PART III. 



CHAPTER I. 



SUMMARY OF MEDIEVAL FOREST LEGISLATION 

 IN ENGLAND. 



THE devastation of forests in England appears to have 

 been going on while the Romans were resident there. 

 From the time of Canute attempts have been made by 

 legislation to restrict the destruction of woods deemed 

 necessary for the shelter of game; and only incidentally 

 was the preservation of the forests from devastation and 

 destruction thus secured. 



By the consideration of the Forest Laws successively 

 enacted, something may be learned in regard to the con- 

 dition of the woodlands, and of the state of things which 

 required a resort to legislation to meet. 



In France, and in other countries on the Continent of 

 Europe, in which attention has been given to the explora- 

 tion of forests in accordance with the advanced forest 

 science of the day, the laws relating to their conservation, 

 protection, and management have been formally codified. 

 It is not so in Britain ;* and thus are secured for us faci- 



* In a review of Eisays in Jurisprudence and Ethics, by Frederick Pollok, M.A., 

 LL.D., which appeared in The Spectator of 9th September, 1882, the reviewer says : 



" In defiance of every principle of scientific legislation, but for reasons peculiar to 

 our Parliamentary system, the Acts of Parliament constantly passed for remedying 

 practical grievances, almost invariably enact little special systems of law, applicable 

 only to particular classes of persons and transactions, instead of establishing any 

 general principle of law applicable in all cases. We will give one illustration out of many. 

 Fifty or sixty years ago, it was discovered that gross cruelties and serious dangers were 



