58 THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



regard to their origin. On this subject, in an old work 

 entitled Traite de la Souverainete^ by Bret, it is stated, lib. 

 iii., c. 5 : 



' Many have laboured to find the origin of so burden- 

 some a servitude on the goods of another ; as for me, I 

 have always considered that these rights have been 

 introduced upon what was anciently the case : when kings 

 had sole and exclusive rights to have timber forests, and 

 nobody could let such grow without their permission, as 

 we learn from the fourth liv. leg. franc, cap. 19, entituled 

 De Forestibus institutis noviter, which is in these terms : 

 * Ut quicunque illas habet dimittat, nisi judicio veraci ostendere 

 possit quid per jussionem sur permissionem Domini Caroli geni- 

 toris nostri eas instituisset! Which thing is repeated in the 

 chapter De Forestibus Domimcis, in the same book, where 

 it is said, ' de forestibus nostris, ut ubicumque fueriut diligentis- 

 sim^ inquirant quomodo salve sint et defenso, et ut comitibus 

 denuncierut ne ullam Forestam noviter institutant, et ubi noviter 

 institutus sine nostra jussione invenerint dimittere praecipiant.' 

 From this it is to be presumed that when the kings gave 

 permission to any one to rear a timber forest and to keep 

 such, which was a Royal privilege, it was under burden 

 that they vshould have the jurisdiction of the same, the 

 profits which might be made by the sale, and some portion 

 of the fellings, as a third in some cases, and more or less 

 in others. 



' The Charter of Louis Hutin fur Normandy calls these 

 rights the Hers et danger; tiers^ because the king takes the 

 third part of the price obtained by sale, as of 30 liv. 10s. ; 

 and le danger, which is the tenth part of the whole; and 

 what supports my conjecture is that these rights are levied 

 only on ancient forests, the origin of which is unknown, 

 and not on those which have been reared in later times. 

 Since that our kings have given a general permission to all 

 their subjects to have forests and woods of timber trees, 

 tliey have contented themselves with retaining the rights 

 of grurie on the ancient forests, of which the origin is 

 unknown, and not on those which have been erected 



