CHAPTER VII. 



ABUSES IN CONNECTION WITH THE EXPLOITATION 

 OF FORESTS. 



THE so-called famous Forest Ordinance of 1669, which has 

 become identified with the exploitation of forests in accord- 

 ance with what is known as La Methode a Tire et Aire, 

 that adopted in this district, was expected to put an end 

 at once and for ever to all malversation, peculation, and 

 waste in the exploitation of forests to which it was applic- 

 able; and regulations equally explicit and equally 

 stringent were issued here for the protection of forests 

 in the district against waste and destruction. But in the 

 one case, as in the other, the end desired was not secured. 



It is not unfrequently the case that both in Church and 

 State, arrangements which seem well adapted to secure 

 what is desired, fail in practice to prevent the evils they 

 were designed to meet. In different countries may be 

 seen in the administration of the forests abuses which may 

 remind one of the apostle's saying : ' The law is good, and 

 the commandment holy, just, and good ; but the command- 

 ment which was ordained unto life has been found to be 

 unto death. Illustrations may be supplied from the history 

 of forestry in Spain, in France, in England, and at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, if not in others also of the British 

 Colonies. And the manipulation of laws designed for the 

 conservation, maintenance, and economic exploitation of 

 the forests in this region to secure a sustained supply of 

 firewood for the smelting and manufacture of the metallic 

 products of the mines has also been in many instances 

 most disastrous. 



I have formed a high opinion of forest officials in Russia ; 

 and I have no reason to suspect that many, if not all, of the 



