138 THE FORESTS OF FRANCA. 



being touched in any case, excepting in virtue of out 

 letters patent, well and duly certified, as shall hereafter be 

 stated. 



' 4. Ecclesiastical communities, commanders, stewards, 

 rectors, and administrators, cannot fell any timber trees, 

 or balliveaux in coppice, or touch the reserved fourth, <>r 

 undertake anything beyond the ordinary and regular 

 fellings, excepting in virtue of our letters patent, well and 

 duly registered, under pain of an arbitrary fine to us, and 

 restitution fourfold of the value of the wood felled or sold; 

 which, if it exceed five hundred livres, shall be invested as 

 capital for the benefice, college, commandery, infirmary, 

 or other community, and the revenue shall be applied to 

 the hospitals of the localities during the life or the in- 

 cumbency of the beneficiaries, commanders, rectors, or 

 administrators guilty of the contravention ; and if the 

 restitution be less than five hundred livres, it shall 

 appertain entirely to the hospital. 



' 5. Our letters shall not be granted for sales of timber 

 trees, or reserved balliveaux, except in cases of fires, ruins, 

 demolitions, losses, and extraordinary accidents, happening 

 by tresspass, war, or fortuitous occurrence, and not through 

 the act or fault of the beneficiaries and administrators, 

 who, to obtain these, shall address their remonstrances to 

 the Grand-Master, who shall inform himself of the causes 

 and the necessity, shall visit the places in presence of our 

 Attorney in the Maitrise, shall cause to be appraised by 

 experts the reparation necessary, and shall send to the 

 Council, by the hand of the Comptroller-General of our 

 Finances, his minute, which shall contain a true statement 

 of the value, condition, and quality of the woods to fell, 

 which permission is required, together with the number 

 and the quality of the trees which shall remain to the 

 benefice or the community, and his advice, which shall 

 be joined with the minute to the letters, under the counter- 

 seal 



' 6. The execution of our letters for extraordinary fellings 

 in woods of ecclesiastics and communities cannot be 



