FOREST ADMIXISTRATION IN THE CANTON VAUD, SWITZERLAND, 83 



municipality who knowingly Lave committed, or authorised, con- 

 traventions of the law, are themselves liable to the fines to 

 which such contraventions have given place, with the additional 

 arid special fine of 15 francs per acre for all forest on which they 

 allow pasturage otherwise than provided for by law. 



OF RIGHTS OF USAGE. 



The rights of pasturage, and other claims, made by dwellers in 

 the vicinity of forests, which it is considered necessary to keep as 

 State or Communal forests, are recognised, but only so far as to 

 make their compulsory surrender a matter of pecuniaiy compensa- 

 tion. The paramount importance of maintaining the forests in a 

 healthy condition for the public good is distinctly made to over- 

 ride all claims of private interest. And with such a report as 

 we have alluded to above, resistance to government authority, in 

 the enforcement of this general principle, is neither reasonable 

 nor possible. 



THEIR SUBORDINATION TO THE PUBLIC GOOD. 



What we wish to insist upon, and bring into relief, generally, 

 in the system, is, on the one hand, the strictness of the written 

 law, and on the other, the reasonableness of its application. So 

 long, for instance, as the balance of supply and demand was 

 unduly depressed, the provisions of the law were bound to be 

 enforced, if need be with rigour. But when this equilibrium was 

 regained, interference with private rights is not attempted, and 

 would not, if attempted, be tamely accepted. One talks, without 

 the faintest idea of irony, of the " machinery " of such and such 

 a department. Such a word is entirely out of place in describing 

 the system of forest management in the canton Yaud. Granted 

 that the red tape exists, — this is we suppose a necessity of all 

 dejmrtmental working. But the colour of the tape is less red, 

 and the strings of the tape are less tightly drawn in this com- 

 munal arrangement, than in many other more polished systems of 

 government. The people are assumed to have minds of their 

 own, more or less open to i-eason. And more remarkable still, it 

 is even suspected that the government official may have a glim- 

 mering of common sense, and a certain reserve fund of individual 

 discretion. 



