Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/114

82 Canadian land-tenure. [1664- the number was raised to twelve, had no power to levy taxation ; and none was levied. The law of the land was now made uniform under the Custom of Paris, and the Custom of the French Vexin which had been partially introduced was abolished. Thus a form of Roman Law well adapted to a municipal community was extended to a nascent colony that was essentially rural. ITie forms of law had however the merit of uniformity, simplicity, and cheapness ; and care was taken in the organisation of a system of police for the three Canadian towns. The decrees issued by the Council cover matters large and small, from tithe, the size of the seigneuries, feudal dues, provision for the poor, down to rules of precedence, nuisances and the cleaning of the streets. The ordonnances of the intendant direct the enclosing of habitations, and make building regulations and market-laws; while, as representative of the King in finance, he also regulates the coinage. The tendency was for legislation to pass more and more under his control and out of that of the governor. The system on which lands were laid out by the French in Canada is of peculiar interest as throwing light on the method of procedure in earlier agricultural colonies. The great selgneuries of ten by twelve leagues were enfeoffed to the roturiers in strips measuring, as a rule, three arpents (each of 100 perches in width by 30 in depth), each strip running from a river frontage. The dwelling- houses were placed at the river end of the strips ; and thus a row of farmsteads was formed, which even in the most scantily peopled regions allowed some indulgence to French social inclinations. Each strip was cultivated by a tenant and his family ; on his death, by the Custom of Paris, equal division (subject to certain exceptions) was the mode of succession. The strips were divided longitudinally, with results not a little injurious to agriculture. In 1745 it was ordered that every habitant must have 1^ arpents of frontage. A strip even of this width was not convenient in form, since it made central supervision impossible and access to the remote portions of the holding difficult, while requiring a large amount of enclosure. Throughout the French occupation the methods of agriculture were most primitive. The cleared land was tilled until exhausted, when fresh land was cleared, the tilled land being left to lie fallow under weeds on which the tenant's few beasts pastured. The method of land-tenure was ill adapted to the circumstances of Canada, where the initial difficulties of clearing forest land were immense. It excluded the possibility of a metairie system, which so greatly assists the young agricultural colony where capital is plentiful and labourers are not highly skilled; and it excluded the freehold system which gives scope for the independent efforts of the individual. The "franc alien roturwr? which most nearly approached the English " free socage," was very sparingly admitted in Canada, more freely in the West Indies.