284 
EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
abuses of feudalism, and the evils the peasantry bad suffered 
from the legislation which protected both it and the game it 
sheltered, blinded them to the still greater physical mischiefs 
which its destruction was to entail upon them. No longer 
protected by law-, the crown forests and those of the great 
lords were attacked with relentless fury, unscrupulously plun¬ 
dered and wantonly laid waste, and even the rights of prop¬ 
erty in small private woods were no longer respected.* 
Various absurd theories, some of which are not even yet 
exploded, were propagated with regard to the economical 
advantages of converting the forest into pasture and plough- 
wheat, barley, or oats, to prevent the use of ground nets for catching the 
birds which consumed, or were believed to consume, the grain, and it was 
forbidden to cut or pull stubble before the first of October, lest the part¬ 
ridge and the quail might be deprived of their cover. For destroying the 
eggs of the quail, a fine of one hundred livres was imposed for the first 
offence, double that amount for the second, and for the third the culprit 
was flogged and banished for five years to a distance of six leagues from 
the forest .—Histoire des Paysans , ii, p. 202, text and notes. 
Neither these severe penalties, nor any provisions devised by the inge¬ 
nuity of modern legislation, have been able effectually to repress poaching. 
“ The game laws,” says Clave, “have not delivered us from the poachers, 
who kill twenty times as much game as the sportsmen. In the forest of 
Fontainebleau, as in all those belonging to the state, poaching is a very 
common and a very profitable offence. It is in vain that the gamekeepers 
are on the alert night and day, they cannot prevent it. Those who follow 
the trade begin by carefully studying the habits of the game. They will 
lie motionless on the ground, by the roadside or in thickets, for whole 
days, watching the paths most frequented by the animals,” &c.— Revue des 
Deux Mondes , Mai, 1863, p. 160. 
The writer adds many details on this subject, and it appears that, as 
there are “ beggars on horseback ” in South America, there are poachers 
in carriages in France. 
* “ Whole trees were sacrificed for the most insignificant purposes; the 
peasants would cut down two firs to make a single pair of wooden shoes.” 
—Michelet, as quoted by Clave, fitudes, p. 24. 
A similar wastefulness formerly prevailed in Russia, though not from 
the same cause. In St. Pierre’s time, the planks brought to St. Petersburg 
were not sawn, but hewn with the axe, and a tree furnished but a single 
plank. 
