First French Foot-Prints Beyond the Lakes. 145 



left France together after a long acquaintance, to seek a home in Canada. 

 But the sons of the seigneurs might turn to be of a different stamp, and we 

 must have a check on them. 



When a tenant wished to have a lot for himself or his sons, he could select 

 it, and the seigneur had no power to prevent it, nor to tax the lot more thau 

 the usual rate. 



The administration of justice was a simple affair. The judge of the seig- 

 neurie was appointed by the seigneur, subject to the approval of the Gov- 

 ernor General, and as the habitants had tree access to this high official 

 though their " syndics " and " capitaines de milice," every party was con- 

 sulted before action was taken." 



When the judge of the seigneurie had rendered a judgment, there was an 

 appeal to the Justice of the Province in which the seigneurie was situated, 

 i. e. Quebec, Three Rivers, or Montreal — and from there to the Conseil 

 Souverain of Quebec, presided over by the Governor General. You can see 

 that the seigneur had only the " basse " justice, and that that even was subject 

 to appeal. As for "moyenne" and "haute" justice, although some seigneurs 

 can show the words in their parchments, it was never exercised by them. 



The seigneur was not necessarily a warrior, as Mr. Parkman so pompously 

 describes him. Most of the seigneurs never troubled themselves with war. 

 The militia organization was a separate affair. Some seigneurs' sons did 

 mix themselves with the militia, but all they knew of military science was 

 picked up in hunting on the paternal domain. That class of men became 

 an annoyance after 1675 or thereabouts. They threw themselves into the 

 woods and became the famous coureurs de bois or outlaws. They led other 

 young men — sons of habitants — into that dissipated life. 



By the time when settlers ceased to arrive from France (say 1690) the above 

 vagabonds were a subject of much displeasure in the seigneuries — and 

 most of the seigneurs had become very poor, owing to the inconsistency of 

 the administrators of the colony who had brought the whole of the inhabi- 

 tants under the thumb of the mercantile companies. Then the seigneurial 

 power began to die, because the country passed virtually under the officials, 

 traders and the like who had no other ambition than to make money and 

 oppress the colony for that object. 



In brief, the feudal system of Canada was so much liked that nobody 

 thought of asking for its abolition before 1853, when Upper Canada agitated 

 the question. Eve? now, it exists in many parts of the Province of Quebec, 

 because it is useful there to this day for the purpose of colonization. 



If the English House of Commons had not rejected the petition of the 

 twenty counties in the eastern townships peopled entirely by English and 

 Scotch emigrants, who, as late as 1828, wanted to adopt the French Canadian 

 feudal system, these counties would have remained English. In fact, they 

 have been conquered by the French-Canadians whose system of land tenure 

 is far better than the English for a country like Canada, still sparsely 

 settled. 

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