In France the seignior was under no obliga tion to sub-grant the lands within his seigniory, but by a series of royal edicts,— more notably the Edict of Marly (1711), this obligation was imposed upon the seigniors of New France in the interest of colonial development. From 1711 onwards it was incumbent on all seigniors in Canada to sub-grant portions of the unoc cupied lands of their seigniories to any settlers who applied for such grants, on whatever terms were customary in the neighborhood without exacting any bonus or prix d'entree. If the seignior refused to do this, power was given the governor and intendant to step in and to make the grant, the seigniorial dues in such case to become payable to the Crown. Further more, from time to time various edicts revoked or curtailed the grants made to such seigniors as did not seem to be showing sufficient zeal in having their lands granted to settlers. In this way every seignior was compelled to become, after a fashion, the immigration agent of the colonial authorities, and it was this particular feature which serves most prominently to dif erentiate the seigniorial system in Canada from its prototype at home.
Grants made by the seigniors to settlers were called grants en censive. These likewise varied considerably in size, but almost in variably assumed the same shape as the seign iory within which they Over them the seignor retained a variety of rights, some financial, some judicial and some merely cere monial or honorary in their nature. Among the former was the annual payments known as the cens et rentes, the former payable in money, the latter usually in produce. The cens was a very small due, amounting usually to a few sous per superficial arpent and valuable to the seignior mainly as establishing his claim to other and more important rights. The rentes was payable annually in grain, cattle or poultry but might be commuted by agreement of the parties into a fixed money payment. Then there was the lods et ventes, a mutation fine payable at every change of ownership. This amounted to one-twelfth of the mutation price, and of it the seignior usually remitted one fourth, although he was under no legal obliga tion so to do. To guard himself against loss of his proper lods et ventes sales of en censive holdings at less than t eir actual value, the seignior possessed the droit de retraite by virtue of which right he might pre empt any holding thus sold by payment to the purchaser of the mutation price, within 40 days from the date of the • sale. Then there was the droit de banalite or the exclusive right of the seignior to erect a grist mill within the limits of his seigniory and to compel his ceps Moires to have their grain ground there and not elsewhere on pain of confiscation. The amount of toll receivable for this service was fixed by a royal edict at one-fourteenth of the grain ground. During the greater part of the
French regime this incident bore more heavily upon the seignior than upon his censitaires, for except in the more populous seigniories, the amount of toll received rarely sufficed to pay expenses. At the same time the colonial au thorities compelled the seigniors to provide mills in their seigniories on pain of losing the right for all future time. Finally, there was the much-detested corvie, or right of the seign iors to exact from their censitaires a certain quota of labor on the seigniorial lands without compensation. The amount allowable varied in different seigniories but as a rule the censitaires were permitted to commute it into a fixed money payment. An ordinance of the superior council in 1716 forbade the exaction of corvle during seed time and harvest. In addition to the foregoing main rights the seignor ordinarily reserved for himself the privilege of taking from the lands of the censitaires such wood and stone as might be found necessary in the erection of the seigniorial manor house, mill or church, and in some cases the right of taking wood for fuel. In many cases he likewise re served the right of claiming a share in all the fish caught by his censitaires in the waters of the seigniory.
Most of the seigniors possessed certain judicial rights. These, however, were not in herent in the ownership of a seigniory, but were specifically granted by the Crown. This grant might convey merely the right of basse justice in which case the seignior was em powered to deal with minor causes in which the amount in dispute did not exceed a few sols. The grant of moyenne justice gave him a large jurisdiction, while the grant of haute gave full judicial power in all cases except those such as treason and counterfeiting in which the Crown was directly concerned. As a rule all three degrees of judicial power were conferred on the seignior. But in every case an appeal lay to the royal courts of the colony. As the exercise of his judicial powers brought the seignior very little profit the seign iorial courts never became a very important element in the colonial judicial system.
The remaining rights of the seignior were merely honorary and afforded him no financial return. He was entitled to the fealty and hom age of his censitaires, to a front pew in the parish church, to certain precedence at the sacraments, to the erection of a Maypole at his door each Mayday and, in general, to the re spect and deference of dependents. A number of seigniors who showed zeal in the development of their holdings received patents of nobility but it must be borne in mind that the possession of a seigniory in New France did not of itself give noble rank. Herein Canadian feudalism again differed from its prototype in France. The French seignior was always a noble; the Canadian very rarely.