LEGISLATION SUBSEQUENT TO " CHARTA FORESTA." 233 



Narraganset Country, or King's Province, and Connecticut 

 in New England, New York, and New Jersey. No person 

 within the said colonies shall presume to cut, sell, or 

 destroy white or other sort of pine tree, fit for masts, not 

 being the property of any private person, such tree being 

 the growth of twenty-four inches and upward at twelve 

 inches from the ground, without the royal licence for so 

 doing, under the pain of forfeiting 100 for every such 

 offence, one moiety to the crown, and the other ^o the 

 informer, who may recover the same in any court of record. 

 The surveyor-general to mark the trees to be cut with the 

 broad arrow j but no other person than he or his deputy 

 to make any mark under the penalty of 5. 



" In the 12th of Ann we find an Act, chap. 9, for 

 encouraging the importation of naval stores from America 

 and Scotland for eleven years, and thence to the end of 

 the next session. 



" Section 26 observes : ' Whereas there are in several 

 parts of North Britain, called Scotland, pine and fir trees 

 fit for masts, and for making pitch, tar, resin, and other 

 naval stores ; but the land and woods which may yield such 

 naval stores are mostly in parts mountainous, and remote 

 from navigable rivers, therefore, for the encouragement of 

 the proprietor of such lands and woods in making roads 

 and passages in rivers in those northern parts useful and 

 commodious to the public, as well as for conveying such 

 naval stores to the seaports in North Britain, to be brought 

 by sea to England : Be it enacted, that there be given a 

 premium for every tun of hemp 6, of tar 4, of pitch 4, 

 of resin 3, of masts 20s. ; to be paid by the officers of the 

 navy on a certificate from the custom-house officer, where 

 the stores are landed.' 



" The first year of George I. presents us with an Act, chap. 

 48, for the encouragement of planting and preserving 

 woods. By it maliciously setting fire to woods is made 

 felony. 



" Sect. 17 of chap. 2, 5th of George I., directs particular 

 examination into the quality of Scotch tar, 



