance alone ; and when, as to charge
and judgment, the cases pertain to the Lieutenant of the
Long Robe, it must be at the prosecution and diligence of
our Attorneys, without, however, their having power to
exclude the Captains and Lieutenants of the Chase from
assisting in the one or other, if it seem to them good, or
from their baving a seat and a deliberative vote—namely,
the Captain before the Master, and the Lieutenant of the

Captain before that of the Maitrise, in the case specified

above only,

‘32. We except in that always the Captains of the
Chase of our mansions of St. Germain en Laye, Fentain-
bleau, Chambort, Bois de Boulogne, Varenne du Louvre,
and Livry, whom we maintain, and, in so far as it may be
needful, confirm in their title to charge and judge at the
instance of our Attorneys in these Capitaineries all civil
and criminal processes in matters relating to the chase,
calling in with them the Lieutenants of the Long Robe,
and other Judges and Advocates for counsel.

‘33. We except also the Captains of the Chase of our
royal mansions of Vincennes and Compeigne, and those of
which a list has been sent by us to the Court Des Aydes
since the revocation of them, to whom we assign like —
jurisdiction as to those of St. Germain en Laye, Fontain-
bleau, Chambort, and Varenne du Louvre.

‘34. If any private person, a borderer on our forests, or
others of what rank soever, give trouble to the Officers of
our Chases in the discharge of their functions, or do to
them violence to maintain themselves in a right of chase
which they may have usurped, we will that they be con-
demned for the first offence to a fine of three thousand
livres, and, in case of repetition, be deprived of all rights

OF THE CHASES. 167

of chase on their own bordering lands, reserving, moreover,
a more severe penalty if the vivlence be great.

‘35. When it happens that priests, monks, and friars,
who fall into this crime, have not wherewith to meet this
fine, they shall be prohibited for the first offence to reside
within four leagues of the forests, woods, open country,
and shrubberies, and, in case of repetition, within ten
leagues, and be prevented by seizure of their temporalities,
and by every other reasonable means, conformably to the
Declaration of Francis I., of the month of March, in the
year 1515.

‘36. The judgments rendered by the Captains of the
Chases of our royal mansions, which may include any
corporal punishments, shall be signed on the minute by
the Lieutenant of the Long Robe, and by the others who
may have been called in tor counsel, which minute shall
remain in the Registry of the Capitainerie, and mention
shall be made of their names and rank in the copies of
this of which delivery may be made, under pain of nulli-
fication.

‘37. Sentences which do not exceed sixty livres in all |
for restitution and reparation, without other penalty or
fine, shall be executed provisionally, and without prejudice
to appeal.

‘38. If there be an appeal from a sentence given on
matters relating to the chase, and the sentence be not
simply one of pecuniary fine, but one by which the appel-
Jant has been imprisoned, he shall not be enlarged pending
the appeal, excepting on depositing the amount of the
fine.

‘39. The Sergeants of the Guard of our forests, and
Guards of the open country of our preserves, cannot do
any work excepting what relates to our waters and
forests, and chases, under pain of charge of doing wrong ;
we hereby revoking to this effect all letters of liberty to
do so which we may have accorded to them.

‘40. The collection of the fines which may have been
inflicted in Capitainertes of the Chases of our royal

168 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

mansions, named above, shall be made by the Sergeant- J
Collectors of fines of the localities, who shall furnish every —

year to the Grand-Master a statement of their receipts and
expenses, in which may be included, if need, an outlay to
the amount of three hundred livres by our Captains, or
their Lieutenants, for the extraordinary expenses of pro-
cess and justice of their Capitaineries ; and they have
power to determine for the Guards of the Chase their
wages or fees for their reports, to be paid from the pro-

ceeds of fines, the balance of which shall be put into the ,

hand of the Receiver of our Woods or of our Domain,
to pay and account for as is done with the other money
under his management. We forbid to all Registrars,
Sergeants, Guards of the Chase, and other Officers to in-
termeddle in the collecting of the fines of the Chases;
therefore there shall be observed in this respect what is
ordered in regard to the fines of our forests.

‘41. We suppress all offices of Provosts, Commissioners,
and Comptrollers, general and special, of the Chases, to-
gether with all Officers who may have been by them
appointed, under whatever title it may be, and we forbid
to the one and to the other to continue the exercise of
their former functions, under pain of a thousand livres
fine, and of all expenses, damages, and interests of parties,

Carrer XXXI.—Of Fishings, —

‘Art. 1. We forbid to all persons, other than Master
Fishers received in the Courts of the Maitrises by the
Forest-Masters, or by their Lieutenants, to fish in streams
and navigable rivers, under pain of a fine of fifty livres,
and confiscation of the fish, nets, and other implements of
fishing, for the first offence, and, moreover, like confiscation
and heavier penalty if it be repeated.

‘2. No one can be received as a Master Fisher under the
age of twenty.

‘3. The Master Fishers of each town or port, where they
shall number eight or more, shall every year elect at an

~~:

OF FISHINGS. . “30S

Assize, which shall be held by the Forest-Masters or their
Lieutenants, a master of the community, who shall keep
an eye upon them, and report to the Officers of the
Maitrise any abuses which may be committed; and in
places in which there are fewer than eight, they shall call
together those of two or three of the nearest towns or
ports, that they may together appoint one of their number,
who shall undertake the same duty, all wlthout charge and
without exaction of fees, presents, or entertainment, under
pain of exemplary punishment and arbitrary fine.

‘4, We forbid to all fishers to fish on Sundays and
festivals, under pain of forty livres fine; and to this end
we expressly enjoin them, immediately after sunset, to
take to the quarters of the master of the community all
their implements and tackle, which shall not be restored
to them until after sunrise on the next day after Sundays
and festivals, under pain of fifty livres of fine, and sus-
pension from the fishing for a year.

‘5. We forbid likewise that on other days and seasons
when they may fish, they shall do so at other time than
between sunrise and sunset, excepting at arches of bridges,
at mills, and at fisheries where they may use large drag-
nets, in which places they may fish both day and night,
provided it be not a Sunday or festival, or be otherwise
forbidden.

‘6. Fishers cannot fish during times of spawning, namely,
in rivers in which the trout abounds.above all other kinds
of fish, from the 1st of February till the middle of March ;
and in others from the Ist of April till the Ist of June,
under pain for the first offence of twenty livres fine and a
month’s imprisonment, and of double the fine and two
months’ imprisonment for the second, and the iron collar,
the lash, and banishment from the district of the Waitrise
for five years, for the third.

‘7. We except always from the prohibition in the last
article the fishing for sulmon, shad, and lampreys, which
shall be continued in the customary manner.

‘8, Also, they cannot put bzres or bow-nets of willow at

170 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

the end of drag-nets during the time of spawning, under —
pain of twenty livres fine and of confiscation of tackle for —

the first time, and being suspended from the fishing 4

during a year for the second.
£9, It is permitted, however, to set chausses or mussel-
bags of eighteen lines square, and not otherwise, under the
same penalties; but spawning time being passed, they
may put bires of willows by day, the switches of which ~
shall be distant from each other at the least twelve lines. —
‘10. We cause it to be expressly forbidden to Master
Fishers to make use of any implement or tackle prohibited —
by the ancient ordinances relative to fishings, and besides

these those which are called giles, tramazl, furet or ferret,

espervier, chaslon, and sabre, of which no mention is made —
in these, or any others which may have been invented
to the depopulating of the rivers, as also to go on
barandage, and to put ferry-boats on the rivers, on pain
of a hundred livres fine for the first time, and corporal
punishment for the second. : 7 i

‘11. They are forbidden further to boullier with bouilles —
or rabots, as well under chevrins, roots, willows, saughs,
burrows, and arches, as in other places, or to set lines with
dead and live baits, together with carrying chains and
clairons in their little boats, to go carrying a light, or to

fish in the nowes with a net, and to bouller with this to —
catch the fish and the spawn which may be borne along ~

by the overflowing of the rivers, under any pretext, at any
time, or in any manner whatscever, under pain of a fine ~
of fifty livres against those guilty of contravention, and of ~
being banished for three years from the rivers, and of
three hundred livres fine against the Forest-Masters, or
their Lieutenants, who may have given them permission,

‘12. Fishers shall throw back into the rivers trout, carp, —
barbels, breames, and millers which they may have caught
having less than six inches between the eyes and the tail;
and tenches, perches, and mullets which may have less
than five, under pain of a hundred livres of fine, and con-
fiscation against the fishers or merchants who may have
sold or bought them. |

OF FISHINGS. 171

‘13. We will that there be in each Maitrise a die, on
which shall be engraven an escutcheon of our arms, and
on the reverse the name of the Maztrise, of which use shall
be made to seal on lead the tackle or implements of the
fishers, who cannot use any upon which the seal has not
been impressed, under pain of confiscation, and of twenty
livres fine; and the implements and tackle which have
been marked shall be registered, along with the day, and
the name of the fisher who has had them marked; but
this without our officers having power to take any fee.

‘14. We forbid to all persons to throw into the rivers
any lime, nux vomica, cocullus indicus, momie, and other
drugs or attractions for the fish, under pain of corporal
punishment. :

‘15. We forbid to all mariners, boatswains, mates, steers-
men, and other river watermen, steering their ships, boats,
barges, or punts, to have any implements of fishing, be it
those permitted or forbidden by the ancient ordinances or
the present, under pain of a hundred livres fine, and con-
fiscation of the implements.

‘16. We order that all the fishing stages which shall be
used on streams and navigable rivers shall be brought to
land, and the fishers shall give notice of them to the Ser-
geants and Guards of Fisheries, who shall be bound to
prepare a minute of the same, and to give them in keep-
ing to a responsible person, who shall have the charge of
them—of which minute our Attorney shall make a com-
munication to the Registry immediately on its being
brought to him by the Sergeant or Guard of the Fishery,
and which he shall read at the first Audience; upon
which being done, the Master, or his Lieutenant, shall
order that if within a month the fishing stage be not
demanded and reclaimed, it shall be sold to our profit to
the highest. and last bidder, and the money proceeds put
into the hands of our Receivers, saving that this shall be
delivered to him, who shall reclaim them within a month
after the sale if it have been so ordered in the cognisance
taken of the case.

172 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘17. We forbid the taking away and removal of the —
fishing stages without the permission of the Officers of our
_ Maitrises after the recognaisance which may have been ~

made of them, and they have been adjudged to him who _

has reclaimed them. .
‘18. We make it to be forbidden to all persons to goon
the pools, fishponds, and ditches when they shall be frozen,
for the purpose of breaking the ice, and to make holes, or _
to carry torches, brands, and other fires thereon, under
pain of the punishment for robbery.
‘19. Ecclesiastics, seigneurs, gentlemen, and communities
who have right of fishing in the rivers, shall be bound to

observe, and to cause to be observed, the present regula-

tion by their domestics, and by fishers to whom they may
have farmed the right, under pain of being deprived of the.
right.

‘20. We enjoin on them likewise to give by declaration
to our Attorneys in Maztrises, the names, surnames, and
dwellings of the fishers to whom they have given a lease

of their fishing, which declaration shall be registered at

the Registry of the Maitrise, where the fishers shall be

bound to take the oath, and to elect annually, in the pre- iy
sence of the Forest-Masters, or their Lieutenants, holding

their Assizes, Masters of the community, as do the fishers
in our waters, that there may be kept and preserved by
them like order as by the fishers of our Mazttrises. |

‘21. For the replenishing of our fishponds, the carp ~
shall be at least six inches long, the tench five, and the ~

perch four; and with regard to the pike, it shall be of

such a size as the successful bidder at the auction may —
wish; but there shall not be made a cast in the fishponds ~
and ditches until a year after they have been stocked, —
which shall also-be observed with the fishponds, pools, and
ditches of ecclesiastics and communities, the same as with
ours. We enjoin on the Officers of Maitrises to attend to —
this without their having power to charge any dues or fees,
under pain of charge of exaction.

‘22, All Master Fishers in our rivers, and those of ~

Sg aS EEE

agers Oo

OF FISHINGS. ) 173

private persons who have the right of fishing on streams
and navigable rivers, shall, for depredations which they
may commit, answer before the Officers of Maitrises, and
not before the Judges of the Seigneurs, to whom we inter-
dict the cognisance of such doings, and they shall be
sentenced according to the rigour of our ordinances.

‘23. There shall be commissioned in each Maitrise Ser-
geants for the conservation of the rivers and fishings in
sufficient number, with wages and following the regulation
which shall be made in our Council, with the advice of
the Grand-Masters, to be daily on the streams and rivers,
to watch the fishers that they in no way contravene our
ordinances, and in case of contravention, seize the im-
plements, and send them, with their minute relative to
them, to our Registries of the Maitrises; they shall also
summon the delinquents on the first day to answer their
charge.

‘24, We permit to Masters, Lieutenants, and our
Attorneys, to visit the rivers, fish caufs, shops, and estuzs
of the fishers, and if they find therein fish which are not
of the length and size above prescribed, they shall make a
minute of the quality and quantity of those which they
have found, and they shall summon the fishers to answer
for the misdemeanour, all without expense.

‘25. If the Officers of the Maitrises shall find forbidden
implements and tackle, they shall cause them to be burned
before the gate of their Audience Hall at the close of their
Audience, and on the ground of what they have seized
they shall condemn the fishers to the penalties declared
above, without power to modify them, under pain of sus-
pension from their charges for a year.

‘26. All the fines adjudged on account of navigable and
floatable rivers, and of all our waters, shall be received for
our profit by the Sergeant-Collector of fines in the several
Maitrises or of the department, for which they shall account
as for those of our forests, and what comes to us shall be
paid into the hands of the Receiver-General, as are the
other monies under his charge.

174 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

CHarTer XXXII.—Of Penalties, Fines, Restitutions, Damages,
Compensations for Loss, and Confiscations.

‘Art, 1. The ordinary fine for depredations by private
persons, not having a charge, usage, workshop, or business
in our forests, woods, and warrens, committed between
sunrise and sunset, without saw and without fire, shall be
for the first offence, a fine of four livres for each foot of
oak, and of all fruit trees without distinction, and the

same for chestnuts; one of fifty sous for each foot of ©

willow, beech, lime, elm, fir, yoke elm, and ash; and
thirty sous per foot of trees of all other kinds, green and
standing, dry or felled, all being taken and measured at
half a foot from the ground.

‘2. Those who have chopped, branched, and spoiled
trees, shall pay the same fine per foot round, as if they
had felled them at the ground.

‘3. For each cart-load of split wood, of squared wood, of
sawn wood, or of carpenter’s wood, the fine shall be twenty-
four livres ; for the cart-load of firewood, fifteen livres ; for
the burden or load of a horse or ass, four livres; and for
the faggot or bundle twenty sous.

‘4, For stamped trees, balliveaux, partition trees, and
boundary trees, and other reserved trees, fifty livres ; for
each corner tree marked with our marteau felled, a hun-
dred livres; and two hundred livres for each corner tree
uprooted and removed; we reduce, however, the fine for
balliveaux of the age of coppice woods under the age of
twenty years, to ten livres.

‘5. If the depredations be found to have been committed
between sunset and sunrise, by saw or by fire, be it by
officers of the forests or of the chases, surveyors, layeurs,
guards, usagers, claimants of rights of usage, herds, shep-
herds, merchant-buyers or their agents and their factors,
guards of sales, woodmen, charcoal-burners, waggoners,
masters of forges, furnace-men, brick-makers, and any others
employed in the exploitation of the forests and in the

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OF PENALTIES, FINES, DAMAGES, &c. 175

workshops connected with the working of the wood, the
fine shall be double.

‘6. We will that all the persons specified shall be dis-
missed the service on repetition of the offence—namely,
that the officers be deprived of their charges, the merchants
of their purchases, and the usagers of their rights and
customary privileges, and that all be banished for ever
from the forests, without their being able to hope for any
letters of pardon, restoration, commutation, and repeal of
banishment, which we forbid to our trusty and well beloved
Chancellor of Seals, and to all Judges to grant, notwith-
standing contrary commandments or orders, declaring all
such as may have been obtained preceding these presents,
to be null, and of no effect or value.

‘7. Merchants, masters of forges, usagers, borderers and
others occupying houses, farms, and other heritages within
the enclosure, and within two leagues of our forests, shall
remain civilly responsible for their agents, waggoners,
herds, and domestics.

‘8. And inasmuch as the fines based on girths have been
regulated according to the value and condition of the woods °
in the year 1518, since which time they have risen very
much in price, we order that, conformably to the Ordinance
made by Henry III. in the year 1588, and to the decrees
and regulations of the month of September 1601, June
1602, and October 1623, the restitutions, damages, and
compensation for loss shall be adjudged on all depredations
at the least at the amount of the fine.

‘9, Besides the fine, restitution, damages, and compen-
sation for loss, there shall always be confiscation of the
horses, asses, and harness, which may be found loaded
with stolen wood, and of saws, hatchets, bill-hooks, and
other implements, of which the specified culprits and their
accomplices may be found possessed.

‘10. The beasts found in act of tresspass, or out of the
places of the roads and specified ways, shall likewise be
confiscated; and where the beasts cannot be seized, the
owners shall be condemned to a fine, which shall be twenty

176 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE,

livres for each horse, ox, or cow, a hundred sous for each ~
calf, and three livres for each sheep or ewe, doubled for

the second time, and for the third quadrupled, with
banishment from the forests against the herds and other

cuards and leaders, for which in every case the masters,

fathers, heads of families, proprietors, farmers, and tenants
of the houses, and dwellers, shall be held responsible.

‘11. No delay must take place in the sale of the beasts
taken in the act of trespass and confiscated, at their true
value to the Jast and highest bidder on the market day, at
the instance of our Attorneys of the Mavztrises; and if it
happen that through the influence of the owners there be
no bidders, our Attorneys shall prepare and present a
minute of the fact to the Masters or their Lieutenants;
and the beasts shall be sent by them to the markets of
the towns which may be deemed most expedient for our
advantage and profit.

‘12. All private persons buying or collecting by day
herbage, acorns, or mast, of whatever class and age they
may be, or taking any away from the forests, bosques,
warrens, and bush, shall be condemned for the first time
to a fine—namely, for a burden borne by themselves, a
hundred sous; for a load on a horse or an ass, twenty
livres; and for a load on a dray, forty livres; the double
for a second offence, and for the third banishment from
the forests, and also from the province of the Maztrise, and
in every case the confiscation of the horses and drays
which may be found loaded.

‘13. All persons who have cut, rooted up, or carried off
trees, branches, or leaves from our forests, woods, and
warrens, and from those of ecclesiastics, communities, or
private persons, for marriage feasts, festivals, and brother-
hood meetings, shall be punished by fine, and restitution,

damages, and compensation for loss, according to the size

and quality of the wood, as they would have been in any
other case of depredation.

‘14. We forbid to the Officers to pronounce arbitrary
fines and punishments, or to pronounce less than are de-

OF PENALTIES, FINES, DAMAGES, fc. 177

termined by this present Ordinance, or to modify or alter
them after sentence has been pronounced, under pain of
repetition of the former penalty against them, and of
suspension from their charge for the first time, and
deprivation on repetition. m

‘15. There shall not be made a gift, remission, or re-
duction on any account whatever of fines, restitutions,
damages, and compensation for loss, before they have been
awarded or thereafter fur any person, be he who he may,
We forbid the sending of letters or memorials in regard to
this; and to Parliaments and Chanceries and their Registrars
to register or give any heed to such; and to Grand- Masters
and Ufficers of Maitrixes to give effect to them, under pain
of deprivation of their charges, and of their being made
respousible in their persons and in their own names.

‘16. The fines of our timber forests, coppice woods, and
of woods held in Grurie, Grairie, Tiers et Langer, and co-
proprietorship, pastures, and pannage, warrens, waters, and
rivers, cannot be farmed nor sold under any pretext what-
ever, and if they be found comprised in any bargain, lease,
or auction sale, we declare such to be null and void; we
will that they be levied to our profit, with the restitutions,
confiscations, and other penalties appertaining to us, by the
Sergeant-Collectors of Muitrises, and be by them paid to
the Receivers, as is ordered by these presents.

‘17. The fines which shall be imposed by our Commis-
sioners and Ufficers, in reformation or otherwise, at the
instance of our Attorneys-General or their substitutes, for
depredations, abuses, usurpations, surcharges, excess in
measurements, and contraventions in waters and forests of
ecclesiastics and communities, and in those which are held
by Grurie, Grairie, or otherwise, shall belong to us without
exception or difference, and the lists shall be put into and
left in the hands of the Sergeant-Collectors of each Matrise
to make recovery of them and account for them as, and
under the same terms and penalties as for, the fines
adjudged for our waters and forests.

‘18. The fines and penalties for the omissions and

N

178 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

depredations of officers, merchants, usagers, and customers,
masters of kilns, forges, and furnaces, of workshops and
houses, farmers, auction-buyers, borderers, communities,
herds, and others having direction, usage, business, and
- entrance in the forests, shall be received by the Sergeant-
Collector of fines in each JMaztrise, and the sentences and
lists shall be executed in the form and manner prescribed
by the different chapters of the present Ordinance, and the
convicts shall be compelled by all means, including personal
imprisonment, to make payment. |

‘19. The Collectors of fines shall be bound to write on
the margin of their rolls what they receive,.and to give a
receipt for the same, under pain of fourfold restitution of
the sums for which they have not given a receipt.
_ 20. The Collector shall remain responsible for fines,
restitutions, interests, and confiscations contained in his
rolls in default of his proving within three months after
they have been delivered to him, his proceedings of search
on discovery of the insolvency of parties from whom they
are due, and that sufficient diligence had been used by him.

‘21. The diligence shall not be considered sufficient, nor
the proceedings de carence of goods good, and valid for the
discharge of the Collectors of fines, if they be not signed
by the curés or vicars, or by the Judge of the places on
the representation of the roll des Tuilles et du Sel, excepting
in cases of there having been made new proof by the
Officers and our Attorney, in case of a suspicion of fraud,
in which case, if proved, the verification shall be made at
the expense of the Sergeant-Collectors, who shall, moreover,
be condemned to pay fourfold.

‘22. The Collectors of fines shall not be discharged of
the collection of fines and penalties, notwithstanding all
diligence used, and enquiries made by them, until in each
year they have furnished to the Grand-Master a statement
of their receipts and diligence, which shall be certified on
the rolls presented by them, with the documents relative
thereto, and after our Attorney having been heard, and on
the whole judgment has been. passed ordering that the

OF PENALTIES, FINES DAMAGES, &c. 179

parties shall be held as possessed of nothing, which we
enjoin on the.Grand-Masters to do, and on our Attorneys
to require it of them, under pain of having to answer for
it in their own names.

‘23. When there has been an appeal from a sentence of
fine, the Collectors appointed in the Maittrises shall make
recovery of it after the appeal has been heard, whether
the fines have been increased or diminished at the Marble
Table or otherwise; and we forbid to all otbers to inter-
meddle with the receipt and collection, under pain of a
fine of a thousand livres.

‘24. The Collector of fines shall have for his fee two
sous per livre on the recovery and actual receipt which he
shall make. :

‘25. The fines shall not become prescribed in less than
ten years, notwithstanding all usages and customs to the
contrary.

‘26. If it shall happen that the Officers shall have been
convicted of having committed forgery or fraud in their
reports and proceedings, they shall be condemned to pay
quadruple, be deprived of their offices, banished from the
forests, and subjected to corporal punishment as abettors
and prevaricators; and the Guards who shall have made
the reports shall be sent to the galleys for life, without
any moderation.

‘27. The charges and offices held in the Waters and
Forests shall remain specially appropriated, and this to the
exclusion of all debts and hypotheces, to meet restitutions,
damages, and compensations for loss, fines, and expenses
adjudged for depredations, neglegencies, and malversations
of the Officers holding them.

‘28. All fines, restitutions, damages, compensations for
loss, and confiscations of ecclesiastics, commanderies, infir-
maries, hospitals, communities, and private persons, shall
be adjudicated in the waters and woods, and the sentences
and recoveries shall be executed in the same manner as
for those which have been pronounced on matters con-
nected with our Waters and Forests.

150 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE.

‘So We give it incommandment to our trusty and well-
beloved Councillors to the people holding our Court of
Parliament and Chambre des Comptes in Paris, that they —
cause these presents to be read, published, and enregistered,
and the contents to be kept, observed, and maintained by
them without permitting them to be contravened in any
kind of way or manner, for such is our pleasure, notwith-
standing all edicts, declarations, ordinances, regulations,
decrees, and other things to the contrary, which, with their —
derogatories and contents, We have abrogated, and do
abrogate, by these said presents; and in order that this
may be a thing firm and stable for ever, we have caused
that our seal be attached hereto. Given at St. Germain
en Laye, in the month of August, of the year of grace one —
thousand six hundred and sixty-nine, and the twenty-
seventh of our reign. (Signed) Louis. ~

‘By the King, :

(Signed) ‘ COLBERT.

‘Visa,
(Signed) ‘ SEGUIER.

‘Read, published, heard, and required by the Attorney-
General of the King to be executed according to its —
form and tenor, Done in Parliament, the King sitting —
there in his Throne of Justice, the third day of August, one.
thousand six hundred and sixty-nine. 0 ea

(Signed) Du Tower

‘Read, published, and enregistered in the Chambre des
omptes, heard, and thereto consenting the Attorney~—
General of the King, by express commandment of His”
Majesty, borne by Monsieur, his only brother, the Duke of ©
Orleans, come for this purpose into the Chamber, assisted
by the Sieur Duke du Plessis-Praslin, Murshal of France,
and by the Sieurs Daligre and De Séve, Councillors of ©
State and Directors of Finance, the third day of August, —
one thousand six hundred and sixty-nine. ‘
(Signed) RICHER.” —

END.

LIBRARY

FanmituTy AC CNDCeCTDV

SD Brown, John Crombie

615 French forest ordinance
BS of 1669

JO 615
AUTHOR

French forest ordinance

~ TITLE (12798 ] at
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DATE

of 1669. _—_—

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