By the middle of the 17th century the devastation of forests had progressed so far, and the abuses in the management of the royal domain had become so evident that Louis XIV’s great minister, _Colbert_, was induced to make the historical remark “France will perish for lack of woods.” Again the needs of the navy was the prime incentive of the vigorous reform which he instituted after a most searching investigation. The result was the celebrated forest ordinance of 1669. For this purpose he appointed, in 1662, a commission which not only investigated conditions but was clothed with power to reform the abuses which it might discover. For this work he selected four trusted men outside of the forest service, to whom later more were added, and gave them the aid of technical advisers, among whom _Froudoir_ seems to have been most prominent. Colbert himself gave close attention to this work of reform. As the first act, the commission recommended the ceasing of all cutting in the royal forests, and, after deliberation and consultation with interested parties through eight years, the final law was enacted, a masterpiece whose principles and prescriptions to an extent have persisted into the 19th century. The commission from time to time made reports, giving their findings in detail, and these form a most interesting record of conditions prevailing at that time. As one of the historians (Joubain) puts it, “the commissioners did not recoil before long hours of inspection nor high influence, they neither hesitated to declare against, nor prosecute, great and small alike, nor to pronounce a most serious sentence.” A thorough cleaning up was done and a complete reorganization secured. By this ordinance, three special courts of adjudication in matters pertaining to the forests were established, with special officers whose duties were carefully defined, namely the courts of the _Gruries_, of the _Maîtrises_ and the _Tables de Marbre_. The first named, lower grade courts took cognizance of the lesser offences, abuses, wastes and malversations, disputes in regard to fishing or chase, and murders arising out of these; _gruries_ being the woods belonging to individuals in which the jurisdiction and the profit from such jurisdiction belonged to the king, or at least to the seigneurs. The courts of the maîtrise referred to the forest territory placed under administration of the _maîtres particuliers_ (Forstmeister), and were established near the many royal forests as courts of appeal in forest matters. A final appeal could be made to the _tables de marbre_ (courts of the marble table), which also decided on the more weighty questions of proprietorship by whatever term held, and especially civil and criminal cases relating to the _eaux et forêts_; the wrong doings in the discharge of official duties (_abus_), contraventions to the orders and regulations, misdemeanors or depredations (_délit_); and all kinds of fraud not included under those cited (_malversations_).