228 PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



CHAPTEE III. 



PKOTECTION AGAINST FOREST OFFENCES OR MISDEMEANOURS. 



111. Of Misdemeanours in General, and of their Various Different 



Kinds. 



Any illegal act performed by any person or persons in wood- 

 lands owned by, or in the legitimate possession of, other parties 

 constitutes a forest offence in countries where there are special 

 forest laws as in India, Germany, France, &c., but under other 

 circumstances constitutes merely a misdemeanour under the 

 ordinary common law as in Scotland and England. 



Such offences and misdemeanours may assume very different 

 forms and characters. They may be offences of commission or of 

 omission ; they may be actual thefts, or purloining of forest pro- 

 duce, and as such punishable under the penal laws ; or they may 

 include damage caused intentionally, and as such be liable to prose- 

 cution for mischief ; or they may perhaps take the form of damage 

 caused by negligence, which would not have occurred had the di 

 and requisite precautions ordinarily suggested by the circumstam 

 of the case been observed, and in this respect any action mi 

 usually lie in the civil courts ; or, finally, they may be con- 

 traventions of rules, or of orders issued under rules, made unde 

 authorised enactments, for the maintenance of general order ant 

 the effective working of protective measures within the forests 

 for instance, within our Indian State Forests during the he 

 season, when special and often costly measures are necessary 

 prevent the occurrence of forest fires), and as such would be 

 punishable under the special provisions of the Forest Acts and 

 Rules. 



112. Misdemeanour through Purloining of Forest Produce. 



The various products of woodlands, and particularly the main 

 product timber, have such numerous applications to various wants 

 as to be practically, to a greater or less extent, absolutely neces- 



