| Show OLD FEUDAL CUSTOMS sons that in por-tions of canada year quebec stul ann en tb laid ddoowwnn la part foar A go cud as lone ACO a the french parkman and others have told ais all about the mild feudal system which prevailed in french canada down to 1854 the seignior received a grant of wild land from the king on condition that he should put settlers upon it he had to preserve the oak timber for ship-building and the red pine for the man-ufacture of tar and to notify the kings agents if he found minerals on the he had to go through alie form of paying homage and fealty to the kings representative at quebec when he entered on possession some-times oftener and to pay a fifth of the purchase money if he sold the estate to the royal coffers though he wae al-lowed a rebate of two thirds for cash down the censi taire or habitant who held the land under the seignior had to pay the annual cens et rentes often a sol cent or half a sol with half a pint of wheat or a few live ccaampoonnss or eggs for each the land of the censa taire passed to his heirs but in case he sold during his lifetime the lods et 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 a 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 hia wheat ground at the seigniorsa mill and on some seignioiers to have his bread baked at the sseeiiggnniioorras oven paying a toll in each case to give a tithe of the fish he caught to the seignior to do carvee or road work and to get out stone and timber for public purposes seigniorsa who could afford to support a 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 in 1854 says the new york post the parliament of canada bought out the seigniorsa there were of them in possession of fiefse embracing acres of cultivated land the was given his choice of two things the cens et rentes were capi-ttaalliizzeedd and he could either pay the capital sum to the seignior in which case of course he got a clear title to his holding or continue on as a tenant at a rental equal to 0 per cent of the capitalization the tenant I1 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 the system would have been abolished before 1854 only the boman catholic church was afraid that in the debacle as timid souls called it the tithes and fabrique taxes which she collected by authority of law n hric1 the landlord of whom I1 have spoken was good enough to leac me look at a batch of old papers and bboloobbss in which the doings of his predecessors in the and of their are recorded for years these papers enabled one to form a tolerably good idea of the sort of life the people led first as to prices in 1667 as other documents show wheat sold in the markets of quebec at 80 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 a little by 1738 wheat was then worth 63 cents in 1742 it fell to 40 cents there had been a good crop in the region east of quebec on the south bhore of the st lawrence which wa regarded as the granary of new france ccaampoonnss sold for 10 cents each in 1740 but when cens et rentes their conventional price was 30 cents most of the deeds called for good fat cabona of the brood of the month of may in 1740 carpenters and blacksmiths got from 60 to 80 cents a day unskilled laborers 40 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 a good deal of smuggling by land and water from new england and new york twenty yards of fine woolen cloth cost 63 cents a yard in 1746 the and the common people generally clothed themselves in homespun du pays made boots out of green beef hides got their sugar from the maple and had as a rule plenty of game and fish most of them had a vegetable patch they ex-changed timber or furs for store goods agsiotrhseyimrepqourtieredd winthee bwrealnldtyo dvoeslveiegt lace jewelry etc an all velvet suit with a dress sword ruffles buckles and a gilt snuff box thrown in cost 52 in 1770 the poorer seigniorsa lived much as their lived their wives j 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 anatha crops failing at the same time the price of wheat ran up to there were no books save among tha clergy and seigniorsa printing was not introduced until nearly a century and a half after the first printing press had been set up in new eennggllaanndd there were no schools in the rural parishes and no semblance of munic-ipal government either in town or country public meetings gj war bot ibo best way to avoid scalp |
