The St. Johns herald., 1894-06-14
OLD FEUDAL CUSTOMS.
Some That Still Survive in Por-
 tiOns og Canada.
seigniories Near Quebec Still Run on the Principles Laid Gown in Paris -Four
 Centufies Ago and Repeated as Long
Ago es tha EEs::.ll Ee-o.E.ion.

HGT1Iil~t1 dilA CJiaSEe GStFc lyA1 Us t.4I
 about the mild fcudal system which prevailed in French Canada down to 1854. The scignior received Q erant of wild land from the king on condition
 that he should putsettlcrs upon 1t. He
 had topreserve the oak timber for ship
 building. and the rcd pine for the man. ufacture of ter, and to notify the
 kings agents if he found minerals on
 the seigniorY. He had to 20 through
 the form Of paying homage a2d tealty
 to the kings representa- tive a6 Caebec
 when he entered on possession. some
 times oftener, and to pay fifth of the
 purchase money if he sold the estate
 to the royal co1Eers. thou@h he was al-
 lowed a rebate of tw0-thirds for cash
 down. The censitaire or haEitant, who
 held the land under the seirnior, had
 to pay the annual cens ct rentes, often
 sol (cent), or half sol, with half 9
 pint Of wheat or a few live capons or eggs for each arpent. The land of the
 censataire passed to his heirs. bat, in case he sold during his lifetime, the lOds ct ventes came into play. and one
 twelfth of the purchase money went to the seignior. By the droit de re-
 trait the seignior could compel pur
 chaser within forty days of the sale to
 transfer the property to him at the price paid if he thought it had not fetched enough.
 The censitaire had to get his wheat ground at the seignior's mill, and on some seigniorics to have his bread baked at the seigrior's oven, paying a toll in each case; to give a tithe of the fish he caught to the seignior, to do corvee or road work, and to get out stone and timber for public purposes. Seigniors who could afford to support 6 local magistrate were empowered to administer superior, mean and inferior justice on their estates, but as a class they were very poor and this right fell into desuetude.
 Tn 1854, says the New York Post. the parliament of Canada bought out the seigniors. There were 1G0 of them, in possession of 220 fiefs, embracing C, G,0G0,- GOO acres of cultivated land. The censitaire was given his choice of two things-the cens ct rentcs were capi- talizcd, and he could either pay the capital sum to the seignior, in which case, of course, he got clear title to his holding, or continue on as tenant at rental equal to per cent. of the capitalization. The tenant I came across, or his father before him. had, like many more, chosen the latter course. The other seigniorial rights were settled by the government at a cost of about S5,0o0, coo. The system would have been abolished before 1854 only the Roman Catholic church was afraid that in the debacle, IS timid souls called it, the tithes and fabrique taxes which she collected by authority of law might be abolished, too.
 The landlord of whom Ihave spoken was good enough to let me look at batch of old papers and books in which the doings of his predecessors in the Seigniory and of their censitaires are recorded for 15O years. These papers enabled one to form a tolerably good idea of the sort of life the people led.
 First as to prices: In 1GG7,. as other documents show, wheat sold in the markets ofQuebec at 50 cents per bush el. A creditor was bound to accept it at that price. Beef sold for 8 cents and pork for 6 cents per pound, the four pound loaf for 10 cents. Prices had dropped Q little by 1738 Wheat was then worth @ cents. In 1742 it fell to 40 cents. There had been good crop in the region east of Quebec on the south shore of the St. Lawrence. which was regarded as the granary of New France. Capons sold for 10 cents each in 1746, but when paid as cens ct rentes their conventional price was 20 cents. Most of the deeds called for good fat capons of the brood of the month of May
 In f740 carpenters and blacllsmiths got from 60 to 30 cents day, unskilled laborers 70 cents. Cloth of all kinds except homespun was dear. The for eign trade of the colony was confined to France and French possessions, but there was q good deal of smuggling by land and water from New England and New York. Twenty yards of fine wOolen cloth" cost G215 cents a yard in 1746. The censitaires and the common BOOBAC s5S-AC4S S1A1S SAOI4ACi CuGIuSClVGS III ! homespun, reto3fe du pays, made boots | out of green beef hides, got their sugar 1 from the maple, and had, as a rule, | plenty of game and fish Most of them | had vegetable patch. They ex- changed timber or furs for store goods ! as they required. The well-to-do seig- | niors imported wine, brandy, velvet, | lace, jewelry, etc. An a1l-velvet suit with dress-sword, ruftles, buckles and a gilt snuff box thrown in, cost S52 in | TITO. The poorer seigniors lived much as their censitares lived. Their wives and daughters were forced to work in the fields to save the cost of hired la- bor, which was scarce. Just before the British conquest the colony was flooded with depreciated paper money, and the crops failing at the same time the price of wheat ran up to S1.90.
 There were no books save among the clergy and seigniors; printing was not until nearly a century and a half after the first printing press had been set mn in Nav- Frc-1on5 i