LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. 47 
nistic to such institutions. “It is of great consequence,” wrote Meules to the minister in 
1685, “not to give any liberty to the people to express their opinions.” ' 
The administration of local affairs was exclusively under the control of the king’s 
officers at Quebec. As I have already shown, the ordinances of the intendant and of the 
council were the law. The local or territorial divisions of the colony had no connection, 
as the townships, parishes, and counties of the English colonies in America, with the 
local affairs of the people. The country was subdivided into the following divisions for 
purposes of government, settlement and justice : * — 
1. Districts. 
2. Seigniories. 
3. Parishes. 
The Districts were simply established for judicial and legal purposes, and each of 
them bore the name of the principal town within its limits; viz., Quebec, also called the 
Prévôté de Québec, Montreal, and Three Rivers. In each of these districts there was a 
judge, appointed by the king, to adjudicate on all civil and criminal matters. An appeal 
was allowed in the most trivial cases to the supreme or superior council, which also 
exercised original jurisdiction. * 
The greater part of Canada was divided into large estates or seigniories, which were 
held under a modified system of feudal tenure, established by Richelieu in 1627,‘ with 
the view of creating a colonial aristocracy or noblesse, and of stimulating settlement in 
a wilderness. By this system, which lasted until 1854,° lands were as a rule held 
immediately from the king en fief or en roture. The seignior, on his accession to the 
estate, was required to pay homage to the king, or to his feudal superior in case the lands 
were granted by another than the king.® The seignior received his land gratuitously 
from the crown, and granted them to his vassals who were generally known as 
habitants or cultivators of the soil. The habitant or censitaire held his property by the tenure 
of en censive, on condition of making annual payments in money or produce known as 
cens et rente, which were ridiculously small in the early times of the colony.’ He was 
obliged to grind his corn at the seignior’s mill (moulin banal*), bake his bread in the 
seignior’s oven, give his lord a tithe of the fish caught in his waters, and comply with 
other conditions at no time onerous or strictly enforced in the days of the French regime. 
The land of the censitaire went to his heirs, but in case he sold it during his life time, one 
twelfth of the purchase-money was given under the name of Jods et ventes to the seignior. 
In case the latter at any time transferred, by sale or otherwise, his seigniory—except of 

1 Meules au Ministre, 1685. 
2 Bouchette, A Topographical Description of the Province of Lower Canada, etc., pp. 86, 87. 
5 Doutre et Lareau, p. 130. * Garneau, i. 171. 
5 It was abolished after many years of agitation by 18 Vict. c. 3. 
5 Parkman, p. 245. 
7 Half a sou, and half a pint of wheat, or a few live capons, wheat and eggs, would represent the cens et 
rente for each arpent in early days. Parkman’s Old Régime, p. 249. 
8The government appear to have rigidly enforced the seignior’s rights in the case of the moulin banal. For 
instance, in 1706, the intendant issued an ordinance forbidding the Dame de La Forét from turning her mill in the 
county of St. Laurent while there was a moulin bunal in that place. Doutre et Lareau, p. 237. 
