FORESTS OF FRANCE. 315 
special treatises, in scientific journals, and by the public press, 
as well as in the legislative body of that country. Perhaps no 
one point has been more prominent in the discussions than the 
influence of the forest in equalizing and regulating the flow of 
the water of precipitation. Opinion is still somewhat divided 
on this subject, but the value of the woods as a safeguard against 
the ravages of torrents is universally acknowledged, and it is 
hardly disputed that the rise of river-floods is, even if as great, at 
least less sudden in streams haying their sources in well-wooded 
territory. 
Upon the whole, the conservative action of the woods in re- 
gard to torrents and to inundations has been generally recognized 
by the public of France as a matter of prime importance, and 
the Government of the empire has made this principle the basis 
of a special system of legislation for the protection of existing 
forests, and for the formation of new. The clearing of wood- 
land, and the organization and functions of a police for its pro- 
tection, are regulated by a law bearing date June 18th, 1859, 
and provision was made for promoting the restoration of private 
woods by a statute adopted on the 28th of July, 1860. The 
former of these laws passed the legislative body by a vote of 
246 against 4, the latter with but a single negative voice. The 
influence of the Government, in a country where the throne is 
so potent as in France, would account for a large majority, but 
when it is considered that both laws, the former especially, in- 
terfere very materially with the rights of private domain, the 
almost entire unanimity with which they were adopted is proof 
of a very general popular conviction, that the protection and 
extension of the forests is a measure more likely than any 
other to arrest the devastations of the torrents and check the vio- 
lence, if not to prevent the recurrence, of destructive river inun- 
dations. The law of July 28th, 1860, appropriated 10,000,000 
francs, to be expended, at the rate of 1,000,000 franes per year, 
in executing or aiding the replanting of woods. It is computed 
that this appropriation—which, considering the vast importance 
of the subject, does not seem extravagant for a nation rich 
