312 LOOAL PEELING AND PUBLIC OPINION 



Local feeling has been frequently referred to. Public opinion in con- 

 nection with local feeling may be learned from the record of deliberative 

 councils in the districts in which the operations were being carried on, and 

 these show it to have been in accordance with what I have stated in regard 

 to local feeling. 



It was in the High Alps that these works of reboisement and gazonnement 

 were most urgently called for ; it is in that Department and those imme- 

 diately adjacent that the works have been most extensively carried on ; and 

 the populations there have not been reticent of their opinions, nor have 

 they failed to secure that these should be heard. 



M. Cezanne, writing at the close of the first decennial period of these 

 operations, and after the interruption which had been caused by the war, 

 aays, — " It is interesting to read now, in the proceedings of the Conseil 

 G6n6ral of the High Alps, the reflection of the different states of feeling 

 and public opinion in the Department. In the Session of 1860 the prefect 

 announced the law pour la mise en valeur or improvement of communal 

 lands ; and for the reboisement of the mountains the Conseil Ghieral voted a 

 subvention of 500 francs. 



" In Session of 1861 a report was given of what had been done. The 

 Conseil voted 1 WO francs. 



"In the Session of 1862 it appeared that in regard to tioenty-jive pro- 

 posals there had been fulfilled the legal formalities required. These 

 embraced 60,000 hectares, on 6800 of which reboisement was to be begun 

 immediately; on 790 gazonnement was to be carried out; and 13,533 to be 

 put in defends, or conserved by the temporary prohibition of pasturing and 

 ' passage. The Conseil voted a subvention of 8000 francs." 



" But the mischief had begun to manifest itself The agents of the Waters 

 and Forests and the Engineers had co-operated with zeal. The reports 

 read to the Conseil gave evidence of a lively faith, but the Conseil itself 

 received these communications coldly, and it was felt that the opposition, 

 thus far kept down, would not be long in bursting forth in flame. The 

 prefect replied to the objections that it was impossible to reduce them to 

 words, but that it was felt that they were in the wind. . . They had, it ap- 

 peared, pictured to themselves the forest agents as ogres ready some day to 

 devour both shepherd and sheep. . . The nature of the opposition showed 

 itself clearly ; it was the mountain versus the plain. . . . Let an 

 example suffice. The proposed extinction of the torrents of Sapet and of 

 Devezet was submitted to discussion in these communes : Aucelle and Saint- 

 Leger on the mountain, and Labatie-Neuve on the plain. The prefect re- 

 ports on this matter in these terms : " Called to giVe their counsel, the 

 representatives of the commune of Ancelle formally announced that their 

 vote was against the proposal. The Chief of the Commission des Reboise- 

 ment, M. Costa de Bastelica, who took part of&cially at the sederunt at my 

 desire, in order that we might be in the best possible position for supplying 

 the information which might be needed, astonished at a refusal for which a 

 motive could scarcely be imagined, asked permission to speak, and called 

 attention to the circumstance that the measure affected Ancelle scarcely at 

 all, but the Commission, on the other hand, has had in view to preserve a 

 whole valley. Nothing was done ; the vote was negative. The represen- 

 tatives of the commune of Saint-Leger were next called, and gave the same 

 negative vote. ' But,' said some to them, ' you are only consulted on account 

 of an interest which is veiy indirect, through your interest iu a portion 



