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FORECASTLE MEN FORESTS. 



FORECASTLE MEN ; sailors stationed on the 

 forecastle, who are generally prime seamen. 



FORECLOSED; in law, signifies the being shut 

 out, and excluded or barred the equity of redemption 

 on mortgages, &c. 



FORELAND ; a cape or promontory projecting 

 into the sea, as the North and South Forelands. 



FORE TACKLE; tackle on the foremast, and 

 also tackle used for stowing the anchor. 



FORETOP MEN ; men stationed in the foretop, in 

 readiness to set, or take in the smaller sails, and to 

 keep the upper rigging in order. 



FORENSIS (Latin), from Forum (q. v.), is often 

 used in modern times ; for instance, medicina forensis 

 is the science of medicine as applied in legal proces- 

 ses, as in the examination of bodies of persons sus- 

 pected of having suffered violence, of the nature and 

 effects of wounds supposed to havecaused death, &c. 

 In Germany, this is done by a physician appointed 

 by the government. 



FORESHORTENING, in drawing and painting; 

 the art of representing figures of all sorts as they 

 appear to the eye in oblique positions. This art, 

 which, in many instances, is very difficult, was known 

 to the Greeks ; and Pliny speaks particularly as to 

 its being successfully practised by Parrhasius and 

 Pausias. Among the moderns, Correggio must be 

 allowed the palm for excellence in foreshortening. 

 In painting ceilings, it is particularly important. In 

 a celebrated picture of the body of Christ lying hori- 

 zontally, the figure is so much foreshortened that the 

 toes appear almost to touch the chin. 



FORESTALLING is the buying or bargaining for 

 any corn, cattle, or other merchandise, by the way, 

 before it comes to any market or fair to be sold, or as 

 it comes from beyond the seas, or otherwise, towards 

 any port or creek, to sell the same again at a higher 

 price. At the common law, all endeavours to 

 enhance the price of merchandise, and all practices 

 which have a tendency thereto, whether by spreading 

 false rumours, or by purchasing things in a market 

 before the accustomed hour, or by buying and selling 

 again the same thing in the same market, or by such 

 devices, are criminal, and punishable by fine and 

 imprisonment. 



FORESTS. The great importance of wood to 

 society, and the rapid decrease of forests, if particu- 

 lar care is not taken of them, have led, in modern 

 times, to a careful investigation of the subject of the 

 management of forests, and everything connected 

 with it. The Germans, who first taught mining as a 

 science, were the first who treated scientifically of the 

 management of forests, and established forest aca- 

 demies, in which all branches of the knowledge 

 relating to them are taught. These establishments 

 originated from the increasing scarcity of wood, 

 which rendered the careful management of the forests 

 necessary, and from the plan of raising a revenue on 

 the part of the government by the sale of the wood. 

 Mr Zanthier first introduced instruction in the forest 

 sciences as a particular branch of study at Ilsenburg, 

 in Stolberg-Werningerode, near the Hartz mountains. 

 Pnissia soon directed her attention to them ; and, at 

 present, no person in that country is appointed to an 

 office in the forest department without liaving under- 

 gone a strict examination in the branches of know- 

 ledge connected with the forests, and having served 

 personally in the forests for a considerable length of 

 time. There are a number of forest academies in 

 different parts of Germany, particularly in the small 

 states of Central Germany, in the Hartz, Thuringia, 

 &c. The principal branches taught in them are the 

 following : forest botany, mineralogy, zoology, che- 

 mistry ; by which the learner is taught the natural 

 history of forests, and the mutual relations, &c., of tlia 



different kingdoms of nature. He is also instructe:! 

 in the care and cliasc of frame, and in the surveying 

 and cultivation of forests so as to understand the 

 mode of raising all kinds of wood, and supplying a 

 new growth as fast as the old is taken away. The 

 jiupil is also instructed in the administration of the 

 forest taxes and police, and all that relates to forests 

 considered as a branch of revenue. 



France lias likewise paid attention to her forests, 

 and has enacted a code forestier. 



The English forest laws have reference only to the 

 preservation of game. " With regard (says Black- 

 stone, Com., vol. ii. page 413) to the rise and original 

 of the present civil prohibitions on the destruction of 

 game in Europe, it will be found that all forest and 

 game laws were introduced into that part of the 

 world at the same time, and by the same policy, as 

 the feudal system, when the swarms of barbarians 

 issued from their northern hive, and laid the foundation 

 of most of the present kingdoms of Europe on the ruins 

 of the Western empire. Forwhen aconquering general 

 came to settle the economy of a vanquished country, 

 and to part it out among his soldiers or feudatories, 

 who were to render him military service for such 

 donations, it behoved him to keep the natives of the 

 country, and all persons who were not his military 

 tenants, in as low a condition as possible, and espe- 

 cially to prohibit them the use of arms. Nothing 

 could do this more effectually than a prohibition of 

 hunting or sporting ; and therefore it was the policy 

 of the conqueror to reserve this right to himself and 

 those on whom he should bestow it, who were only 

 his capital feudatories or greater barons. And 

 accordingly we find in the feudal constitution one and 

 the same law prohibiting the rustici in general from 

 bearing arms, and also proscribing the use of snares, 

 nets, or other engines for destroying the game. This 

 exclusive privilege well suited the martial genius of 

 the conquering troops, who delighted in a sport 

 which, in its pursuit and slaughter, bore some re- 

 semblance to war. And, indeed, like some of their 

 modern successors, they had no other amusement to 

 entertain their vacant hours, despising all arts as 

 effeminate, and having no other learning than was 

 couched in such rude ditties as were sung at the 

 solemn carousals which succeeded these ancient hunt- 

 ings. And it is remarkable, that, in those nations 

 where the feudal policy remains most uncormpted, 

 the forest or game laws continue in their highest 

 rigour. 



" In France, all game was properly the king's ; and, 

 in some parts of Germany, it is death for a peasant 

 to be found hunting in the woods of the nobility. In 

 Britain, also, hunting has always been esteemed a 

 most princely diversion and exercise. The whole 

 island was replenished with all sorts of game in the 

 times of the Britons, who lived in a wild and pas- 

 toral manner, without enclosing or improving their 

 grounds, and derived much of their subsistence from 

 the chase, which they all enjoyed in common. But 

 when husbandry took place under the Saxon govern- 

 ment, and lands began to be cultivated, improved and 

 enclosed, the beasts naturally fled into the woody and 

 desert tracts, which were called forests, and, not hav- 

 ing been disposed of in the first distribution of lands, 

 were therefore held to belong to the crown. These 

 were filled with great plenty of game, which our 

 royal sportsmen reserved for their own diversion, on 

 pain of a pecuniary forfeiture on the part of such as 

 interfered with their sovereign. But every freeman 

 had the full liberty of sporting upon his own territor- 

 ies, provided he abstained from the king's forests. 

 However, upon the Norman conquest, a new doctrine 

 took place, and the right of pursuing and taking all 

 beasts of chase or venery, and such other animuis 



