134 



grazing grounds are allotted for each class, and these figures represent the average 

 of all qualities of pasture land ; they could not therefore, even supposing that the 

 grazing were not excessive, be taken as a guide to the area which should be pro- 

 vided per head in any particular locality, even in France, and still less so in other 

 countries. 



OFFENCES. 



Until the year 1859 persons who were charged with offences against the 

 forest laws had always to be tried by the courts ; but in that year a law was 

 passed which enabled the forest department to take compensation from offenders 

 instead of bringing them before the tribunals, and this method of dealing with 

 them is now largely practised. The department has alwa} 7 s the power to charge 

 the delinquents before the courts, while they, on the other hand, have always the 

 right to refuse payment of the compensation demanded, and thus bring about their 

 formal trial. Officers of lower rank than that of conservator are not. however, 

 authorized to deal with cases in this manner, and the power of the conservator is 

 limited to the acceptance, by way of compensation, of sums not exceeding 40 ; 

 if it is desired to exact a larger amount, the sanction of the government must be 

 obtained. 



This system has many advantages. For while it is necessary in the public 

 interests that infractions of the forest rules should be checked, a large proportion 

 of them are usually of a petty nature, and in many cases the persons who commit 

 them hardly deserve the severer penalties that must be inflicted on their being 

 found guilty by the courts. The system of taking compensation, on the other 

 hand, permits the adoption of a scale of punishment more suited to this class of 

 offenders, while it at the same time enables the means of the delinquents, and 

 the attendant circumstances of. each case, to be taken into account. The punish- 

 ment can also be made to follow promptly the committal of the offence, without 

 the necessity for dragging the accused and the witnesses from their occupations 

 to attend before a tribunal, the time of which is thus not occupied in the trial 

 of these petty cases. The present system is easy and simple for the forest 

 department ; and that it acts very leniently on the population living near the 

 forests will be seen, when it is stated that the amount of compensation exacted 

 during the last year for which the record has been prepared, amounted to only 

 one-fifth of the sum which the courts must have awarded had the offenders been 

 proved guilty before them. Occasionally the compensation is allowed to be paid 

 in the form of a number of days' work, done in the forest. 



With the advancing prosperity ot the country, forest offences become lest 

 frequent, and the number committed annually is very much smaller now than is 

 used to be a few years ago. It is worthy of remark that they are more than 

 twice as numerous in the communal as in the State forests, probably because 

 individual inhabitants of the communes think that there is not much harm in 

 committing minor depredations on property which they doubtless regard as their 

 own. During the year 1876, the number of offences was 26,377, there being 

 three per thousand acres in the State forest, and seven per one thousand acres in 

 those belonging to the communes. More than half the offences were connected 



O ^j 



with the theft of wood or injury to trees, and nearly a quarter related to pasture 

 and cattle trespass, 31,281 persons being involved in the charges. As might be 

 expected, wood stealing is more, prevalent in winter than in summer, while the 

 reverse is the case with regard to breaches of the grazing laws. Of the total 

 number of charges made in 1876, 7 per cent, were abandoned, either owing to 

 the trivial nature of the offences, or owing to want of sufficient evidence ; 70 per 



