At the close of the French regime nearly 8,000,000 arpents of land had been granted out to be holden under the seigniorial tenure. The system had become so deeply rooted in the colony that the English authorities, after the conquest, did not venture to take the drastic step of supplanting it in favor of the English system of tenure in free and common socage. The old system was allowed, therefore, to re main intact, but as the colony became more thickly settled many of the seigniorial ex actions became burdensone. The droit de banaliti became especially so. Moreover, the new English courts failed utterly to afford the censitaires that protection against the seigniors which the authorities of the old regime had given. From time to time the legislature of Lower Canada sought to deal with the growing complaint that the operation of the system was retarding the development of the province but found it extremely difficult to devise any plan which would be satisfactory to the tenants and at the same time protect the vested interests of the seigniors. In 1825 an act was passed giving to the parties concerned the right to commute all seigniorial dues into a lump sum by mutual agreement but very few took ad vantage of the legal permission thus accorded. It was not until 1854 that by the Seigniorial Tenures Abolition Act a general scheme for the compulsory commutation of all seigniorial obligations received the assent of the Cana dian legislature. This act provided for the
establishment of a special court to deter mine just what seigniorial claims were justi fiable and on a basis of its decisions each seign ior was awarded a certain indemnity for the loss of his rights. Part of the amount was paid him from the public treasury; the balance became an annual rent charge on the lands of the tenants, which annual charge, again, might be commuted into a lump sum if the tenant so desired. In any case all lands formerly holden en seigneurie or en censive were thereafter to be holden in fee simple. Thus by one stroke of legislation the whole system of territorial law in Lower Canada was revolutionized and the last vestige of Canadian feudalism disap peared.
Bibliography.--Parlanan, Old Regime in Canada' ; Kingsford, 'History of Canada,' Vol. X; Wrong, 'A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs> (1912); La Fontaine, 'Judgments and Deliberations of the Special Court for the Abolition of the Seigniorial Tenure'; Lareau, 'De la Feodalite en Canada> (in his 'Mélanges historiques et litterairee); Doutre et Lareau, 'Histoire du droit Canadien' ; Titles and Documents relating to the Seigniorial Tenure (1854); Daniels, (Histoire des Grandes Families Canadiens-Francais); Munro, 'The Seigniorial System in Canada' (1907), 'Docu ments Relating to the Seigniorial Tenure' (1908) and Seigneurs of Old Canada' (1914).