EFFECTS OF FEENCH REVOLUTION". 343 



keepers." * The Tiers Etat declared, in 1789, " the most terrible 

 scourge of agriculture is tlie abundance of wild game, a conse- 

 quence of the privileges of the chase ; the fields are wasted, the 

 forests ruined, and the vines gnawed down to the roots." 



Effects of the French devolution. 



The abrogation of the game laws and of the harsh provisions 

 of the forestal code was one of the earliest measures of the 

 revolutionary government ; and the removal of the ancient 

 restrictions on the chase, and of the severe penalties imposed 

 on trespassers upon the public forests, was immediately followed 

 by unbridled license in the enjoyment of the newly conceded 

 rights. 



In the popular mind the forest was associated with all the 

 abuses of feudahsm, and the evils the peasantry had suffered 



* The following details from Bonnemere "will serve to give a more complete 

 idea of the vexatious and irritating nature of the game laws of France. The 

 oflficers of the chase went so far as to forbid the puUing up of thistles and 

 weeds, or the mowing of any unenclosed ground before St. John's day (24th 

 June) in order that the nests of game birds might not be disturbed. It was 

 unlawful to fence in any grounds in the plains where royal residences were 

 situated ; thorns were ordered to be planted in aU fields of wheat, barley or 

 oats, to prevent the use of ground-nets for catching the birds which consumed, 

 or were believed to consume, the grain ; and it was forbidden to cut or pull 

 stubble before the first of October, lest the partridge and the quail might be 

 deprived of their cover. For destroying the eggs of the quail a fine of one 

 hundred livres was imposed for the first offence, double that amount for the 

 second, and for the third the culprit was flogged and banished for five years 

 to a distance of six leagues from the forest. — Histoire des Paysans, ii., p. 202, 

 text and notes. 



Neither these severe penalties, nor any provisions devised by the ingenuity 

 of modern legislation, have been able effectually to repress poaching. " The 

 game laws," says Clave, "have not delivered us from the poachers, who kill 

 twenty times as much game as the sportsman. In the forest of Fontainebleau, 

 as in all those belonging to the state, poaching is a very common and a very 

 profitable offence. It is in vain that the gamekeepers are on the alert night 

 and day, they can not prevent it. Those who follow the trade begin by care- 

 fully studying the habits of the game. They wiU lie motionless on the ground, 

 by the roadside or in thickets, for whole days, watching the paths most fre- 

 quented by the animals," etc. — Revue des Deux Mbndes, Mai, 1863, p. IGO. 



The writer adds many details on this subject, and it appears that, as there 

 are " beggars on horseback " in South America, there are poachers in carriage« 

 in France. 



