In this war martial law was declared. The poacher felt that he
was acting within his rights, like the pirate; neither of them wished to
be considered a common thief. Above, I compared the forest with the sea;
the former barbarous punishment of pirates likewise runs parallel with
the cruel chastisement of trespassers against the forest. The latter
still frequently thinks he is only getting back again by cunning and
force a proprietorship that was snatched from him by force. There are in
Germany whole villages, whole districts, where, even at the present day,
poaching and trespassing against the forest are sharply distinguished
from common crimes which disgrace the perpetrator. To catch a hare in
their traps is, for these peasants, no more dishonorable than it is for
a student to cudgel the night-watchman. Therein lurks the ancient hidden
thought of the "War about the Free Forest." In the forest the turbulent
country-folk in times of excitement can attack the state or the
individual large landholder in his most sensitive spot. We saw how, in
the year 1848, extensive tracts of forest were laid waste--not
plundered--in accordance with a well concocted plan. The trees were hewn
down and the trunks were intentionally left to lie and rot, or the
forest was burnt down in order, with each day's quota of burned forest,
to extort the concession of a new "popular demand.
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