OF THE FOREST ORDINANCE OF 1669. 53 



laws we find the three terms, Eaux, Lois, et Forets, used 

 as if they constituted but one word a word used commonly 

 to designate in general the then existing jurisdiction in 

 regard to all relating to fishing and to the chase, much as 

 in English legislation the so-called Forest Law is almost 

 equivalent to what are now known as the game laws of 

 the country. 



It may facilitate the intelligent perusal of some of the 

 injunctions of the Ordinance in question if I explain the 

 use or application made of a few of the technical terms 

 employed in reference to judicatories, officials, and usages. 



There were existent at that time three different judica- 

 tories having jurisdiction in matters pertaining to the 

 waters, woods, and forests, the Gruries, the Maitrises, and 

 Tables de Marbre, or other tribunals representing these 

 latter ; and there were also what were called Capetaineries 

 des Chases. The Gruries Royauos, or Royal Gruries, were 

 inferior judicatories, established to watch over the con- 

 servation of forests at a distance from the seats of the 

 second class of courts, and to take cognisance in the 

 first instance of lesser offences which might be com- 

 mitted in these. 



Besides the Gruries Royaux, or King's Gruries, there were 

 Gruries des Seigneurs, or Gruries appointed by nobles. 



The Gruries des Seigneurs were established by edict of 

 March 1707, in each of the Jurisdictions des Seigneurs Eccles- 

 tiastiques et Laws of the kingdom, with powers similar to 

 those of the Gruries Royaux des Eaux et Forets du Roi, to take 

 cognisance, in the first instance, exclusively of officers of 

 the Maitrises and of those of the Tables de Marbre, and other 

 judges, both royal and seigneurial, of all matters relating 

 to waters and forests, usages, offences, abuses, wastes, and 

 malversations ; of all disputes in regard to fishing, or in 

 the chase; and of all that relates to marshes, pasturages, 

 common lands, water leadings, mills, thefts of fish and of 

 wood, and quarrels, excesses, and murders, arising out of 

 these things. 



