SEIGNIORIES. 
401 
happens to be a man of a rapacious disposition, 
the vassal is sometimes compelled to pay fines, 
which, in strict justice, perhaps, ought not to 
be demanded. In the first provincial assembly 
that was called, this business was brought for¬ 
ward, and the equity and policy was strongly 
urged by some of the English members that 
possessed considerable abilities, of having pro¬ 
per bounds fixed to the power of the seigniors, 
and of having all the fines and services due 
from their vassals, accurately ascertained, and 
made generally known : but the French mem¬ 
bers, a great number of whom were themselves 
seigniors, being strongly attached to old habits, 
and thinking that it was conducive to their 
interest, that their authority should still con¬ 
tinue undefined, opposed the measure with 
great warmth ; and nothing was done. 
Nearly all those parts of Canada which were 
inhabited when the country was under French 
government, as well as the unoccupied lands 
granted to individuals during the same period, 
are comprized under different seigniories, and 
these, with all the usages and customs thereto 
formerly pertaining, were confirmed to the 
proprietaries by the Quebec bill, which began 
to be in force in May 1775; these lands, 
therefore, are held by unquestionable titles. 
All the waste lands, however, of the crown, 
that have been allotted since the conquest, 
VOL. I, 
D P 
