Forest Policy. 363 
the revenue feature strongly enough realized to 
attempt systematically to secure the benefit of it by 
allowing anyone to cut timber “such as was not re- 
quired for the navy’’ who would pay a fixed rate for 
what was cut; a surveyor-general of woods and forests 
being appointed to collect the timber dues. There 
was even an attempt made to prevent waste by doub- 
ling the rate of timber dues on all trees cut which 
would not square more than 8 inches; this for lack 
of supervision probably remained a dead letter. 
Lumbermen, however, found it cheaper to buy the 
land, making only part payments, and after cutting 
the best timber, forfeiting the land; contractors who 
had the monopoly for cutting the timber for the royal 
navy cut also for their own account; corruption and 
graft pervaded the administration, which enriched its 
followers with the revenues obtained from the timber 
licenses. The strong hand which, in the absence of a 
strong government, lumbermen were driven to use in 
order to protect themselves from piracy by their 
neighbors, or else to perpetrate such, brought about 
many bloody conflicts. This maladministration, be- 
sides other grievances, caused the revolution of 1837, 
which, although readily put down, led to the union of 
the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada in 1841, 
and to reform of the abuses. It was then that, after 
Lord Durham’s admirable report on the situation, the 
home government turned over the administration and 
revenues of the crownlands to the several provincial 
governments. In New Brunswick, where a thriving 
export trade had been early established the dues on 
$2 million worth of production were involved, and in 
