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230 TRAVELS
too negligent to extinguith it entirely. The fecond caufe we may
trace to the political conftitution and laws of the country: gene-
rally fpeaking, it is in the crown forefts that thofe conflagrations
take place. In many diftricts the peafants obtain their wood
from the king’s forefts, and pay for it a certain tax. There are
precife limits within which they are permitted to cut, and they
are liable to be punifhed with a fine, if they are found to proceed
in their operations beyond the fixed boundaries: but if a fire
“happens to break out in any part of a foreft belonging to the
crown, the peafantry of that diftri@ have a right to cut down
and carry home fuch trees as have been injured by the burning.
Thus the peafants who are in want of wood, and have too {mall
a flare in the foreft for the fupply of their demands, are prompted
from an interefted motive to fet fire to it in their own neighbour-
hood, being entitled to appropriate whatever trees have been
touched by the flames, which are generally in fuch abundance as
to {tock a houfekeeper with wood for four, or perhaps fix years,
according to the magnitude of the ravages which the foreft has
fuffered. It would appear that the government, if it were aware
of the circumftance, might effeQually check thefe unlawful acts ;
not fo effectually by inflicting heavy punifhments, as by ordering
that the peafants fhould pay the fame fum for the ufe of the
wood that might be gathered, injured by conflagration, as for
that in a found ftate; and that till the former was ufed they
fhould not be allowed to cut any wood in the foreft. There may;
however, be difficulties in executing fuch meafures, which a
ftranger
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