8 JOHN EEADE 



ferent from that of the mother country. But Louis XIV, the most despotic of all French 

 kings, could not have been expected to grant institutions bearing the smallest germ of 

 liberty." (Histoire du Canada, Tome I, p. 184). Of the judicial system the same writer 

 says : " Justice was generally administered in a manner impartial and enlightened, and it 

 was obtained at small cost. Jurisprudence, based on the solid foundation of the ordinance 

 of 1667, was free from those variations and contradictions which, at a later period, brought 

 uncertainty and suspicion on the administration of justice." {Ih. p. 184.) 



Colbert's twenty years of office were the most progressive years in the history of 

 Canada under the old régime. His efforts to promote settlement, agriculture, manufac- 

 tures, commerce, and general and industrial education had, for the time and in the cir- 

 cumstances, a remarkable success. Iron-works, tanneries, ship-building and other industries 

 were started and a considerable trade grew up with the mother coimtry and the "West- 

 Indies. In 1676, the population was 9,719 souls, having nearly trebled since 1665. In 

 1706, it had increased to 17,400, — the whole population of New France, including Acadia, 

 being then about 19,000. This was a mere handful compared with the inhabitants of the 

 British colonies, which then numbered some 260,000. But though few, their sway was 

 far-reaching. '" Detroit was occupied by the French," says Parkmau, describing the state 

 of Canada, after Frontenac's death ; " the passes of the west were guarded by forts, another 

 New France grew up at the mouth of the Mississippi, lines of military communication 

 joined the Gulf of Mexico with the (lulf of St. Lawrence; while the colonies of England 

 lay passive between the Alleghanies and the sea, till roused by the trumpet that sounded 

 with wavering notes on many a bloody field, to peal at last in triu.mph from the Heights of 

 Abraham." 



Noblesse. 



Though Frontenac was not permitted to make the three estates an engine of politj^, 

 they were in full force under the social system of the old régime. In a mémoire, presented 

 by M. Talon, intendant, to the minister Colbert, in 1667, on the state of Canada, the author 

 says that there are only four ancient nobles and four other heads of families whom the king 

 had honoured by his letters during the previous year. He thinks there may possibly be 

 .some other noblemen among the officers of the army, but he looks upon an estate so nume- 

 jically weak as insufficient for the maintainance of the king's authority, and advises the 

 the addition of eight more to the number, the space for the names being left blank to be 

 filled up ill Canada, according to iisage. Another mé»((«re composed long after (attributed to 

 M. Hocquart, intendant in 1736), enumerates fourteen noble families, which it may not be 

 without interest to mention, as some of them are still represented in Canada. They are the 

 Grardeur (with four branches, Eepentigny, Courcelle, Tilly de Beauvais, St. Pierre) ; Denys, 

 (with three branches, Denys de la Ronde, de St. Simon, Bonaventure) ; Daillebout (with 

 four branches, Perigny, Manthet, Dargeuteuil, Des Mousseavix) ; Boucher (established at 

 Boucherville and the head of which, ninety years old, had more than 190 children, 

 grand-children, brothers, nephews and grand-nephews) ; Contrecœur, La Valterie, St. Ours, 

 Meloises, Tarrieu de la Pérade (all of whom came to Canada with the de Carignan Kegimeut 

 in 1669) ; Le Moyne (the family of the de Lougueuils) ; Aubert ; Hertel and Grodefroy (both 

 very numerous), and Damoixrs. There were, besides these, the noblemen connected with 

 the troops. Afterwards the writer mentions incidentally, in referring to the eagerness of 



