IN BEGAED TO EBB0I8EMENT. 313 



of the land taken as a whole. Would you please explain what is the ground 

 of your opposition to the execution of a project the utility of which it is 

 impossible to dispute ? ' Eeply : ' The torrent passes far below our place, 

 and cannot do us any harm.' ' But this little hill of undivided territory 

 has been already subjected to the forest regime ? ' Reply : ' Yes, but the 

 Forest Administration allow us the run of it ; this will be prohibited to- 

 morrow if sowing is carried out on it or on the felled wood.' It was now 

 the turn of the delegates of Labatie-Neuve. These praised highly the 

 project, and protested energetically against what they called the selfishness 

 of their neighbours. They showed over and over again, from different 

 aspects of the subject, what there would be unjust and cruel in leaving 

 much longer whole communes situated on the lower parts of the torrents 

 exposed to disasters every day, when in reality it would occasion no appre- 

 ciable damage to Ancelle and to Saint-Leger. The efforts of the delegates 

 from Labatie were powerless to obtain the least concession. They were 

 two against four, and a majority was obtained only by support lent by the 

 Counsellor-General, the Counsellor of the Arrondissement, and the other 

 permanent members of the Commission." 



The quotation is given from the formal report on Gomptes rendus du 

 Conseil General des Hautes-Alps, Session 1862, and M. Cezanne remarks — 

 " This little life-portraiture is full of instruction. Who now will question 

 that the intervention of the State, so strongly urged by Surell, was neces- 

 sary ? " 



In the Session of 1863 twenty-six new proposals were submitted. The 

 Commission of the General Conseil opposed to them the mournful com- 

 plaints of the communes. The prefect, pre-oocupied doubtless by the 

 political state of the country and approaching elections, showed himself 

 much less firm than he did the year preceding. The Conseil voted, how- 

 ever, again 3000 francs, but demanded at the same time the revision of the 

 law, and the stipulation of a previous payment of indemnity for the com- 

 munes deprived of their pastures. 



In the Session of 1864 the reports of the prefect maintained a prudential 

 silence on the subject of rehoisement. It spoke of everything but this, the 

 one most important matter affecting the district. The Commission of the 

 Conseil was less reserved. The Commission of the Conseil confirmed the 

 unanimous protests of the peasants. There had been violent outbreaks in 

 the environs of Embrun, the intervention of the military had been deemed 

 necessary, and from the plain had been seen the mountain flashing with 

 light reflected by the bayonets. The Conseil demanded as extensive an 

 application as possible of the law of 8th June 1864, — that is to say, of the 

 substitution of gazonnement for hoisement, of grass for trees, and a liberal 

 distribution of indemnities ; and at the same time it considered it duty, 

 while doing this, to reduce ike subvention from 3000 francs to 600. 



In the month of November the imperial decree enforcing the law of 8th 

 June was issued. 



In 1865 the success of the first works began to bear fruit, — the reaction 

 had begun. In the General Conseil of the High Alps the prefect again 

 brought up the question of rehoisement, which for two years he had, from 

 prudential considerations, avoided or touched on slightly. The Commission 

 of the Conseil made it the subject of a long report, m which they extolled 

 the benefits of " that law which people had cursed, when they ought to have 



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