A few notes may be added on some of the more remarkable of the plays enumerated. A wholly baseless anecdote, condensed into a stinging epigram by Endymion Porter, asserted thatThe Lover’s Melancholywas stolen by Ford from Shakespeare’s papers. Undoubtedly, the madness of the hero of this play of Ford’s occasionally recalls Hamlet, while the heroine is one of the many, and at the same time one of the most pleasing, parallels to Viola. But neither of them is a copy, as Friar Bonaventura in Ford’s second play may be said to be a copy of Friar Lawrence, whose kindly pliability he disagreeably exaggerates, or as D’Avolos inLove’s Sacrificeis clearly modelled on Iago. The plot ofThe Lover’s Melancholy, which is ineffective because it leaves no room for suspense in the mind ofthe reader, seems original; in the dialogue, on the other hand, a justly famous passage in Act i. (the beautiful version of the story of the nightingale’s death) is translated from Strada; while the scheme of the tedious interlude exhibiting the various forms of madness is avowedly taken, together with sundry comments, from Burton’sAnatomy of Melancholy. Already in this play Ford exhibits the singular force of his pathos; the despondent misery of the aged Meleander, and the sweetness of the last scene, in which his daughter comes back to him, alike go to the heart. A situation—hazardous in spite of its comic substratum—between Thaumasta and the pretended Parthenophil is conducted, as Gifford points out, with real delicacy; but the comic scenes are merely stagy, notwithstanding, or by reason of, the effort expended on them by the author.’Tis Pity she’s a Whorehas been justly recognized as a tragedy of extraordinary power. Mr Swinburne, in his eloquent essay on Ford, has rightly shown what is the meaning of this tragedy, and has at the same time indicated wherein consists its poison. He dwells with great force upon the different treatment applied by Ford to the characters of the two miserable lovers—brother and sister. “The sin once committed, there is no more wavering or flinching possible to him, who has fought so hard against the demoniac possession; while she who resigned body and soul to the tempter, almost at a word, remains liable to the influences of religion and remorse.” This different treatment shows the feeling of the poet—the feeling for which he seeks to evoke our inmost sympathy—to oscillate between the belief that an awful crime brings with it its awful punishment (and it is sickening to observe how the argument by which the Friar persuades Annabella to forsake her evil courses mainly appeals to the physical terrors of retribution), and the notion that there is something fatal, something irresistible, and therefore in a sense self-justified, in so dominant a passion. The key-note to the conduct of Giovanni lies in his words at the close of the first scene—“All this I’ll do, to free me from the rodOf vengeance;else I’ll swear my fate’s my god.”Thus there is no solution of the conflict between passion on the one side, and law, duty and religion on the other; and passion triumphs, in the dying words of “the student struck blind and mad by passion”—“O, I bleed fast!Death, thou’rt a guest long look’d for; I embraceThee and thy wounds: O, my last minute comes!Where’er I go, let me enjoy this graceFreely to view my Annabella’s face.”It has been observed by J.A. Symonds that “English poets have given us the right key to the Italian temperament.... The love of Giovanni and Annabella is rightly depicted as more imaginative than sensual.” It is difficult to allow the appositeness of this special illustration; on the other hand, Ford has even in this case shown his art of depicting sensual passion without grossness of expression; for the exception in Annabella’s language to Soranzo seems to have a special intention, and is true to the pressure of the situation and the revulsion produced by it in a naturally weak and yielding mind. The entire atmosphere, so to speak, of the play is stifling, and is not rendered less so by the underplot with Hippolita.’Tis Pity she’s a Whorewas translated into French by Maurice Maeterlinck under the title ofAnnabella, and represented at the Théâtre de l’Œuvre in 1894. The translator prefixes to the version an eloquent appreciation of Ford’s genius, especially in his portraits of women, whose fate it is to live “dans les ténèbres, les craintes et les larmes.”Like this tragedy,The Broken Heartwas probably founded upon some Italian or other novel of the day; but since in the latter instance there is nothing revolting in the main idea of the subject, the play commends itself as the most enjoyable, while, in respect of many excellences, an unsurpassed specimen of Ford’s dramatic genius. The complicated plot is constructed with greater skill than is usual with this dramatist, and the pathos of particular situations, and of the entire character of Penthea—a woman doomed to hopeless misery, but capable of seeking to obtain for her brother a happiness which his cruelty has condemned her to forego—has an intensity and a depth which are all Ford’s own. Even the lesser characters are more pleasing than usual, and some beautiful lyrics are interspersed in the play.Of the other plays written by Ford alone, onlyThe Chronicle Historie of Perkin Warbeck. A Strange Truth, appears to call for special attention. A repeated perusal of this drama suggests the judgment that it is overpraised when ranked at no great distance from Shakespeare’s national dramas. Historical truth need not be taken into consideration in the matter; and if, notwithstanding James Gairdner’s essay appended to hisLife and Reign of Richard III., there are still credulous persons left to think and assert that Perkin was not an impostor, they will derive little satisfaction from Ford’s play, which with really surprising skill avoids the slightest indication as to the poet’s own belief on the subject. That this tragedy should have been reprinted in 1714 and acted in 1745 only shows that the public, as is often the case, had an eye to the catastrophe rather than to the development of the action. The dramatic capabilities of the subject are, however, great, and it afterwards attracted Schiller, who, however, seems to have abandoned it in favour of the similar theme of the Russian Demetrius. Had Shakespeare treated it, he would hardly have contented himself with investing the hero with the nobility given by Ford to this personage of his play,—for it is hardly possible to speak of a personage as acharacterwhen the clue to his conduct is intentionally withheld. Nor could Shakespeare have failed to bring out with greater variety and distinctness the dramatic features in Henry VII., whom Ford depicts with sufficient distinctness to give some degree of individuality to the figure, but still with a tenderness of touch which would have been much to the credit of the dramatist’s skill had he been writing in the Tudor age. The play is, however, founded on Bacon’s Life, of which the text is used by Ford with admirable discretion, and on Thomas Gainsford’sTrue and Wonderful History of Perkin Warbeck(1618). The minor characters of the honest old Huntley, whom the Scottish king obliges to bestow his daughter’s hand upon Warbeck, and of her lover the faithful “Dalyell,” are most effectively drawn; even “the men of judgment,” the adventurers who surround the chief adventurer, are spirited sketches, and the Irishman among them has actually some humour; while the style of the play is, as befits a “Chronicle History,” so clear and straightforward as to make it easy as well as interesting to read.The Witch of Edmontonwas attributed by its publisher to William Rowley, Dekker, Ford, “&c.,” but the body of the play has been generally held to be ascribable to Ford and Dekker only. The subject of the play was no doubt suggested by the case of the reported witch, Elizabeth Sawyer, who was executed in 1621. Swinburne agrees with Gifford in thinking Ford the author of the whole of the first act; and he is most assuredly right in considering that “there is no more admirable exposition of a play on the English stage.” Supposing Dekker to be chiefly responsible for the scenes dealing with the unfortunate old woman whom persecution as a witch actually drives to become one, and Ford for the domestic tragedy of the bigamist murderer, it cannot be denied that both divisions of the subject are effectively treated, while the more important part of the task fell to the share of Ford. Yet it may be doubted whether any such division can be safely assumed; and it may suffice to repeat that no domestic tragedy has ever taught with more effective simplicity and thrilling truthfulness the homely double lesson of the folly of selfishness and the mad rashness of crime.With Dekker Ford also wrote the mask ofThe Sun’s Darling; or, as seems most probable, they founded this production uponPhaeton, an earlier mask, of which Dekker had been sole author. Gifford holds that Dekker’s hand is perpetually traceable in the first three acts ofThe Sun’s Darling, and through the whole of its comic part, but that the last two acts are mainly Ford’s. If so, he is the author of the rather forced occasional tribute on the accession of King Charles I., of which the last act largely consists. This mask, which furnished abundant opportunities for the decorators, musicians and dancers, in showing forth how the seasons and their delights are successively exhausted by a “wanton darling,” Raybright the grandchild of the Sun, is said to have been very popular. It is at the same time commonplace enough in conception; but there is much that is charming in the descriptions, Jonson and Lyly being respectively laid under contribution in the course of the dialogue, and in one of the incidental lyrics.
A few notes may be added on some of the more remarkable of the plays enumerated. A wholly baseless anecdote, condensed into a stinging epigram by Endymion Porter, asserted thatThe Lover’s Melancholywas stolen by Ford from Shakespeare’s papers. Undoubtedly, the madness of the hero of this play of Ford’s occasionally recalls Hamlet, while the heroine is one of the many, and at the same time one of the most pleasing, parallels to Viola. But neither of them is a copy, as Friar Bonaventura in Ford’s second play may be said to be a copy of Friar Lawrence, whose kindly pliability he disagreeably exaggerates, or as D’Avolos inLove’s Sacrificeis clearly modelled on Iago. The plot ofThe Lover’s Melancholy, which is ineffective because it leaves no room for suspense in the mind ofthe reader, seems original; in the dialogue, on the other hand, a justly famous passage in Act i. (the beautiful version of the story of the nightingale’s death) is translated from Strada; while the scheme of the tedious interlude exhibiting the various forms of madness is avowedly taken, together with sundry comments, from Burton’sAnatomy of Melancholy. Already in this play Ford exhibits the singular force of his pathos; the despondent misery of the aged Meleander, and the sweetness of the last scene, in which his daughter comes back to him, alike go to the heart. A situation—hazardous in spite of its comic substratum—between Thaumasta and the pretended Parthenophil is conducted, as Gifford points out, with real delicacy; but the comic scenes are merely stagy, notwithstanding, or by reason of, the effort expended on them by the author.
’Tis Pity she’s a Whorehas been justly recognized as a tragedy of extraordinary power. Mr Swinburne, in his eloquent essay on Ford, has rightly shown what is the meaning of this tragedy, and has at the same time indicated wherein consists its poison. He dwells with great force upon the different treatment applied by Ford to the characters of the two miserable lovers—brother and sister. “The sin once committed, there is no more wavering or flinching possible to him, who has fought so hard against the demoniac possession; while she who resigned body and soul to the tempter, almost at a word, remains liable to the influences of religion and remorse.” This different treatment shows the feeling of the poet—the feeling for which he seeks to evoke our inmost sympathy—to oscillate between the belief that an awful crime brings with it its awful punishment (and it is sickening to observe how the argument by which the Friar persuades Annabella to forsake her evil courses mainly appeals to the physical terrors of retribution), and the notion that there is something fatal, something irresistible, and therefore in a sense self-justified, in so dominant a passion. The key-note to the conduct of Giovanni lies in his words at the close of the first scene—
“All this I’ll do, to free me from the rodOf vengeance;else I’ll swear my fate’s my god.”
“All this I’ll do, to free me from the rod
Of vengeance;else I’ll swear my fate’s my god.”
Thus there is no solution of the conflict between passion on the one side, and law, duty and religion on the other; and passion triumphs, in the dying words of “the student struck blind and mad by passion”—
“O, I bleed fast!Death, thou’rt a guest long look’d for; I embraceThee and thy wounds: O, my last minute comes!Where’er I go, let me enjoy this graceFreely to view my Annabella’s face.”
“O, I bleed fast!
Death, thou’rt a guest long look’d for; I embrace
Thee and thy wounds: O, my last minute comes!
Where’er I go, let me enjoy this grace
Freely to view my Annabella’s face.”
It has been observed by J.A. Symonds that “English poets have given us the right key to the Italian temperament.... The love of Giovanni and Annabella is rightly depicted as more imaginative than sensual.” It is difficult to allow the appositeness of this special illustration; on the other hand, Ford has even in this case shown his art of depicting sensual passion without grossness of expression; for the exception in Annabella’s language to Soranzo seems to have a special intention, and is true to the pressure of the situation and the revulsion produced by it in a naturally weak and yielding mind. The entire atmosphere, so to speak, of the play is stifling, and is not rendered less so by the underplot with Hippolita.
’Tis Pity she’s a Whorewas translated into French by Maurice Maeterlinck under the title ofAnnabella, and represented at the Théâtre de l’Œuvre in 1894. The translator prefixes to the version an eloquent appreciation of Ford’s genius, especially in his portraits of women, whose fate it is to live “dans les ténèbres, les craintes et les larmes.”
Like this tragedy,The Broken Heartwas probably founded upon some Italian or other novel of the day; but since in the latter instance there is nothing revolting in the main idea of the subject, the play commends itself as the most enjoyable, while, in respect of many excellences, an unsurpassed specimen of Ford’s dramatic genius. The complicated plot is constructed with greater skill than is usual with this dramatist, and the pathos of particular situations, and of the entire character of Penthea—a woman doomed to hopeless misery, but capable of seeking to obtain for her brother a happiness which his cruelty has condemned her to forego—has an intensity and a depth which are all Ford’s own. Even the lesser characters are more pleasing than usual, and some beautiful lyrics are interspersed in the play.
Of the other plays written by Ford alone, onlyThe Chronicle Historie of Perkin Warbeck. A Strange Truth, appears to call for special attention. A repeated perusal of this drama suggests the judgment that it is overpraised when ranked at no great distance from Shakespeare’s national dramas. Historical truth need not be taken into consideration in the matter; and if, notwithstanding James Gairdner’s essay appended to hisLife and Reign of Richard III., there are still credulous persons left to think and assert that Perkin was not an impostor, they will derive little satisfaction from Ford’s play, which with really surprising skill avoids the slightest indication as to the poet’s own belief on the subject. That this tragedy should have been reprinted in 1714 and acted in 1745 only shows that the public, as is often the case, had an eye to the catastrophe rather than to the development of the action. The dramatic capabilities of the subject are, however, great, and it afterwards attracted Schiller, who, however, seems to have abandoned it in favour of the similar theme of the Russian Demetrius. Had Shakespeare treated it, he would hardly have contented himself with investing the hero with the nobility given by Ford to this personage of his play,—for it is hardly possible to speak of a personage as acharacterwhen the clue to his conduct is intentionally withheld. Nor could Shakespeare have failed to bring out with greater variety and distinctness the dramatic features in Henry VII., whom Ford depicts with sufficient distinctness to give some degree of individuality to the figure, but still with a tenderness of touch which would have been much to the credit of the dramatist’s skill had he been writing in the Tudor age. The play is, however, founded on Bacon’s Life, of which the text is used by Ford with admirable discretion, and on Thomas Gainsford’sTrue and Wonderful History of Perkin Warbeck(1618). The minor characters of the honest old Huntley, whom the Scottish king obliges to bestow his daughter’s hand upon Warbeck, and of her lover the faithful “Dalyell,” are most effectively drawn; even “the men of judgment,” the adventurers who surround the chief adventurer, are spirited sketches, and the Irishman among them has actually some humour; while the style of the play is, as befits a “Chronicle History,” so clear and straightforward as to make it easy as well as interesting to read.
The Witch of Edmontonwas attributed by its publisher to William Rowley, Dekker, Ford, “&c.,” but the body of the play has been generally held to be ascribable to Ford and Dekker only. The subject of the play was no doubt suggested by the case of the reported witch, Elizabeth Sawyer, who was executed in 1621. Swinburne agrees with Gifford in thinking Ford the author of the whole of the first act; and he is most assuredly right in considering that “there is no more admirable exposition of a play on the English stage.” Supposing Dekker to be chiefly responsible for the scenes dealing with the unfortunate old woman whom persecution as a witch actually drives to become one, and Ford for the domestic tragedy of the bigamist murderer, it cannot be denied that both divisions of the subject are effectively treated, while the more important part of the task fell to the share of Ford. Yet it may be doubted whether any such division can be safely assumed; and it may suffice to repeat that no domestic tragedy has ever taught with more effective simplicity and thrilling truthfulness the homely double lesson of the folly of selfishness and the mad rashness of crime.
With Dekker Ford also wrote the mask ofThe Sun’s Darling; or, as seems most probable, they founded this production uponPhaeton, an earlier mask, of which Dekker had been sole author. Gifford holds that Dekker’s hand is perpetually traceable in the first three acts ofThe Sun’s Darling, and through the whole of its comic part, but that the last two acts are mainly Ford’s. If so, he is the author of the rather forced occasional tribute on the accession of King Charles I., of which the last act largely consists. This mask, which furnished abundant opportunities for the decorators, musicians and dancers, in showing forth how the seasons and their delights are successively exhausted by a “wanton darling,” Raybright the grandchild of the Sun, is said to have been very popular. It is at the same time commonplace enough in conception; but there is much that is charming in the descriptions, Jonson and Lyly being respectively laid under contribution in the course of the dialogue, and in one of the incidental lyrics.
Ford owes his position among English dramatists to the intensity of his passion, in particular scenes and passages where the character, the author and the reader are alike lost in the situation and in the sentiment evoked by it; and this gift is a supreme dramatic gift. But his plays—with the exception ofThe Witch of Edmonton, in which he doubtless had a prominent share—too often disturb the mind like a bad dream which ends as an unsolved dissonance; and this defect is a supreme dramatic defect. It is not the rigid or the stolid who have the most reason to complain of the insufficiency of tragic poetry such as Ford’s; nor is it that morality only which, as Ithocles says inThe Broken Heart, “is formed of books and school-traditions,” which has a right to protest against the final effect of the most powerful creations of his genius. There is a morality which both
“Keeps the soul in tune,At whose sweet music all our actions dance,”
“Keeps the soul in tune,
At whose sweet music all our actions dance,”
and is able to physic
“The sickness of a mindBroken with griefs.”
“The sickness of a mind
Broken with griefs.”
Of that morality—or of that deference to the binding power within man and the ruling power above him—tragedy is the truest expounder, even when it illustrates by contrasts; but the tragic poet who merely places the problem before us, and bids us stand aghast with him at its cruelty, is not to be reckoned among the great masters of a divine art.
Bibliography.—The best edition of Ford is that by Gifford, with notes and introduction, revised with additions to both text and notes by Alexander Dyce (1869). An edition of theDramatic Works of Massinger and Fordappeared in 1840, with an introduction by Hartley Coleridge.The Best Plays of Fordwere edited for the “Mermaid Series” in 1888, with an introduction by W.H. Havelock Ellis, and reissued in 1903. A.C. Swinburne’s “Essay on Ford” is reprinted among hisEssays and Studies(1875).Perkin Warbeckand’Tis Pitywere translated into German by F. Bodenstedt in 1860; and the latter again by F. Blei in 1904. The probable sources of the various plays are discussed in Emil Koeppel’sQuellenstudien zu den Dramen George Chapman’s, Philip Massinger’s und John Ford’s(1897).
Bibliography.—The best edition of Ford is that by Gifford, with notes and introduction, revised with additions to both text and notes by Alexander Dyce (1869). An edition of theDramatic Works of Massinger and Fordappeared in 1840, with an introduction by Hartley Coleridge.The Best Plays of Fordwere edited for the “Mermaid Series” in 1888, with an introduction by W.H. Havelock Ellis, and reissued in 1903. A.C. Swinburne’s “Essay on Ford” is reprinted among hisEssays and Studies(1875).Perkin Warbeckand’Tis Pitywere translated into German by F. Bodenstedt in 1860; and the latter again by F. Blei in 1904. The probable sources of the various plays are discussed in Emil Koeppel’sQuellenstudien zu den Dramen George Chapman’s, Philip Massinger’s und John Ford’s(1897).
(A. W. W.)
FORD, RICHARD(1796-1858), English author of one of the earliest and best of travellers’Handbooks, was the eldest son of Sir Richard Ford, who in 1789 was member of parliament for East Grinstead, and for many years afterwards chief police magistrate of London. His mother was the daughter and heiress of Benjamin Booth, a distinguished connoisseur in art. He was called to the bar, but never practised, and in 1830-1833 he travelled in Spain, spending much of his time in the Alhambra and at Seville. His first literary work (other than contributions to theQuarterly Review) was a pamphlet,An Historical Inquiry into the Unchangeable Character of a War in Spain(Murray, 1837), in reply to one called thePolicy of England towards Spain, issued under the patronage of Lord Palmerston. He spent the winter of 1839-1840 in Italy, where he added largely to his collection of majolica; and soon after his return he began, at John Murray’s invitation, to write hisHandbook for Travellers in Spain, with which his name is chiefly associated. He died on the 1st of September 1858, leaving a fine private collection of pictures to his widow (d. 1910), his third wife, a daughter of Sir A. Molesworth.
FORD, THOMAS(b.c.1580), English musician, of whose life little more is known than that he was attached to the court of Prince Henry, son of James I. His works also are few, but they are sufficient to show the high stage of efficiency and musical knowledge which the English school had attained at the beginning of the 17th century. They consist of canons and other concerted pieces of vocal music, mostly with lute accompaniment. The chief collection of his works is entitledMusike of Sundrie Kinds set forth in Two Books, &c. (1607), and the histories of music by Burney and Hawkins give specimens of his art. Together with Dowland, immortalized in one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, Ford is the chief representative of the school which preceded Henry Lawes.
FORDE, FRANCIS(d. 1770), British soldier, first appears in the army list as a captain in the 39th Foot in 1746. This regiment was the first of the king’s service to serve in India (hence its mottoPrimus in Indis), and Forde was on duty there when in 1755 he became major, at the same time as Eyre Coote, soon to become his rival, was promoted captain. At the express invitation of Clive, Forde resigned his king’s commission to take the post of second in command of the E.I. Company’s troops in Bengal. Soon after Plassey, Forde was sent against the French of Masulipatam. Though feebly supported by the motley rabble of an army which Anandraz, the local ally, brought into the field, Forde pushed ahead through difficult country and came upon the enemy entrenched at Condore. For four days the two armies faced one another; on the fifth both commanders resolved on the offensive and an encounter ensued. In spite of the want of spirit shown by Anandraz and his men, Forde in the end succeeded in winning the battle, which was from first to last a brilliant piece of work. Nor did he content himself with this; on the same evening he stormed the French camp, and his pursuit was checked only by the guns of Masulipatam itself. The place was quickly invested on the land side, but difficulties crowded upon Forde and his handful of men. For fifty days little advance was made; then Forde, seeing the last avenues of escape closing behind him, ordered an assault at midnight on the 25th of January 1759. The Company’s troops lost one-third of their number, but the storm was a brilliant and astounding success. Forde received less than no reward. The Company refused to confirm his lieut.-colonel’s commission, and he found himself junior to Eyre Coote, his old subaltern in the 39th Foot. Nevertheless he continued to assist Clive, and on the 25th of November 1759 won a success comparable to Condore at Chinsurah (or Biderra) against the Dutch. A year later he at last received his commission, but was still opposed by a faction of the directors which supported Coote. Clive himself warmly supported Forde in these quarrels. In 1769, with Vansittart and Scrafton, Colonel Forde was sent out with full powers to investigate every detail of Indian administration. Their ship was never heard of after leaving the Cape of Good Hope on the 27th of December.
Monographs on Condore, Masulipatam and Chinsurah will be found in Malleson’sDecisive Battles of India.
Monographs on Condore, Masulipatam and Chinsurah will be found in Malleson’sDecisive Battles of India.
FORDHAM, formerly a village of Westchester county, New York, U.S.A., and now a part of New York City. It lies on the mainland, along the eastern bank of the Harlem river, E. of the northern end of Manhattan Island. It is the seat of Fordham University (Roman Catholic), founded in 1841 as St John’s College, and since 1846 conducted by the Society of Jesus. In 1907 the institution was rechartered as Fordham University, and now includes St John’s College high school and grammar school, St John’s College, the Fordham University medical school (all in Fordham), and the Fordham University law school (42 Broadway, New York City). In 1907-1908 the university had 96 instructors and (exclusive of 364 students in the high school) 236 students, of whom 105 were in St John’s College, 31 in the medical school, and 100 in the law school. In Fordham still stands the house in which Edgar Allan Poe lived from 1844 to 1849 and in which he wrote “Annabel Lee,” “Ulalume,” &c.
The hamlet of Fordham was established in 1669 by Jan Arcer (a Dutchman, who called himself “John Archer” after coming to America), who in that year received permission from Francis Lovelace, colonial governor of New York, to settle sixteen families on the mainland close by a fording-place of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, near where that stream enters the Harlem river. Between 1655 and 1671 Archer bought from the Indians the tract of land lying between Spuyten Duyvil Creek and the Harlem river on the east and the Bronx river on the west, and extending from the hamlet of Fordham to what is now High Bridge. In 1671 Governor Lovelace erected this tract into the manor of Fordham. In 1846 it was included with Morrisania in the township of West Farms; and in 1872 with part of the township of Yonkers was erected into the township of Kingsbridge, which in 1874 was annexed to the city of New York, and in 1898 became a part of the borough of the Bronx, New York City.
FORDUN, JOHN OF(d.c.1384), Scottish chronicler. The statement generally made that the chronicler was born at Fordoun (Kincardineshire) has not been supported by any direct evidence. It is certain that he was a secular priest, and that he composed his history in the latter part of the 14th century; and it is probable that he was a chaplain in the cathedral of Aberdeen. The work of Fordun is the earliest attempt to write a continuous history of Scotland. We are informed that Fordun’s patriotic zeal was roused by the removal or destruction of many national records by Edward III. and that he travelled in England and Ireland, collecting material for his history. This work is divided into five books. The first three are almost entirely fabulous, and form the groundwork on which Boece and Buchanan afterwards based their historical fictions, which were exposed by Thomas Innes in hisCritical Essay(i. pp. 201-214). The 4th and 5th books, though still mixed with fable, contain much valuable information, and become more authentic the more nearly they approach the author’s own time. The 5th book concludes with the death of King David I. in 1153. Besides these five books, Fordun wrote part of another book, and collected materials for bringing down the history to a later period. These materials were used by a continuator who wrote in the middle of the 15th century, and who is identified with Walter Bower (q.v.), abbot of the monastery of Inchcolm. The additions of Bower form eleven books, and bring down the narrative to the death of King James I. in 1437. Accordingto the custom of the time, the continuator did not hesitate to interpolate Fordun’s portion of the work with additions of his own, and the whole history thus compiled is known as theScotichronicon.
The first printed edition of Fordun’s work was that of Thomas Gale in hisScriptores quindecim(vol. iii.), which was published in 1691. This was followed by Thomas Hearne’s (5 vols.) edition in 1722. The whole work, including Bower’s continuation, was published by Walter Goodall at Edinburgh in 1759. In 1871 and 1872 Fordun’s chronicle, in the original Latin and in an English translation, was edited by William F. Skene inThe Historians of Scotland. The preface to this edition collects all the biographical details and gives full bibliographical references to MSS. and editions.
The first printed edition of Fordun’s work was that of Thomas Gale in hisScriptores quindecim(vol. iii.), which was published in 1691. This was followed by Thomas Hearne’s (5 vols.) edition in 1722. The whole work, including Bower’s continuation, was published by Walter Goodall at Edinburgh in 1759. In 1871 and 1872 Fordun’s chronicle, in the original Latin and in an English translation, was edited by William F. Skene inThe Historians of Scotland. The preface to this edition collects all the biographical details and gives full bibliographical references to MSS. and editions.
FORECLOSURE,in the law of mortgage, the extinguishment by order of the court of a mortgagor’s equity of redemption. In the law of equity the object of every mortgage transaction is eventually the repayment of a debt, the mortgaged property being incidental by way of security. Therefore, although the day named for repayment of the loan has passed and the mortgagor’s estate is consequently forfeited, equity steps in to mitigate the harshness of the common law, and will decree a reconveyance of the mortgaged property on payment of the principal, interest and costs. This right of the mortgagor to relief is termed his “equity of redemption.” But the right must be exercised within a reasonable time, otherwise he will be foreclosed his equity of redemption and the mortgagee’s possession converted into an absolute ownership. Such foreclosure is enforced in equity by a foreclosure action. An action is brought by the mortgagee against the mortgagor in the chancery division of the High Court in England, claiming that an account may be taken of the principal and interest due to the mortgagee, and that the mortgagor may be directed to pay the same, with costs, by a day to be appointed by the court and that in default thereof he may be foreclosed his equity of redemption. English county courts have jurisdiction in foreclosure actions where the mortgage or charge does not exceed £500, or where the mortgage is for more than £500, but less than that sum has been actually advanced. In a Welsh mortgage there is no right to foreclosure. (See alsoMortgage.)
FOREIGN OFFICE,that department of the executive of the United Kingdom which is concerned with foreign affairs. The head of the Foreign Office is termed principal secretary of state for foreign affairs and his office dates from 1782. Between that date and the Revolution there had been only two secretaries of state, whose duties were divided by a geographical division of the globe into northern and southern departments. The duties of the secretary of the northern department of Europe comprised dealings with the northern powers of Europe, while the secretary of the southern department of Europe communicated with France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, and also looked after Irish and colonial business, and carried out the work of the Home Office. In 1782 the duties of these two secretaries were revised, the northern department becoming the Foreign Office. The secretary for foreign affairs is the official agent of the crown in all communications between Great Britain and foreign powers; his intercourse is carried on either through the representatives of foreign states in Great Britain or through representatives of Great Britain abroad. He negotiates all treaties or alliances with foreign states, protects British subjects residing abroad, and demands satisfaction for any injuries they may sustain at the hands of foreigners. He is assisted by two under-secretaries of state (one of them a politician, the other a permanent civil servant), three assistant under-secretaries (civil servants), a librarian, a head of the treaty department and a staff of clerks. The departments of the Foreign Office are the African, American, commercial and sanitary, consular, eastern (Europe), far eastern, western (Europe), parliamentary, financial, librarian and keeper of the papers, treaties and registry. In the case of important despatches and correspondence, these, with the drafts of answers, are sent first to the permanent under-secretary, then to the prime minister, then to the sovereign and, lastly, are circulated among the members of the cabinet. The salary of the secretary for foreign affairs is £5000 per annum, that of the permanent under-secretary £2000, the parliamentary under-secretary and the first assistant under-secretary, £1500, and the other assistant under-secretaries £1200.
See Anson,Law and Custom of the Constitution, part ii.
See Anson,Law and Custom of the Constitution, part ii.
FORELAND, NORTHandSOUTH,two chalk headlands on the Kent coast of England, overlooking the Strait of Dover, the North Foreland forming the eastern projection of the Isle of Thanet, and the South standing 3 m. N.E. of Dover. Both present bold cliffs to the sea, and command beautiful views over the strait. On the North Foreland (51° 22½′ N., 1° 27′ E.) there is a lighthouse, and on the South Foreland (51° 8½′ N., 1° 23′ E.) there are two. There is also a Foreland on the north coast of Devonshire, 2½ m. N.E. of Lynmouth, a fine projection of the highlands of Exmoor Forest, overlooking the Bristol Channel, and forming the most northerly point of the county.
FORESHORE,that part of the seashore which lies between high- and low-water mark at ordinary tides. In the United Kingdom it is ordinarily and prima facie vested in the crown, except where it may be vested in a subject by ancient grant or charter from the crown, or by prescription. Although numerous decisions, dating from 1795, have confirmed the prima facie title of the crown, S.A. Moore in hisHistory of the Foreshorecontends that the presumption is in favour of the subject rather than of the crown. But a subject can establish a title by proving an express grant from the crown or giving sufficient evidence of user from which a grant may be presumed. The chief acts showing title to foreshore are, taking wreck or royal fish, right of fishing, mining, digging and taking sand, seaweed, &c., embanking and enclosing. There is a public right of user in that part of the foreshore which belongs to the crown, for the purpose of navigation or fishery, but there is no right of passage over lands adjacent to the shore, except by a particular custom. So that, in order to make the right available, there must be a highway or other public land giving access to the foreshore. Thus it has been held that the public have no legal right to trespass on land above high-water mark for the purpose of bathing in the sea, though if they can get to it they may bathe there (Blundellv.Catteral, 1821, 5 B. & Ad. 268). There is no right in the public to take sand, shells or seaweed from the shore, nor, except in certain places by local custom, have fishermen the right to use the foreshore or the soil above it for drawing up their boats, or for drying their nets or similar purposes.
See S.A. Moore,History of the Foreshore and the Law relating thereto(1888); Coulson and Forbes,Law of Waters(1902).
See S.A. Moore,History of the Foreshore and the Law relating thereto(1888); Coulson and Forbes,Law of Waters(1902).
FORESTALLING,in English criminal law, the offence of buying merchandise, victual, &c., coming to market, or making any bargain for buying the same, before they shall be in the market ready to be sold, or making any motion for enhancing the price, or dissuading any person from coming to market or forbearing to bring any of the things to market, &c. SeeEngrossing.
FOREST LAWS,the general term for the old English restriction laws, dealing with forests. One of the most cherished prerogatives of the king of England, at the time when his power was at the highest, was that of converting any portion of the country into a forest in which he might enjoy the pleasures of the chase. The earliest struggles between the king and the people testify to the extent to which this prerogative became a public grievance, and the charter by which its exercise was bounded (Carta de Foresta) was in substance part of the greatest constitutional code imposed by his barons upon King John. At common law it appears to have been the right of the king to make a forest where he pleased, provided that certain legal formalities were observed. The king having a continual care for the preservation of the realm, and for the peace and quiet of his subjects, he had therefore amongst many privileges this prerogative, viz. to have his place of recreation wheresoever he would appoint.1Land once afforested became subject to a peculiar system of laws, which, as well as the formalities required to constitute a valid afforestment, have been carefully ascertained by the Anglo-Norman lawyers. “A forest,”says Manwood, “is a certain territory of woody grounds and fruitful pastures, privileged for wild beasts and fowls of forest, chase, and warren to rest, and abide there in the safe protection of the king, for his delight and pleasure; which territory of ground so privileged is mered and bounded with unremovable marks, meres and boundaries, either known by matter of record or by prescription; and also replenished with wild beasts of venery or chase, and with great coverts of vert, for the succour of the said beasts there to abide: for the preservation and continuance of which said place, together with the vert and venison there are particular officers, laws, and privileges belonging to the same, requisite for that purpose, and proper only to a forest and to no other place.”2And the same author distinguishes a forest, as “the highest franchise of princely pleasure,” from the inferior franchises of chase, park and warren—named in the order of their importance. The forest embraces all these, and it is distinguished by having laws and courts of its own, according to which offenders are justiceable. An offender in a chase is to be punished by the common law; an offender in a forest by the forest law. A chase is much the same as a park, only the latter is enclosed, and all of them are distinguished according to the class of wild beasts to which the privilege extended. Thus beasts of forest (the “five wild beasts of venery”) were the hart, the hind, the hare, the boar and the wolf. The beasts of chase were also five, viz. the buck, the doe, the fox, the marten and the roe. The beasts and fowls of warren were the hare, the coney, the pheasant and the partridge.
The courts of the forest were three in number, viz. the court of attachments, swainmote and justice-seat. The court of attachments (called also the wood-mote) is held every forty days for the foresters to bring in their attachments concerning any hurt done to vert or venison (in viridi et venatione) in the forest, and for the verderers to receive and mark the same, but no conviction takes place. The swainmote, held three times in the year, is the court to which all the freeholders within the forest owe suit and service, and of which the verderers are the judges. In this court all offences against the forest laws may be tried, but no judgment or punishment follows. This is reserved for the justice-seat, held every third year, to which the rolls of offences presented at the court of attachment, and tried at the swainmote, are presented by verderers. The justice-seat is the court of the chief justice in eyre, who, says Coke, “is commonly a man of greater dignity than knowledge of the laws of the forests; and therefore where justice-seats are to be held some other persons whom the king shall appoint are associated with him, who together are to determineomnia placita forestae.” There were two chief justices for the forestsintraandultra Trentamrespectively. The necessary officers of a forest are a steward, verderers, foresters, regarders, agisters and woodwards. The verderer was a judicial officer chosen in full county by the freeholders in the same manner as the coroner. His office was to view and receive the attachments of the foresters, and to mark them on his rolls. A forester was “an officer sworn to preserve the vert and venison in the forest, and to attend upon the wild beasts within his bailiwick.” The regarders were of the nature of visitors: their duty was to make a regard (visitatio nemorum) every third year, to inquire of all offences, and of the concealment of such offences by any officer of the forest. The business of the agister was to look after the pasturage of the forest, and to receive the payments for the same by persons entitled to pasture their cattle in the forests. Both the pasturage and the payment were called “agistment.” The woodward was the officer who had the care of the woods and vert and presented offences at the court of attachment.
The legal conception of a forest was thus that of a definite territory within which the code of the forest law prevailed to the exclusion of the common law. The ownership of the soil might be in any one, but the rights of the proprietor were limited by the laws made for the protection of the king’s wild beasts. These laws, enforced by fines often arbitrary and excessive, were a great grievance to the unfortunate owners of land within or in the neighbourhood of the forest. The offence of “purpresture” may be cited as an example. This was an encroachment on the forest rights, by building a house within the forest, and it made no difference whether the land belonged to the builder or not. In either case it was an offence punishable by fines at discretion. And if a man converted woodlands within the forest into arable land, he was guilty of the offence known as “assarting,” whether the covert belonged to himself or not.
The hardships of the forest laws under the Norman kings, and their extension to private estates by the process of afforestment, were among the grievances which united the barons and people against the king in the reign of John. The Great Charter of King John contains clauses relating to the forest laws, but no separate charter of the forest. The first charter of the forest is that of Henry III., issued in 1217. “As an important piece of legislation,” said Stubbs,3“it must be compared with the forest assize of 1184, and with 44th, 47th and 48th clauses of the charter of John. It is observable that most of the abuses which are remedied by it are regarded as having sprung up since the accession of Henry II.; but the most offensive afforestations have been made under Richard and John. These latter are at once disafforested; but those of Henry II. only so far as they had been carried out to the injury of the landowners and outside of the royal demesne.” Land which had thus been once forest land and was afterwards disafforested was known aspurlieu—derived by Manwood from the Frenchpurandlieu,i.e.“a place exempt from the forest.” The forest laws still applied in a modified manner to the purlieu. The benefit of the disafforestment existed only for the owner of the lands; as to all other persons the land was forest still, and the king’s wild beasts were to “have free recourse therein and safe return to the forest, without any hurt or destruction other than by the owners of the lands in the purlieu where they shall be found, and that only to hunt and chase them back again towards the forest without any forestalling” (Manwood,On the Forest Laws—article “Purlieu”).
The revival of the forest laws was one of the means resorted to by Charles I. for raising a revenue independently of parliament, and the royal forests in Essex were so enlarged that they were hyperbolically said to include the whole county. The 4th earl of Southampton was nearly ruined by a decision that stripped him of his estate near the New Forest. The boundaries of Rockingham Forest were increased from 6 m. to 60, and enormous fines imposed on the trespassers,—Lord Salisbury being assessed in £20,000, Lord Westmoreland in £19,000, Sir Christopher Hatton in £12,000 (Hallam’sConstitutional History of England, c. viii.). By the statute 16 Charles I. c. 16 (1640) the royal forests were determined for ever according to their boundaries in the twentieth year of James, all subsequent enlargements being annulled.
The forest laws, since the Revolution, have fallen into complete disuse.
1Coke, 4Inst., 300.2Manwood’sTreatise of the Forest Laws(4th edition, 1717).3Documents Illustrative of English History, p. 338.
1Coke, 4Inst., 300.
2Manwood’sTreatise of the Forest Laws(4th edition, 1717).
3Documents Illustrative of English History, p. 338.
FORESTS AND FORESTRY.Although most people know what a forest (Lat.foris, “out of doors”) is, a definition of it which suits all cases is by no means easy to give. Manwood, in his treatise of theLawes of the Forest(1598), defines a forest as “a certain territory of woody grounds, fruitful pastures, privileged for wild beasts and fowls of forest, chase and warren, to rest and abide in, in the safe protection of the king, for his princely delight and pleasure.” This primitive definition has, in modern times, when the economic aspect of forests came more into the foreground, given place to others, so that forest may, in a general way, now be described as “an area which is for the most part set aside for the production of timber and other forest produce, or which is expected to exercise certain climatic effects, or to protect the locality against injurious influences.”
As far as conclusions can now be drawn, it is probable that the greater part of the dry land of the earth was, at some time, covered with forest, which consisted of a variety of trees and shrubs grouped according to climate, soil and configuration of the several localities. When the old trees reached their limitof life, they disappeared, and younger trees took their place. The conditions for an uninterrupted regeneration of the forest were favourable, and the result was vigorous production by the creative powers of soil and climate. Then came man, and by degrees interfered, until in most countries of the earth the area under forest has been considerably reduced. The first decided interference was probably due to the establishment of domestic animals; men burnt the forest to obtain pasture for their flocks. Subsequently similar measures on an ever-increasing scale were employed to prepare the land for agricultural purposes. More recently enormous areas of forests were destroyed by reckless cutting and subsequent firing in the extraction of timber for economic purposes.
It will readily be understood that the distribution and character of the now remaining forests must differ enormously (seePlants:Distribution). Large portions of the earth are still covered with dense masses of tall trees, while others contain low scrub or grass land, or are desert. As a general rule, natural forests consist of a number of different species intermixed; but in some cases certain species, called gregarious, have succeeded in obtaining the upper hand, thus forming more or less pure forests of one species only. The number of species differs very much. In many tropical forests hundreds of species may be found on a comparatively small area, in other cases the number is limited. Burma has several thousand species of trees and shrubs, Sind has only ten species of trees. Central Europe has about forty species, and the greater part of northern Russia, Sweden and Norway contains forests consisting of about half a dozen species. Elevation above the sea acts similarly to rising latitude, but the effect is much more rapidly produced. Generally speaking, it may be said that the Tropics and adjoining parts of the earth, wherever the climate is not modified by considerable elevation, contain broad-leaved species, palms, bamboos, &c. Here most of the best and hardest timbers are found, such as teak, mahogany and ebony. The northern countries are rich in conifers. Taking a section from Central Africa to North Europe, it will be found that south and north of the equator there is a large belt of dense hardwood forest; then comes the Sahara, then the coast of the Mediterranean with forests of cork oak; then Italy with oak, olive, chestnut, gradually giving place to ash, sycamore, beech, birch and certain species of pine; in Switzerland and Germany silver fir and spruce gain ground. Silver fir disappears in central Germany, and the countries around the Baltic contain forests consisting chiefly of Scotch pine, spruce and birch, to which, in Siberia, larch must be added, while the lower parts of the ground are stocked with hornbeam, willow, alder and poplar. In North America the distribution is as follows: Tropical vegetation is found in south Florida, while in north Florida it changes into a subtropical vegetation consisting of evergreen broad-leaved species with pines on sandy soils. On going north in the Atlantic region, the forest becomes temperate, containing deciduous broad-leaved trees and pines, until Canada is reached, where larches, spruces and firs occupy the ground. Around the great lakes on sandy soils the broad-leaved forest gives way to pines. On proceeding west from the Atlantic region the forest changes into a shrubby vegetation, and this into the prairies. Farther west, towards the Pacific coast, extensive forests are found consisting, according to latitude and elevation above the sea, of pines, larches, fir, Thujas and Tsugas. In Japan a tropical vegetation is found in the south, comprising palms, figs, ebony, mangrove and others. This is followed on proceeding north by subtropical forests containing evergreen oaks,Podocarpus, tree-ferns, and, at higher elevations,CryptomeriaandChamaecyparis. Then follow deciduous broad-leaved forests, and finally firs, spruces and larches. In India the character of the forests is governed chiefly by rainfall and elevation. Where the former is heavy evergreen forests of Guttiferae, Dipterocarpeae, Leguminosae, Euphorbias, figs, palms, ferns, bamboos and india-rubber trees are found. Under a less copious rainfall deciduous forests appear, containing teak and sal (Shorea robusta) and a great variety of other valuable trees. Under a still smaller rainfall the vegetation becomes sparse, containing acacias,Dalbergia sissooand Tamarix. Where the rainfall is very light ornil, desert appears. In the Himalayas, subtropical to arctic conditions are found, the forests containing, according to elevation, pines, firs, deodars, oaks, chestnuts, magnolias, laurels, rhododendrons and bamboos. Australia, again, has its own particular flora of eucalypts, of which some two hundred species have been distinguished, as well as wattles. Some of the eucalypts attain an enormous height.
Utility of Forests.—In the economy of man and of nature forests are of direct and indirect value, the former chiefly through the produce which they yield, and the latter through the influence which they exercise upon climate, the regulation of moisture, the stability of the soil, the healthiness and beauty of a country and allied subjects. Theindirectutility will be dealt with first. A piece of land bare of vegetation is, throughout the year, exposed to the full effect of sun and air currents, and the climatic conditions which are produced by these agencies. If, on the other hand, a piece of land is covered with a growth of plants, and especially with a dense crop of forest vegetation, it enjoys the benefit of certain agencies which modify the effect of sun and wind on the soil and the adjoining layers of air. These modifying agencies are as follows: (1) The crowns of the trees intercept the rays of the sun and the falling rain; they obstruct the movement of air currents, and reduce radiation at night. (2) The leaves, flowers and fruits, augmented by certain plants which grow in the shade of the trees, form a layer of mould, or humus, which protects the soil against rapid changes of temperature, and greatly influences the movement of water in it. (3) The roots of the trees penetrate into the soil in all directions, and bind it together. The effects of these agencies have been observed from ancient times, and widely differing views have been taken of them. Of late years, however, more careful observations have been made at so-called parallel stations, that is to say, one station in the middle of a forest, and another outside at some distance from its edge, but otherwise exposed to the same general conditions. In this way, the following results have been obtained: (1) Forests reduce the temperature of the air and soil to a moderate extent, and render the climate more equable. (2) They increase the relative humidity of the air, and reduce evaporation. (3) They tend to increase the precipitation of moisture. As regards the actual rainfall, their effect in low lands isnilor very small; in hilly countries it is probably greater, but definite results have not yet been obtained owing to the difficulty of separating the effect of forests from that of other factors. (4) They help to regulate the water supply, produce a more sustained feeding of springs, tend to reduce violent floods, and render the flow of water in rivers more continuous. (5) They assist in preventing denudation, erosion, landslips, avalanches, the silting up of rivers and low lands and the formation of sand dunes. (6) They reduce the velocity of air-currents, protect adjoining fields against cold or dry winds, and afford shelter to cattle, game and useful birds. (7) They may, under certain conditions, improve the healthiness of a country, and help in its defence. (8) They increase the beauty of a country, and produce a healthy aesthetic influence upon the people.
Thedirectutility of forests is chiefly due to their produce, the capital which they represent, and the work which they provide. The principal produce of forests consists of timber and firewood. Both are necessaries for the daily life of the people. Apart from a limited number of broad-leaved species, the conifers have become the most important timber trees in the economy of man. They are found in greatest quantities in the countries around the Baltic and in North America. In modern times iron and other materials have, to a considerable extent, replaced timber, while coal, lignite, and peat compete with firewood; nevertheless wood is still indispensable, and likely to remain so. This is borne out by the statistics of the most civilized nations. Whereas the population of Great Britain and Ireland, during the period 1880-1900, increased by about 20%, the imports of timber, during the same period, increased by 45%; in other words, every head of population in 1900 used more timber thantwenty years earlier. Germany produced in 1880 about as much timber as she required; in 1899 she imported 4,600,000 tons, valued at £14,000,000, and her imports are rapidly increasing, although the yield capacity of her own forests is much higher now than it was formerly. Wood is now used for many purposes which formerly were not thought of. The manufacture of the wood pulp annually imported into Britain consumes at least 2,000,000 tons of timber. A fabric closely resembling silk is now made of spruce wood. The variety of other, or minor, produce yielded by forests is very great, and much of it is essential for the well-being of the people and for various industries. The yield of fodder is of the utmost importance in countries subject to periodic droughts; in many places field crops could not be grown successfully without the leaf-mould and brushwood taken from the forests. As regards industries, attention need only be drawn to such articles as commercial fibre, tanning materials, dye-stuffs, lac, turpentine, resin, rubber, gutta-percha, &c. Great Britain and Ireland alone import every year such materials to the value of £12,000,000, half of this being represented by rubber.
Thecapitalemployed in forests consists chiefly of the value of the soil and growing stock of timber. The latter is, ordinarily, of much greater value than the former wherever a sustained annual yield of timber is expected from a forest. In the case of a Scotch pine forest, for instance, the value of the growing stock is, under the above-mentioned condition, from three to five times that of the soil. The rate of interest yielded by capital invested in forests differs, of course, considerably according to circumstances, but on the whole it may, under proper management, be placed equal to that yielded by agricultural land; it is lower than the agricultural rate on the better classes of land, but higher on the inferior classes. Hence the latter are specially indicated for the forest industry, and the former for the production of agricultural crops. Forests requirelabourin a great variety of ways, such as (1) general administration, formation, tending and harvesting; (2) transport of produce; and (3) industries which depend on forests for their prime material. The labour indicated under the first head differs considerably according to circumstances, but its amount is smaller than that required if the land is used for agriculture. Hence forests provide additional labour only if they are established on surplus lands. Owing to the bulky nature of forest produce its transport forms a business of considerable magnitude, the amount of labour being perhaps equal to half that employed under the first head. The greatest amount of labour is, however, required in the working up of the raw material yielded by forests. In this respect attention may be drawn to the chair industry in and around High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, where more than 20,000 workmen are employed in converting the beech, grown on the adjoining chalk hills, into chairs and tools of many patterns. Complete statistics for Great Britain are not available under this head, but it may be mentioned that in Germany the people employed in the forests amount to 2.3% of the total population; those employed on transport of forest produce 1.1%; labourers employed on the various wood industries, 8.6%; or a total of 12%. An important feature of the work connected with forests and their produce is that a great part of it can be made to fit in with the requirements of agriculture; that is to say, it can be done at seasons when field crops do not require attention. Thus the rural labourers or small farmers can earn some money at times when they have nothing else to do, and when they would probably sit idle if no forest work were obtainable.
Whether, or how far, the utility of forests is brought out in a particular country depends on its special conditions, such as (1) the position of a country, its communications, and the control which it exercises over other countries, such as colonies; (2) the quantity and quality of substitutes for forest produce available in the country; (3) the value of land and labour, and the returns which land yields if used for other purposes; (4) the density of population; (5) the amount of capital available for investment; (6) the climate and configuration, especially the geographical position, whether inland or on the border of the sea, &c. No general rule can be laid down, showing whether forests are required in a country, or, if so, to what extent; that question must be answered according to the special circumstances of each case.
The subjoined table shows the forests of various European states:—
These data exhibit considerable differences, since the percentage of the forest area varies from 3.5 to 50, and the area per head of population from .07 to 9.5 acres. Russia, Sweden and Norway may as yet have more forest than they require for their own population. On the other hand, Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Holland, and even Belgium, France and Italy have not a sufficient forest area to meet their own requirements; at the same time, they are all sea-bound countries, and importation is easy, while most of them are under the influence of moist sea winds, which reduces to a subordinate position the importance of forests for climatic reasons.
Intimately connected with the area of forests in a country is the state of ownership—whether they belong to the state, corporations or to private persons. Where, apart from the financial aspect and the supply of work, forests are not required for the sake of their indirect effects, and where importation from other countries is easy and assured, the government of the country need not, as a rule, trouble itself to maintain or acquire forests. Where the reverse conditions exist, and especially where the cost of transport over long distances becomes prohibitive, a wise administration will take measures to assure the maintenance of a suitable proportion of the country under forest. This can be done either by maintaining or constituting a suitable area of state forests, or by exercising a certain amount of control over corporation and even private forests. Such measures are more called for in continental countries than in those which are sea-bound, as is proved by the above statistics.
Supply of Timber—Imports and Exports.—The following table shows the net imports and exports of European countries (average data, calculated from the returns of recent years).
The only timber-exporting countries of Europe are Russia, Sweden, Norway, Austria-Hungary and Rumania; all the others either have only enough for their own consumption, or import timber. Great Britain and Ireland import now upwards of 10,000,000 tons a year, Germany about 4,600,000 tons, andBelgium about 1,300,000 tons. Holland, France, Portugal, Spain and Italy are all importing countries, as also are Asia Minor, Egypt and Algeria. The west coast of Africa exports hardwoods, and imports coniferous timber. The Cape and Natal import considerable quantities of pine and fir wood. Australasia exports hardwoods and some Kauri pine from New Zealand, but imports larger quantities of light pine and fir timber. British India and Siam export teak and small quantities of fancy woods. The West Indies and South America export hardwoods, and import pine and fir wood. The United States of America will not much longer be a genuine exporting country, since they import already almost as much timber from Canada as they export. Canada exports considerable quantities of timber. The Dominion has still a forest area of 1,250,000 sq. m., equal to 38% of the total area, and giving 165 acres of forest for every inhabitant. Although only about one-third of the forest area can be called regular timber land, Canada possesses an enormous forest wealth, with which she might supply permanently nearly all other countries deficient in material, if the governing bodies in the several provinces would only determine to stop the present fearful waste caused by axe and fire, and to introduce a regular system of management. As matters stand, the supplies of the most valuable timber of Canada, the white or Weymouth pine (Pinus strobus), are nearly exhausted, the great stores of spruce in the eastern provinces are being rapidly destroyed, and the forests of Douglas fir in the western provinces have been attacked for export to the United States and to other countries.
Net Imports and Exports of European Countries.
Taking the remaining stocks of the whole earth together, it may be said that a sufficient quantity of hardwoods is available, but the only countries which are able to supply coniferous timber for export on a considerable scale are Russia, Sweden, Norway, Austria and Canada. As these countries have practically to supply the rest of the world, and as the management of their forests is far from satisfactory, the question of supplying light pine and fir timber, which forms the very staff of life of the wood industries, must become a very serious matter before many years have passed. Unmistakable signs of the coming crisis are everywhere visible to all who wish to see, and it is difficult to over-state the gravity of the problem, when it is remembered, for instance, that 87% of all the timber imported into Great Britain consists of light pine and fir, and that most of the other importing countries are similarly situated. In some of these countries little or no room exists for the extension of woodland, but this statement does not apply to Great Britain and Ireland, which contain upwards of 12,000,000 acres of waste land, and 12,500,000 acres of mountain and heath land used for light grazing. One-fourth of that area, if put under forest, would produce all the timber now imported which can be grown in Britain, that is to say, about 95% of the total.
The subjoined table shows the movements of timber within the greater part of the British empire:—
Net Imports and Exports into and from the British Empire.
Forest Management.—In early times there was practically no forest management. As long as the forests occupied considerable areas, their produce was looked upon as the free gift of nature, like air and water; men took it, used it, and even destroyed it without let or hindrance. With the gradual increase of population and the consequent reduction of the forest area, proprietary ideas developed; people claimed the ownership of certain forests, and proceeded to protect them against outsiders. Subsequently the law of the country was called in to help in protection, leading to the promulgation of special forest laws. By degrees it was found that mere protection was not sufficient, and that steps must be taken to enforce a more judicious treatment, as well as to limit the removal of timber to what the forests were capable of producing permanently. The teaching of natural science and of political economy was brought to bear upon the subject, so that now forestry has become a special science. This is recognized in many countries, amongst which Germany stands first, closely followed by France, Austria, Denmark and Belgium. Of non-European countries the palm belongs to British India, and then follow Ceylon, the Malay States, the Cape of Good Hope and Japan. The United States of America have also turned their attention to the subject. Most of the British colonies are, in this respect, as yet in a backward state, and the matter has still to be fought out in Great Britain and Ireland, though many writers have urged the importance of the question upon the public and the government. There can be no doubt that all civilized countries must, sooner or later, adopt a rational and systematic treatment of their forests.
For details as to the separate countries, see the articles under the country headings; in this article only some of the more important countries are dealt with, in so far as the history of their forestry is important. A few notes on Germany and France will be given, because in these countries forest management has been brought to highest perfection; Italy is mentioned, because she has allowed her forests to be destroyed; and a short description of forestry in the United Kingdom and in India follows. A separate section is devoted to the United States.
Germanyis in general well-wooded. The winters being long and severe, an abundant supply of fuel is almost as essential as a sufficient supply of food. This necessity has led, alongwith a passion for the chase, to the preservation of forests, and to the establishment of an admirable system of forest cultivation, almost as carefully conducted as field tillage. The Black Forest stretches the whole length of the grand-duchy of Baden and part of the kingdom of Württemberg, from the Neckar to Basel and the Lake of Constance. The vegetation resembles that of the Vosges; forests of spruce, silver fir, Scotch pine, and, mingled with birches, beech and oak, are the chief woods met with. Until comparatively recent times large quantities of timber derived from these forests were floated down the Rhine to Holland and also shipped to England. Now the greater part of it is used locally for construction, or it is converted into paper pulp. In the grand-duchy of Hesse the Odenwald range of mountains, stretching between the Main and the Neckar, contains the chief supply of timber. In the province of Nassau there are the large wooded tracts of the Taunus mountain range and the Westerwald.
In Rhenish Prussia valuable forests lie partly in the Eifel, on the borders of Belgium, and on the mountains overhanging the Upper Moselle, but they do not furnish such stately trees as the Black Forest and the Odenwald. The Spessart, near Aschaffenburg in Bavaria, is one of the most extensive forests of middle Germany, containing large masses of fine oak and beech, with plantations of coniferous trees, such as spruce, Scotch pine and silver fir. Bavaria possesses other fine forest tracts, such as the Baierischewald on the Bohemian frontier, the Kranzberg near Munich, and the Frankenwald in the north of the kingdom. North Germany has extensive forests on the Harz and Thüringian Mountains, while in East Prussia large tracts of flat ground are covered with Scotch pine, spruce, oak and beech.
Every German state has its forest organization. In Prussia the department is presided over by the Oberland Forstmeister at Berlin, while each province, or part of a province, has an Oberforstmeister, under whom a number of Oberförsters administrate the state and communal forests. These, again, are assisted by a lower class of officials called Försters. The Oberförsters throughout Germany are educated at special schools of forestry, of which in 1909 the following nine existed:
In Prussia: at Eberswalde and Münden.
In Bavaria: at Munich and Aschaffenburg.
In Saxony: at Tharand.
In Württemberg: at Tübingen.
In Baden: at Carlsruhe.
In Hesse: at Giessen.
In the grand-duchy of Saxony: at Eisenach.
The schools at Munich, Tübingen and Giessen form part of the universities at these places; that at Carlsruhe is attached to the technical high school; the others are academies for the study of forestry only, but there is a tendency to transfer them all to the universities. The subordinate staff are trained for their work in so-called silvicultural schools, of which a large number exist. In this way the German forests have been brought to a high degree of productiveness, but the material derived from them falls far short of the requirements, although the forests occupy 26% of the total area of the country; hence the net imports of timber amount already to 4,600,000 tons a year, and they are steadily rising.
France.—The principal timber tree of France is the oak. The cork oak is grown extensively in the south and in Corsica. The beech, ash, elm, maple, birch, walnut, chestnut and poplar are all important trees, while the silver fir and spruce form magnificent forests in the Vosges and Jura Mountains, and the Aleppo and maritime pines are cultivated in the south and south-west. About one-seventh of the entire territory is still covered with wood.
Forest legislation took its rise in France about the middle of the 16th century, and the great minister Sully urged the enforcement of restrictive forest laws. In 1669 a fixed treatment of state forests was enacted. Duhamel in 1755 published his famous work on forest trees. Reckless destruction of the forests, however, was in progress, and the Revolution of 1789 gave a fresh stimulus to the work of devastation. The usual results have followed in the frequency and destructiveness of floods, which have washed away the soil from the hillsides and valleys of many districts, especially in the south, and the frequent inundations of the last fifty years are no doubt caused by the deforesting of the sources of the Rhone and Saône. Laws were passed in 1860 and 1864, providing for the reforesting, “reboisement,” of the slopes of mountains, and these laws take effect on private as well as state property. Thousands of acres are annually planted in the departments of Hautes and Basses Alpes; and during the summer of 1875, when much injury was done by floods in the south of France, the Durance, formerly the most dangerous in this respect of French rivers, gave little cause for anxiety, as it is round the head waters of this river that the chief plantations have been formed. While tracts formerly covered with wood have been replanted, plantations have been formed on the shifting sands or dunes along the coast of Gascony. A forest ofPinus pinaster, 150 m. in length, now stretches from Bayonne to the mouth of the Gironde, raised by means of sowing steadily continued since 1789; the cultivation of the pine, along with draining, has transformed low marshy grounds into productive soil extending over an area of about two million acres. The forests thus created provide annually some 600,000 tons of pit timber for the Welsh coal mines.