126 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



mission being given to agriculturists to settle down within 

 the boundaries of Crown forests where they may find land 

 suitable for cultivation, and where an efficient supervision 

 and protection of the forest is impracticable. Is it desir- 

 able that such permission, in such circumstances, should 

 be given? To the Commissioners it appeared that in 

 regard to this the history of legislation is very instructive, 

 showing that the practice has done not a little to develope 

 the udal rights of absolute possession, where, iinder a 

 climate so severe, a people possessing only vassal rights 

 would not and could not have been expected to prosecute 

 and maintain the cultivation of the soil. While field 

 labourers in most of the countries of Europe lying further 

 to the south, wrought the land on account of the sovereign 

 or of some feudal lord, the agriculturist in the north 

 became the possessor of the field which he himself had 

 created by bringing it under cultivation. Through the influ- 

 ence chiefly of the aristocracy, a change in the law was 

 introduced. It had come to be considered that all land 

 not under cultivation was considered Crown property, and 

 under this assumption many sections were sowed by per- 

 sons who had no right to the land, and who thereafter 

 claimed the land as their own; and, in consequence of 

 this, laws were adopted which confined and limited con- 

 siderably the udalman's right of holding and disposing of 

 property. But the force of circumstances coerced legisla- 

 tion on the subject, and secured legal recognition for udal 

 rights, and for two centuries past the legislators have 

 manifested a zeal altogether remarkable to secure the 

 rights of possession to the settler dwelling upon Crown 

 land, and to promote in every way possible, upon the most 

 advantageous conditions, the acquisition of udalman's rights. 

 And the Commissioners also considered that all who may 

 go forth to settle in the Crown forests should be treated 

 exceptionally, as the settlement there of a population not 

 possessing an absolute right in the soil could not be other- 

 wise than damaging to the wood, and detrimental to the 

 land in every way. With such right they have a personal 



