48 JOHN GEORGE BOURINOT ON 
course in the event of natural hereditary succession—he had to pay a quint or fifth part 
of the whole purchase money to his feudal superior, but he was allowed a reduction 
(rabat) of two thirds when the money was paid down immediately.’ 
The system, irreconcilable as it is with our modern ideas of free settlement, had 
some advantages in a new country like Canada, where the government managed every- 
thing and colonization was not left to chance. The seignior was obliged to cultivate 
his estate at the risk of forfeiture—and many estates were from time to time resumed by 
the crown—and consequently it was absolutely necessary that he should exert himself 
to bring settlers upon his lands. The conditions of the tenure were in early times so 
trivial as not to burden the settler. The obligation of the censifaire to grind his corn in 
the seignior’s mill was an advantage, since it insured him the means of procuring bread 
which it would have been otherwise difficult to find in a country where there was neither 
money nor enterprise. The seigniories were practically so many territorial divisions 
where the seigneur was master and adviser to his censitaires. He had the right of dispens- 
ing justice in certain cases, though this was a right he very rarely exercised.” As 
respects civil affairs, however, both lord and vassal were to all intents and purposes on 
the same footing, for they were equally ignored in matters of government. 
In the days of the French regime, the only towns for many years were Quebec, 
Montreal and Three Rivers. Villages were but slow in growth, despite the efforts of the 
government to encourage them. In remote and exposed places—like those on the 
Richelieu, where officers and soldiers of the Carignan regiment had heen induced to 
settle—palisaded villages had been built ; but in the rural parts of the province generally, 
the people appear to have considered their own convenience. The principal settlements 
were, in the course of time, established on the banks of the St. Lawrence from Quebec to 
Montreal. The people chose the banks of the river, as affording them in those days the 
easiest means of intercommunication. As the lots of a grant en censive were limited in 
area—four arpents in front by forty in depth—the farms in the course of time assumed 
the appearance of a continuous settlement on the river. These various settlements 
became known in local phraseology as Côtes, apparently from their natural situation on 
the banks of the river. This is the derivation of Côte des Neiges, Cote St. Louis, Côte 
St. Paul, and of many picturesque villages in the neighborhood of Montreal and Quebec.* 
The parishes were established for ecclesiastical purposes, and were grouped on each 
side of the St. Lawrence and Richelieu. Their extent was exactly defined in September, 
1721, by a regulation made by Messieurs de Vaudreuil and Begon, assisted by the Bishop 
of Quebec, and confirmed by an Arrét du Conseil of the 2nd of March, 1722. These parishes 
are constantly referred to in the ordinances of the superior council, in connection with 
the administration of local affairs. In the parishes, the influential men were the Curé, 
the seignior, and the captain of the militia.” The seignior, from his social position, 

1 For a succinct description of the main features of the seigniorial tenure, see Parkman’s Old Régime, ch. 15 ; 
Garneau, i. 171-174. 
2The seigniors rarely exercised their judicial rights; the Seminary of St. Sulpice was almost the only one 
to do so ; the council exercised superior jurisdiction in all cases. Doutre et Lareau, pp. 133, 305. 
’ Parkman’s Old Régime, p. 234. 
4 Edits et Ordonnances, i. 443. Doutre et Lareau, pp. 259, 260. Bouchette’s Canada, p. 86. 
5“ The most important persons in a parish were the curé, the seignior, and the militia captain. The seignior 
had his bench of honour in the church. Immediately behind it was the bench of the militia captain, whose 
