404 
On  River  Conservancy , 
formed,  having  control  over  the  Hydraulic  Works  of  these 
countries.  In  Holland  the  Acts  of  the  department  are  princi- 
pally directed  to  the  maintenance  of  the  banks  and  drains  to 
which  the  country  owes  its  safety.  In  Italy  the  principal 
object  is  irrigation,  by  means  of  which  the  land  in  places  has 
been  raised  immensely  in  value.  In  France  this  subject  has, 
from  the  earliest  times,  received  attention  ; and  the  principle  of 
the  Roman  law  is  there  adopted  : that  the  ownership  of  all  rivers, 
together  with  their  beds  and  shores,  was  vested  in  the  people. 
No  one  can  hinder  the  navigation  of  a river,  or  alter  its  course, 
or  raise  obstacles  to  its  flow,  or  commit  any  act  that  may 
prejudice  the  rights  of  others.  Acting  on  this  principle  in 
1789,  all  concessions  which  had  been  granted  by  the  land- 
owners  in  virtue  of  their  supposed  feudal  rights  of  erecting 
mills,  fishery  weirs,  and  other  obstructions,  were  annihilated  ; 
and  all  prescriptive  rights  as  regards  rivers  of  France  were  for 
ever  abolished.  All  rivers,  both  navigable  or  otherwise,  and 
all  streams  possessing  a character  of  general  utility  were 
declared  to  he  the  property  of  the  nation.  The  owner  of  an 
estate  traversed  by  a running  stream  is  allowed  to  make  use 
of  the  water  of  such  stream  for  the  purpose  of  irrigation,  but 
he  may  not  divert  it  altogether,  and  is  bound  to  return  the 
water,  after  he  has  used  it,  into  the  old  channel  at  the  point 
where  his  property  ends. 
While  thus  the  general  law  of  France  as  regards  rivers  and 
watercourses  is  in  a more  favourable  condition  for  their  con- 
servancy than  that  of  England,  and  whilst  the  Government 
offers  the  assistance  gratuitously  of  an  able  staff  of  engineers, 
and  of  a department  specially  formed  for  the  purpose,  yet,  owing 
to  the  want  of  practical  energy  in  the  country,  the  voice  of 
lamentation  is  constantly  heard  complaining  of  inundations 
which  spread  disaster  and  devastation  of  a more  ruinous  charac- 
ter even  than  those  in  this  country.  No  sufficient  efforts  are 
made  to  husband  this  surplus  of  water  by  the  formation  of 
reservoirs,  or  other  means  of  storing  the  water,  for  the  irrigation 
of  the  arid  districts  during  the  scorching  heats  of  the  dry 
season.* 
The  difficulty  of  legislating  on  this  subject  in  this  country 
arises  not  only  from  the  necessity  of  dealing  with,  and  com- 
pensating, existing  interests  and  prescriptive  rights  which  have 
gradually  sprung  up;  but  also  of  providing  the  means  for 
carrying  out  the  necessary  works  of  improvement,  and  reinedy- 
* A general  description  of  the  rivers  of  Franco  and  the  laws  relating  thereto 
will  be  found  in  an  article  in  the  ‘Journal’  of  the  Society,  by  Mr.  F.  R.  de  la 
Trehonnnis,  for  1802,  entitled  “ The  Water  Economy  of  France  in  its  relation  to 
Agriculture,”  from  which  the  information  here  given  has  been  obtained. 
