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Q. Has there been any grants in this province in free and common soccage to any one individual exceeding 1,200 acres, and what were they?

4. As far as I recollect, to Sir Robert Shore Milnes, and the members of the Executive Council, under a special mandamus from home, as an indemnification for their services and great trouble in the land-granting business.

Q. By what denomination was generally known that individual, amongst the petitioners, who charged himself with the preparing of the petition, and obtaining signatures thereto, with presenting the same to the Provincial Government, and carrying it through the Council, with the expenses of survey, and ultimately with obtaining the patent, and paying the fees thereof? 4. They were called leaders of townships.

Q. Upon the face of the patent did they, or any other patentees, receive any more than 1,200 acres?

4. As far as my knowledge goes, not more.

Q. What was the average value of lands in those townships, as they were purchased up by speculators, from the year 1796 to 1803 and 1804 ?

4. The lands were then considered of little value, as they were sold, as far as my knowledge extends, from 6d. to 1s. 3d. per acre.

Q. How was the leader of a township indemnified for the expense of survey, patent, &c.

4. It was generally understood that they were indemnified by receiving from the other patentees a portion of the lands granted to these patentees. Q. Did you ever understand or hear what that portion was ?

A. I have generally understood that some conveyed 1,000 acres, and others less.

Q. Have there been any new seigniories erected in this country since its conquest by the British?

A. None that I know of but Murray Bay and Mount Murray, and Shoolbred, in the district of Gaspé.

Q. What is the number of seigniories in the districts of Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers?

A. As far as I can recollect, 218 in the whole province.

Q. Is the surplus agricultural population of the province of Lower Canada at all considerable ?

A. I think it is.

Q. Is the distribution of lands in the cultivated parts of the seigniories of Lower Canada, amongst their settlers, tolerably equal?

A. I think it is.

Q. What is the usual size of the farms in Lower Canada, in the seigniories?
A. They are generally of three arpents in front by thirty in depth, or of

The reader will see by this, that the Executive Council had some private interest in recommending the change of tenure; for, by Mr. Bouchette's topographical work we see, as leaders of townships, six members of the Executive Council and five of the Legislative, and we know that six members, and even less usually, constitute a majority of the Executive Council,

three arpents in front by forty-two in depth, except in a few singular instances, in some of the first original grants, which have not a greater front but a far greater depth.

Q. Are they not now, in many instances, subdivided to a degree which renders them insufficient to afford convenience to the farmer and his family?

A. Yes; I believe it to be the case in many parts of this province.

Q. What were the rents and services with which the farmers were charged anterior to the conquest?

A. They vary; some at forty sols, others one écu tournois; but I believe never exceeding.

Q. Are these charges deemed onerous by the people of the country?
A. I never understood they were.

Q. Would they prefer to settle in the seigniories with these charges, in preference to settling on lands in free and common soccage?

A. I presume they would.

Q. Have any number of Canadian settlers established themselves on the lands granted in free and common soccage?

A. I believe very few.

Q. To what cause do you attribute this?

A. The reasons are obvious: they do not like the tenure, as they do not know it; they do not like to leave their relations and friends; and they like to be within reach of their churches.

Q. What are the fees taken in the land-granting business?

A. My patent fees are 15s. per 1,000 acres; and, as far as I recollect, those of the secretary of the province 10s.; and the clerk of the council, I believe, 10s.; governor, 15s.; auditor, 6s. 8d.; registrar, 5s.; attorney-general, 10s. Lands at present granted under military condition produce the following fees in my office: 7s. 8d. per location ticket; certificates of vacancy, 2s. 6d.

No. XIII.

Extract from the Resolves of the Council respecting the Introduction of Tenure in Free and Common Soccage, in lieu of the ancient Tenure of the Country.

That the progress of population and settlement in this province, under the government of France, whatever the cause or causes of it, was slow; the cul tivated parts, even in the central districts of Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal, being, to this day, confined to the banks of the St. Lawrence, and the mouths of navigable streams that fall into it.

That the royal patents, grants on concession of the lands, were either in

seigniory or in roture; the latter consisting of town lots, farms or small tracts and seigniories; larger tracts of various dimensions, many of which are in the rear, or a few leagues from the convenience of water-carriage, still in forest.

That the French king's territorial revenue arose from quints or alienation fines, of one-fifth of the consideration money payable by the purchaser of the lands held in seigniories; and of lods et ventes, of one-twelfth on the sale of lands held in roture; the lands in roture ordinarily paying also cens et rentes; the cens being one sol, or an English half-penny for a front of one acre or 180 French feet; and the rente, another sol for every acre of the concession, with a bushel of wheat for every forty acres, or two fat capons of the value of twenty sols.

That the French Crown did not exact its whole dues, but remitted a third, both of the quint and lods et ventes.

That the seigniories were parcelled out into farms, and these conveyed by the seigniors under like charges of cens et rentes, and subject to lods et ventes, except where a large parcel had been granted in arrière fief; on the subsequent transfers whereof a quint became due to the seignior without cens et

rentes.

That all the grantees, as well of the Crown as of the seigniors, had permanent estates, under an habendum to them, their heirs and assigns.

That, according to the Receiver-General's accounts, the territorial revenue for the thirteen years, from the 1st of May, 1775, to the 1st of May, 1788, (comprehending arrears) was, in actual receipt at the treasury, not equal to £.10,000 sterling;

which, together with certain duties of customs fixed by Act of Parliament, is by the royal grace given to the province towards the support of its government.

That, in explaining the causes of the tardy progression of the population of the colony under the government of France, there seems to be little or no ground for ascribing it to the non-compliance of the seigniors with the conditions for cultivation expressed in their patents or grants; the instances of prosecutions for taking an advantage of these conditions, and returning their seigniories to the royal domain, being rare, and the seigniorial censitaires so much more numerous than the King's, that the farmer, or the inhabitants of the seigniories, at all times did, and do now, constitute the main body of the landholders of the country.

That the feudal system, if that was amongst the causes of the non-settle

ment and proportionable debility of the French colony, operating to a discouragement of the royal grants, as well as the grants of the subject, there can be no ground for holding the grantees to a rigorous performance of the conditions of their grants.

That it was among the main causes of that low condition in which Canada was found at the British conquest, is deducible from the probability that many thousands of families had found their account in emigrating from the exuberant population of the kingdom of France, if the Government had given their lands here upon easy terms, and especially in the fertile regions and moderate climates on the banks of the rivers and lakes in the south and south-west.

That the discouragement of that system, to the settlement of the old French grants, must, in future, greatly increase; the population depending now upon the introduction of British subjects, who are known to be all averse to any but English tenures*; and the Canadian seigniors, of course, be left without a hope of multiplying their censitaires, except from the predilection of the descendants of the French planters to usages no longer prompted by interest nor recommended by example.

That the grant of the waste lands of the Crown in free and common soccage is essential to the growth, strength, defence, and safety of the province.

That unless the old French seigniories can be settled upon terms as advantageous to the husbandman as the lands of the Crown, their land-market must be at a stand, to the detriment of the proprietors, until the cultivation of the waste lands of the Crown is damped, by their remoteness from all watercarriage and the conveniences and benefits of commerce.

That, with the advantage of a vicinity to the navigable waters, and a conversion of the tenures, the seigniories will probably be the first to be fully cultivated; and with an increase of profit to the proprietors, under that ample dominion which they will then enjoy over their lands, for settling them upon such terms as themselves may concert, to form a populous tenantry, and lay a foundation in property for that perpetuity of their names and families which a wise and well-balanced government will be inclined to encourage and support.

That the King's roturier tenants cannot fail to wish for a conversion and discharge from the cens et rentes and lods et ventes, and all the other feudal burdens connected with the tenure under which they now hold.

That motives of interest will naturally make it the desire also of every seigniorial censitaire, to stand upon the same foundation of exemption with the other landholders of the colony; but as this commutation for a discharge of the rents and dues to the landlords must necessarily depend upon private conventions between them and their tenants, and involving considerations out of the contemplation of any but the parties reciprocally interested, their cases cannot be the objects of special and particular legislative provision; perhaps the surest means of securing to the tenant a fair compact, will be to hold the

* This aversion, caused by national prejudices, soon ceases when the nature of the French tenure is well understood,

lord to his dues to the Crown, until he has discharged his tenants from the feudal incumbrances in his own favour.

That the prerogative is competent to put the waste lands of the Crown under a soccage tenure; but the legislative interposition is necessary to make that tenure universal.

That if this is to be the work, not of Parliament but of the Colonial Legislature, the Royal instructions given for the greater security of the property of the subject will require an Act with a probationary or suspending clause, until His Majesty's approbation can be obtained.

That an absolute and universal commutation of the ancient tenures, though for the better, would be a measure of doubtful policy; but that no substantial objection occurs against giving such individuals that benefit as desire it, and especially to such of the seigniories whose tenants or censitaires shall conceive it to be for their own, as well as for the interest and benefit of their landlords, and may therefore signify their consent to the change.

That the ends may be accomplished by a law, with clauses to the following tenor or import:

Be it enacted, &c. &c.*

DISSENT.

Mr. Mabane's reasons of dissent from the resolution and motion of the Chief Justice, adopted by the Committee.

Because the resolutions moved for do not appear to apply to the object of the reference.

Because it appears that the slow progress of population and settlement, under the government of France, cannot be ascribed to any inherent vice in the several tenures under which lands are held in the colony; that it arose from the difficulties which the first settlers found in contending with fierce and savage nations which surrounded them; from their frequent wars with the British colonies; and, above all, from their repeated expeditions in the upper countries, and towards the Ohio, in which the ambitious policy of France had forced them to engage.

Because it appears evident, from the rapid and almost unexampled progress of population in the province (from its own resources), being from 65,000 souls in the year 1766, to about 120,000 in 1784, and who are now chiefly employed in agriculture, that the present tenures are not inimical to population and settlement of the colonyt.

Because the King's rights in the ancient tenures of the country being

* No change of this kind has yet taken place. I understand that the Honourable Mr. Hale, seignior of St. Anne, has lately renewed an application for a change of tenure in that part of his seigniory not yet conceded, which application was formerly made by Mr. De Lanaudière, seignior of the same place; but I am not yet acquainted with the result.

+ The Honourable Mr. Cuthbert, in his examination before the Committee, said: "That in no country where he had travelled, bad he met with such a dense agricultural population as in Canada, except in French Flanders and Brabant.