62 Our Colonies : ^ uly, 



in their opinions of such changes as may be expedient in existing insti- 

 tutions, but they concur in recommending important alterations, and 

 they give reasons of such obvious weight and utility, as stamp a 

 character of authenticity on their statements, and justify great reliance 

 being placed on their good sense and upright intentions, while their 

 veracity is beyond all question. 



The first subject with which the commissioners deal, keeping in view 

 the distinction above pointed out, is the petition from the townships of 

 Lower Canada. After stating various enactments fi-om the first royal 

 proclamation to the last act of parliament, passed in 1826, and called the 

 Canada Tenure Act, they speak of the difficulty they feel themselves to 

 labour under for want of sufficient local and technical details. This is 

 an evil which it was impossible to avoid, and the defects of which they 

 could in no way supply. They do not, however, on that account, 

 shelter themselves under any general or indistinct suggestions, and 

 iiltliough they urge the necessity of further inquiry, they propose sub- 

 stantive amendments, to be carried into effect by this government forth- 

 with. They recommend the provision made by the Canada Tenure Act, 

 respecting such lands as should be granted in free soccage to be retained, 

 that mortgages shoidd be special,* that the simple form for conveyance 

 of real property, which exists in Upper Canada, should be adopted in the 

 townships, and that a general registration of deeds should be established 

 in Upper Canada. They recommend also, that every facility should be 

 given to persons willing to change the tenure of their lands from that 

 oi^ficf el seigneurie to that of common soccage, and that the croAvn should 

 relinquish its seignorial rights, for the purpose of giving full effect to 

 the provisions of the Tenure Act respecting such mutations. Having, 

 by these provisions, got over the chief difficulties suggested by the peti- 

 tion, and having supplied the deficiencies occasioned by the difference 

 of laws in two departments of a state so intimately connected as the 

 townships and the seigneuries of Lower Canada, they finish it by a 

 recommendation — the only equitable and satisfactory one that could be 

 devised — that of establishing courts to administer English laws in the 

 townships, in respect of all such property as shall be held under English 

 tenures. At the same time they express an opinion, that the Canadians 

 of French extraction, who are attached and accustomed to the French 

 system of jurisprudence, should not be disturbed in the peaceable en- 

 joyment of their religion, laws, and privileges, and that nothing should 

 be done violently to divert them from customs which, Avhether better or 

 worse than those of England, are yet the most fit, or are thought by them 

 to be most fit, for their condition ; — an opinion which cannot be looked 

 upon in the light of a prejudice, but which has the experience of many 

 years to justify the predilection which the French Canadians entertain 

 for it. 



The representative s /stem of Lower Canada, is another of those topics 

 on which many of the most serious of the complaints have been made. 

 Sir Alured Clarke, who was governor in 1791, when the separation of 



* The French system of hypothecation before a notary, has been found, in some 

 instances, to give rise to fraudulent mortgages, which the secrecy of the transaction 

 is favourable to. This evil is, however, no fault of the system, but arises from the abro- 

 {{ation of the French criminal law, (which provided a severe punishment for that crime,) 

 and the substitution of English criminal law, which has no provision to reach such & 

 fraud. 



