1. To let their grain be ground at the seignior's mill, and to pay the fourteenth part for grinding. 2. To make, or permit to be made, all roads and bridges necessary for the public. 3. To clear their lands and occupy them, within a year and a day from the date of the contract. [A clause extremely favourable to agriculture, to the advancement of the province, and to population.] 4. They are subject to the reserve of mines, ores and minerals, and oak trees*. Thus every man has a right to insist on a grant of land, without its costing him a sol to become a perpetual proprietor of it†; and if the rentes are all stipulated to be in money, he will pay annually for an estate, for example, of four acres by forty, a rent of sixteen livres tournois, and a cens of six sols‡. If, on the contrary, the rent is in money and wheat, he will pay eight livres tournois of rentes and six sols of cens, with four bushels of wheat §. If afterwards this land is sold, the purchaser, on entering into all the rights of the settler, becomes also subject to the charges, and will owe the lods et ventes ||. Is it then without reason that, under the present system of tenures, the people of this province are said to be happy? Is the censitaire exposed on his death to have the fruits of his labour torn from him, after flattering himself with having, by the labour of a whole life, acquired for the children of his bosom the sacred right of an inheritance? Can these tenures be compared to the leases of ten, twenty years, for life, &c., known in England, of one or of several acres of land for annual rents of two, four, six, ten guineas per acre, which the unfortunate husbandman cannot pay without being reduced to live on a fourth part of what is necessary to satisfy his appetite, and that in potatoes, oats, &c.? Yet, still happy if he be not obliged, after having cleared a great part of his land, to abandon his sacred and natural right to the fruits of his labours, gained by the sweat of his brow, from his incapacity to pay an oppressive rent. Is this a kind of tenure, which draws the blood of the labourer to nourish and satiate the rich lord, as voluptuous as indolent and useless? Is this a tenure where the earth devours its inhabitants, and must fall, by a natural tendency, into the hands of these great proprietors, the eternal scourge of population? * As to oak trees, this reserve does not take from them the liberty of cutting them down on the land they clear, nor even on their other lands; custom having ever considered this reserve in this sense: that the King has a right of taking those trees wherever he finds them, as also the seigniors for their mills, &c., without having it in their power to charge their censitaires with culpability for cutting them down. There is even a judgment of M. Begon, of the 20th of July, 1722, which forbids the seigniors to trouble their censitaires in the employment and sale of the oak trees tbey cut down on their lands. + It will cost him but the notary's fee for passing the deed. Making 158. 1d. annual rent for one hundred and sixty arpents of land. The lods et ventes, as has been already said, are the twelfth part of the amount of the purchase-money; the seigniors generally remit a fourth of this right, without any prescription being established against them by custom. As a proof, none are known to leave the province to seek elsewhere a more advantageous kind of tenure; while we see arrive here families in swarms, to enjoy the benefits that its tenures offer them, and breathe the free air of its husbandmen. Such are the observations I have made, after reading with attention and reflecting on the extract of the proceedings of a Committee of the whole Council of His Majesty, printed by order of his Excellency, dated the 20th of October last. As a citizen and native of the province, of course as much interested in its welfare as any can be, I think no one can blame me for them. I submit them, with the most humble respect, to the examination and wisdom of the Right Honourable Lord Dorchester. Quebec, February 16, 1791. THOMAS BEDARD, Priest. No. XV. List of Counties and Members for each, according to the Representation Bill, as amended by the Legislative Council and agreed to by the House of Assembly, 11th of March, 1829, taking the Population according to the last Census of 1825. In the Bill sent up by the Assembly the number was eighty-nine. The counties of Kamouraska, Belle-Chasse, Richelieu, St. Hyacinthe, Rouville, Chambly, La Prairie, L'Acadie, Deux Montagnes, Terrebonne, Montreal, Berthier, and St. Maurice, each have one Member by the Bill as amended by the Council (say thirteen); the Bill, as it came from the Council, adds to Rimouski, Beauce, Mégantic (doubtful), Lothbinière, Sherbrooke, Missisquoui, Lachenaye, and Orleans, one each (say eight); which leaves the eighty-four Members. The Bill goes into opperation at the next general election, only excepting with regard to the townships, which are to elect representatives next summer, to be present at the next session of the Assembly. The township Members in all are nine; and, including Beauharnais, which is partly of land in free and common soccage and partly en fief, eleven; eight only of these, being for the eastern townships, can, however, be returned before the general election. The principle by which the representation is regulated by the amendments of the Council, is two Members for 4,000 inhabitants and upwards; above 1,000 and under 4,000, one; under 1,000, to vote in the nearest county. The Bill sent to the Council gave one Member for about every 5,000 souls.Quebec Gazette, March 12, 1829. No. XVI. Encouragement to Emigration. A Bill to encourage emigration from foreign parts into this province has been sent from the Legislative Council, and concurred in by the House of Assembly. Its provisions, we believe, are briefly these :-Foreigners may purchase and hold lands in this province, and convey the same in fee simple; and, at the expiration of five years, having complied with certain conditions of registry, &c. &c., and taking the oath of allegiance, shall be considered natural born subjects of His Majesty, and be admitted to all the privileges of subjects, with the right, under our provincial statutes, of voting at elections, and being returned to serve in Parliament, after having completed a residence of seven years in the province. The Bill is one of those reserved for His Majesty's pleasure.—Quebec Mercury, March 31, 1829. FINIS. |