2l2 LEai8LATI0t!f ON TORfeENTS. 



" The consequences have been these : on one hand, a pretty large number 

 of decrees proclaiming the public utility of the measures have been published, 

 contrary to the advice of the Municipal Councils aud to the wishes expressed 

 by witnesses at the inquiry ; on the other hand, the communes have refused 

 to make the small sacrifices which would have been necessary for the 

 restoration, in a future more or less distant, of pastures of which they 

 believed they were destined to be deprived altogether. 



"Independently of these obstacles and these misunderstandings, we 

 ought to add, that many communes are to be met with which are really too 

 poor to undertake the operations at their own expense, however inexpensive 

 they may be, or to endure being deprived, even for a short time, of the 

 incomes whieh a number of them derive in one form or another from the 

 communal pastures. 



"In this predicament Government has seen the necessity of intervention, 

 and the pressing duty of enlightening the inhabitants, of reassuring them, 

 and especially of meeting their real necessities and their just desires, by 

 seeking to make compensation for the diminution of their privileges, looking 

 to the valuable possessions of the pastures. 



" Before having recourse to a new law, Government has tried what effects 

 would be produced by the combined co-operation of the law Sur la mise en 

 valeur des biens cnmmunatix, with the law on rehoisement. 



" A High Commission has been created ' for the purpose of finding out 

 the best way to make the two laws co-operate towards a common end, and 

 with the help of their mixed character to smooth away the difficulties which 

 may arise between the two Ministerial Departments entrusted with the 

 execution of these two laws — that of agriculture, commerce, and public 

 works, and that of finance'. 



" This Commission has acknowledged the impossibility, or at least the 

 extreme difficulty, of reaching the same end with the two instruments at its 

 disposal. And in order to attain this end it is necessary, in the first place, 

 to find out the mountain districts, the consolidation of which is demanded 

 by the public interest; to distinguish between ground which must be reboised 

 or replanted with woods, and ground which must be regazonned or planted 

 with turf; to mark out the p6rim6tres with reference to these; and in these 

 p^rimfetres to determine the number and form of massive woods which are to 

 retain the floods and protect the pasturage. It is necessary that the 

 enactments prepai-ed by Government should be submitted, as a whole and 

 in their harmony, to the various authorities, to the Councils, and to the Com- 

 missions, whose duty it is to give their advice in regard to the instructions 

 issued. It is necessary that the subventions furnished by the State and 

 the demands for local subsidies should be in proportion, on the one hand, to 

 the public utility of the enterprise, and, on the other, to the advantages 

 which would result to the local population ; finally, it is necessary that the 

 temporary privation of privileges should in certain cases be compensated 

 by grants of money, at least to the poorest communes. 



" It may be seen that this combination of circumstances, or conditions, 

 can only be secured through a double operation — by means of two parallel 

 codes of instructions, by means of two administrations, and by the applica- 

 tion of two distinct laws. The difficulty is not wholly related to the truth, 

 tbat to be useful an operation should have a single aim ; but also to this, 

 that the two laws, while presenting incontestable analogies, are, nevertheless, 

 diBtinguished by notable differences. 



