216 France. 



prescriptions to an extent have persisted into the 19th 

 century. The commission from time to time made 

 reports, giving their findings in detail, and these form 

 a most interesting record of conditions prevailing at 

 that time. As one of the historians (Joubain) puts it, 

 "the commissioners did not recoil before long hours 

 of inspection nor high influence, they neither hesitated 

 to declare against, nor prosecute, great and small 

 alike, nor to pronounce a most serious sentence." A 

 thorough cleaning up was done and a complete re- 

 organization secured. 



By this ordinance, three special courts of adjudica- 

 tion in matters pertaining to the forests were estab- 

 lished, with special officers whose duties were care- 

 fully defined, namely the courts of the Gruries, of the 

 Maitrises and the Tables de Marbre. The first named, 

 lower grade courts took cognizance of the lesser 

 offences, abuses, wastes and malversations, disputes 

 in regard to fishing or chase, and murders arising out 

 of these; gruries being the woods belonging to in- 

 dividuals in which the jurisdiction and the profit 

 from such jurisdiction belonged to the king, or at 

 least to the seigneurs. The courts of the maitrise 

 referred to the forest territory placed under adminis- 

 tration of the mattres particuliers (Forstmeister), and 

 were established near the many royal forests as courts 

 of appeal in forest matters. A final appeal could be 

 made to the tables de marbre (courts of the marble 

 table), which also decided on the more weighty ques- 

 tions of proprietorship by whatever term held, and 

 especially civil and criminal cases relating to the eaux 

 et forets; the wrong doings in the discharge of official 



