442 
Tlie Water Economy of France 
rivers by the nation g-enerally, as represented by the king, Avas 
triumphantly established, and the control of waters removed 
from tlie grasp of lawless petty tyrants and vested in the centi'al 
administration of the kingdom. 
At last, during the memorable night of the 4th August, 1789, 
all the remaining feudal privileges were voluntarily surrendered 
by the nobility. All prescriptive rights, whether vested in the 
state or in private persons, were for ever abolished as regards 
the rivers of France ; and, moreover, all the secondary and 
minor streams, too shallow or unimportant to be naA'igable, but 
possessing a character of general utility, were declared the pro- 
perty of the nation, and made available for general use.* All 
existing tolls were abolished without indemnity.! These sweep- 
ing measures accomplished a great deal, no doubt, by removing 
tyr.annical and arl)itrary obstructions ; but it was only in the 
course of time, just as the progress of agriculture and industry 
gradually revealed fresh fields of operation, that new enact- 
ments were added to the French " Code Civil,"' in order to 
remove obsolete prerogatives, establish new rights, and pro- 
tect new interests. Thus until within the last fifteen years the 
word DRAINAGE is not even mentioned by the jurisconsults who 
have written on this subject ; the thing was unknown, had no 
name in the language, and conscf[uently no place in the legisla- 
tion. The Romans were acquainted with it, as we shall pre- 
sently see, and legislated upon it ; but it is only in very recent 
enactments that the life-giving operation of drainage receives 
any special notice in the French code. It is, however, but just to 
state that the Civil Code, such as it emanated from the creative 
genius of the first Napoleon, contained general guarantees suffi- 
ciently protective to enable French proprietors to drain their estates 
without fearing that any opposition from their neighbours could 
hinder them from disposing of their drainage-water through 
other estates lying at a lower level. Yet that the present legis- 
lation is still incomplete, and far from being applicable to all 
the new requirements of modern agriculture, is a fact acknow- 
ledged by everybody; and this conviction has lately given rise 
to several projects of a special Code Rural, which although much 
discussed, have not yet been embodied in a law. 
Having thus sketched the history of the French law of water, I 
will briefly describe its principal features, but exclusively in 
reference to agriculture. My task will thus be greatly simplified ; 
for whereas the law of water is extremely explicit and exhaust- 
* Law of the 1st December, 1790. 
t Law of the 28th March, 1790. 
