Canada by Sir John George Bourinot (e ink ebook reader TXT) 📖

conflict of authority, which ended eventually in the defeat of the latter, as well as of the Archbishop of Rouen. The Abbe, divested of his former dignity and pretensions, returned in later years to the island of Montreal, of which the Sulpicians had become the seigniorial proprietors, when the original company were too weak to carry out the objects of their formation. The same order remains in possession of their most valuable lands in the city and island, where their seminary for the education of priests and youth generally occupies a high position among the educational institutions of the province.

Bishop Laval was endowed with an inflexible will, and eminently fitted to assert those ultramontane principles which would make all temporal power subordinate to the Pope and his vicegerents on earth. His claim to take precedence even of the governor on certain public occasions indicates the extremes to which this resolute dignitary of the Church was prepared to go on behalf of its supremacy.

No question can be raised as to Bishop Laval's charity and generosity. He accumulated no riches for himself--he spent nothing on the luxuries, hardly anything on the conveniences of life, but gave freely to the establishment of those famous seminaries at Quebec, which have been ever since identified with the religious and secular instruction of the French Canadians, and now form part of the noble university which bears his name.

With a man like Laval at the head of the Church in Canada at this early period, it necessarily exercised a powerful influence at the council board, and in the affairs of the country generally. If he was sometimes too arbitrary, too arrogant in the assertion of his ecclesiastical dignity, yet he was also {160} animated by very conscientious motives with respect to temporal questions. In the quarrel he had with the governor, Baron Dubois d'Avaugour, an old soldier, as to the sale of brandy to the Indians, he showed that his zeal in the discharge of what he believed to be a Christian and patriotic duty predominated above all such mercenary and commercial considerations as animated the governor and officials, who believed that the trading interests of the country were injured by prohibition. Laval saw that the very life-blood of the Indians was being poisoned by this traffic, and succeeded in obtaining the removal of D'Avaugour. But all the efforts of himself and his successor, Saint-Vallier, could not practically restrain the sale of spirituous liquors, as long as the fur-trade so largely depended on their consumption.

At this time, and for a long time afterwards, Protestantism was unknown in Canada, for the King and Jesuits had decided to keep the colony entirely free from heresy. The French Protestants, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, gave to England and the Netherlands the benefit of their great industry and manufacturing knowledge. Some of them even found their way to America, and stimulated the gathering strength of the southern colonies of Virginia and the Carolinas.

The new regime under Colbert was essentially parental. All emigration was under the direction of the French authorities. Wives were sent by shiploads for the settlers, newly-wedded couples received liberal presents suitable to their condition in a new country; early marriages and large families were {161} encouraged by bounties. Every possible care was taken by the officials and religious communities who had charge of such matters, that the women were of good morals, and suitable for the struggles of a colonial existence.

While State and Church were providing a population for the country, Colbert and Talon were devoting themselves to the encouragement of manufactures and commerce. When the Company of the Hundred Associates, who appear to have been robbed by their agents in the colony, fell to pieces, they were replaced by a large organisation, known as the Company of the West, to which was given very important privileges throughout all the French colonies and dependencies. The company, however, never prospered, and came to an end in 1674, after ten years' existence, during which it inflicted much injury on the countries where it was given so many privileges. The government hereafter controlled all commerce and finance. Various manufactures, like shipbuilding, leather, hemp, and beer, were encouraged, but at no time did Canada show any manufacturing or commercial enterprise. Under the system of monopolies and bounties fostered by Colbert and his successors, a spirit of self-reliance was never stimulated. The whole system of government tended to peculation and jobbery--to the enrichment of worthless officials. The people were always extremely poor. Money was rarely seen in the shape of specie. The few coins that came to the colony soon found their way back to France. From 1685 down to 1759 the government issued a {162} paper currency, known as "card money," because common playing cards were used. This currency bore the crown and fleur-de-lis and signatures of officials, and gradually became depreciated and worthless.

While the townsfolk of Massachusetts were discussing affairs in town-meetings, the French inhabitants of Canada were never allowed to take part in public assemblies but were taught to depend in the most trivial matters on a paternal government. Canada was governed as far as possible like a province of France. In the early days of the colony, when it was under the rule of the Company of the Hundred Associates, the governors practically exercised arbitrary power, with the assistance of a nominal council chosen by themselves. When, however, {163} the King took the government of the colony into his own hands, he appointed a governor, an intendant, and a supreme or--as it was subsequently called--a sovereign council, of which the bishop was a member, to administer under his own direction the affairs of the country. The governor, who was generally a soldier, was nominally at the head of affairs, and had the direction of the defences of the colony, but to all intents and purposes the intendant, who was a man of legal attainments, had the greater influence. He was the finance minister, and made special reports to the King on all Canadian matters. He had the power of issuing ordinances which had the effect of law, and showed the arbitrary nature of the government to which the people were subject. Every effort to assemble the people for public purposes was systematically crushed by the orders of the government. A public meeting of the parishioners to consider the cost of a new church could not be held without the special permission of the intendant. Count Frontenac, immediately after his arrival, in 1672, attempted to assemble the different orders of the colony, the clergy, the _noblesse_ {164} or _seigneurs_, the judiciary, and the third estate, in imitation of the old institutions of France. The French king promptly rebuked the haughty governor for this attempt to establish a semblance of popular government.

From that moment we hear no more of the assembling of "Canadian Estates," and an effort to elect a mayor and aldermen for Quebec also failed through the opposition of the authorities. An attempt was then made to elect a syndic--a representative of popular rights in towns--but M. de Mesy, then governor, could not obtain the consent of the bishop, who knew that his views were those of the King. The result of the difficulties that followed was the dismissal of the governor, who died soon afterwards, but not until he had confessed his error, and made his peace with the haughty bishop whom he had dared to oppose.

The administration of local affairs throughout the province was exclusively under the control of the King's officers at Quebec. The ordinances of the intendant and of the council were the law. The country was eventually subdivided into the following divisions for purposes of government, settlement, and justice: 1. Districts. 2. Seigniories. 3. Parishes. The districts were simply established for judicial and legal purposes, and each of them bore the name of the principal town within its limits--viz., Quebec, also called the _Prevote de Quebec_, Montreal, and Three Rivers. In each of these districts there was a judge, appointed by the king, to adjudicate on all civil and criminal matters. An appeal was allowed in the most trivial cases to the {165} supreme or superior council, which also exercised original jurisdiction. The customary law of Paris, which is based on the civil law of Rome, was the fundamental law of Canada, and still governs the civil rights of the people.

The greater part of Canada was divided into large estates or seigniories, with the view of creating a colonial _noblesse_, and of stimulating settlement in a wilderness. It was not necessary to be of noble birth to be a Canadian seigneur. Any trader with a few louis d'or and influence could obtain a patent for a Canadian lordship. The seignior on his accession to his estate was required to pay homage to the King, or to his feudal superior in case the lands were granted by another than the King. The seignior received his land gratuitously from the crown, and granted them to his vassals, who were generally known as _habitants_, or cultivators of the soil, on condition of their making small annual payments in money or produce known as _cens et rente_. The _habitant_ was obliged to grind his corn at the seignior's mill (_moulin banal_), bake his bread in the seignior's oven, give his lord a tithe of the fish caught in his waters, and comply with other conditions at no time onerous or strictly enforced in the days of the French regime. This system had some advantages in a new country like Canada, where the government managed everything, and colonisation was not left to chance. The seignior was obliged to cultivate his estate at a risk of forfeiture, consequently it was absolutely necessary that he should exert himself to bring settlers upon his lands. The obligation of the _habitant_ to grind his corn in the seignior's {166} mill was clearly an advantage for the settlers. In the early days of the colony, however, the seigniors were generally too poor to fulfil this condition, and the _habitants_ had to grind corn between stones, or in rude hand mills. The seigniors had the right of dispensing justice in certain cases, though it was one he very rarely exercised. As respects civil affairs, however, both lord and vassal were to all intents and purposes on the same footing, for they were equally ignored in matters of government.

In the days of the French regime, the only towns for many years were Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers. In remote and exposed places--like those on the Richelieu, where officers and soldiers of the Carignan-Salieres Regiment had been induced to settle--palisaded villages had been built. The principal settlements were, in course of time, established on the banks of the St. Lawrence, as affording in those days the easiest means of intercommunication. As the lots of a seigniorial grant were limited in area--four arpents in front by forty in depth--the farms in the course of time assumed the appearance of a continuous settlement on the river. These various settlements became known in local phraseology as Cotes, apparently from their natural situation on the banks of the river. This is the origin of Cote des Neiges, Cote St. Louis, Cote St. Paul, and of many picturesque villages in the neighbourhood of Montreal and Quebec. As the country became settled, parishes were established for ecclesiastical purposes and the administration of local affairs. Here the influential men were the cure, the seignior, and the captain of the militia. The