A Difconrfe of Fore/1-Trees. j Id 



do in Summer to ^ndefielter from the heat, and vexation o^Flyes. 



27. But I have done, and it is now time for us to get out 

 of the Wood 5 and to recommend this , and all that we have 

 propos'd to His mcft Sacred Majeliy, the Honourable Parlid- 

 tnent , and to the Priticipal Officers , and Commijjioners of the 

 Royal Navy 3 that where fuch Improvements may be made, it be 

 fpeedily, and vigoroufly profecuted , and where any defe&s ap- 

 pear, they may be duly reformed. 



28. And what if for this pur po(e there were yet fome addi- 

 tional office conftitutcd 5 which ftiould have a more univerfal 

 Injpe&ion , and the charge of all the Woods and ForeBs in His 

 Maje^ies Dominions ? This might eafily be perform'd by De- 

 fHties in every County , Perlbns judicious , and skilful in Huf- 

 bandry x, and who might be repair'd to for advice and diredti- 

 on : And if fuch there are at prefent (as indeed ok\x Laves feem 

 to provide ) that their Tower be fufficiently amplified where 

 any thing appears deficient j and as their zeal excited by wor- 

 thy encouragements ^ (b might neglefts be encountered by a 

 vigilant and induftrious Checquc. It fhould belong to their 

 Province to fee that fuch proportions of Timber, €^c. were plant- 

 ed, and fet out upon every hundred, or more of Acres, as the 

 Honorable Commijjioners' have fuggeft'd 5 or, as might be 

 thought convenient, the quality, and nature of the places pru- 

 dently confider'd : It fhould be their office alfo to take notice 

 of the growth, and decay of Woods, and of their fitneji for pub- 

 lick ufes and fale, and of all thefe to give Advertifements, that all 

 defefts in their ill governing may be fpeedily remedied ; and the 

 Superiour officer, or Surveyor ftiould be accomptable to the Lord 

 Treafurer, and to the principal officers of Uh Majesties Navy for 

 the time being : And why might not fuch a Regulation be worthy 

 the eftablifliing by fome Solemn, and publick AB of State beco- 

 ming our glorious Prince SOVEREIGN OF THE 

 SEAS, and his prudent Senate this prefcnt Parliament ? 



29. We find InJriJiotles Politics the Conftitution of Extra-' 

 urban Magijirates to be Sylvarum Cujiodes, and fuch were the Con- 



fularesSylv£ which the great C^far himfelf (even in a time when 

 Italy did abound in Timber) inftituted -, and was one of the very 

 firji things which he did at the fetling of that vaft Empire after the 

 Civil Wars had exceedingly wafted the Country : Suetonius re- 

 lates it in the life oi^ Julius ^ and Peter Crinitus in his fifth Book De 

 honefia difciplina, c. 3. gives this reafon for it, Vt mater ies (faith 

 he) non deeffet, qua videlicet Navigia publica pofent a pr£fe&uris 

 Fabrum confici : True it is, that this office was fometimes call'd 

 Trovincia minor ^ but for the moft part annex'd and joyn'd to 

 fome of the greateft Confuls themfelves •■, that facetious^rr^^ 

 of the Comedian (where Plautus names it Provincia caudicaria) 

 referring onely to fome under-O^W fubfervient to the other : 

 And fuch a charge is at this day extant amongft the noble Vene- 

 tians , and other prudent States 5 not to importune you with 

 the exprefs Laws which Ancus Martius the Nephew of liuma, 



and 



