Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/403

 The Eve of the French Revolution 365 (From Arthur Young's Travels.) Of the hunting rights and royal preserves {capitaine- ties) a celebrated English traveler gives a good account. The capitaineries were a dreadful scourge on all the occu- 380. The piers of land. By this term is to be understood the para- nuntin S . . r .,.. iiii- • preserves in mountship of certain districts granted by the king to princes France. of the blood, by which they were put in possession of the property of all game, even on lands not belonging to them ; and what is very singular, on manors granted long before to individuals ; so that the erecting of a district into a capitaine- rie was an annihilation of all manorial rights to game within it. This was a trifling business in comparison to other cir- cumstances ; for in speaking of the preservation of the game in these capitaineries it must be observed that by game must be understood, whole droves of wild boars, and herds of deer not confined by any wall or pale, but wandering at pleasure over the whole country, to the destruction of crops, and to the peopling of the galleys by wretched peasants who pre- sumed to kill them in order to save that food which was to support their helpless children. The game in the capitainerie of Montceau, in four parishes only, did mischief to the amount of 184,263 livres per annum. No wonder then that we should find the people asking, "We loudly demand the destruction of all the capitaineries and of all the various kinds of game." And what are we to think of demanding as a favor the permission " to thresh their grain, mow their fields, and take away the stubble without regard to the partridge or other game"? 1 Now an English reader will scarcely understand without being told that there were numerous edicts for preserving the game, which pro- hibited weeding and hoeing lest the young partridges should be disturbed, steeping seed lest it should injure the game, . . . mowing hay, etc., before a certain time so late as to spoil many crops ; and taking away the stubble which would deprive the birds of shelter. 1 These complaints are from the cahiers drawn up for the Estates General in 1789. See History of Western Europe, pp. 562 sq. (Vol. II, pp. 210 sq.). For the abolition of the hunting rights see below, p. 407.