IS THE Forests of franci^. 



traces of him are found invariably wherever researches 

 are made into the origin of the French administration 

 was the first to subject the management of the forest 

 to regulation; he thought to create a navy, and in view 

 of the building of vessels, he issued a Reglement General 

 des Eaux et Forks. 1376 A.D. 



' In the fifteenth century we find the nobility depressed, 

 and in the place of the seigneur or lord of the manor, the 

 king more enlightened, more paternal, but further removed 

 from his people. The communes enfranchised and strongl}^ 

 organised, everywhere develope agriculture and manu- 

 factures at the expense of the forests; Usages or forest 

 rights, resting on use and wont, multiply ; but soon the 

 scarcity of wood occasions a rise in the price of wood for 

 carpentery and fuel, and a clamour is raised against the 

 abuses; from 1515 to 1588, Francis I. and his successors 

 multiply edicts; 1543 A.D. the jurisdiction of the Koyai 

 lords of the forests was extended to private forests; 1557 

 A.D. uprootings by the bishops were prohibited ; 1543 A.D. 

 the establishment of forges and of manufactures, which 

 were destructive to the forests, was subjected to regula- 

 tion ; and they established jurisdictions and appointed 

 functionaries. But the vices of the administration, re- 

 ligious discords, and civil and foreign war, rendered sterile 

 those efforts, the history of which does honour to Francis I. 



' With Henry IV., and Sully, and LouisXIV., and Colbert, 

 the seventeenth century was an era of reparation. Two 

 principal ordinances governed the legislation : the edict 

 of 1597, entitulated Reglemant General des Eaux et Forets, and 

 the celebrated ordinnance of 1669, a veritable first code, 

 to which the forest properties of private parties were sub- 

 jected, as were those of the state.* 



It is to this last that attention will be called in the sequel 

 But in order to its being properly appreciated it is desirable 

 that something more should be known of the circum- 

 stances in which it was issued. 



I 



