220 A Century of Science 



compelled him to plant them ; prescribed the size 

 of his house and the number of horses and cattle he 

 might keep, and the exact percentages of profit 

 he might be allowed to make, and how his chim- 

 neys should be swept, and how many servants he 

 might employ, and what theological doctrine he 

 might believe, and what sort of bread the bakers 

 might bake, and where goods might be bought and 

 how much might be paid for them ; and if in a so- 

 ciety so well cared for it were possible to find indi- 

 gent persons, such paupers were duly relieved, from 

 a fund established by government. Unmitigated 

 benevolence was the theory of Louis XIV.'s Ca- 

 nadian colony, and heartless political economy had 

 no place there. Nor was there any room for free 

 thinkers ; when the King after 1685 sent out word 

 that no mercy must be shown to heretics, the gov- 

 ernor, Denonville, with a pious ejaculation, replied 

 that not so much as a single heretic could be found 

 in all Canada. 



Such was the community whose career our histo- 

 rian has delineated with perfect soundness of judg- 

 ment and wealth of knowledge. The fate of this 

 nationalistic experiment, set on foot by one of the 

 most absolute of monarchs and fostered by one of 

 the most devoted and powerful of religious organi- 

 zations, is traced to the operation of causes in- 



