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678 obliged to concede the lands granted to them, when demanded by settlers, on certain conditions. They were not absolute proprietors; but they possessed certain rights in the soil and were obliged to perform certain duties. It was incumbent on them to build mills, and on the censitaires to employ these mills; all water power pertained to them; they had a right to charge a nominal rent, which has generally been stated at two sous per arpent; when the censitaires sold their improvements and the rights they had acquired in the lands, a portion of the money went to the seigneur. He possessed several other rights of a beneficiary nature, as well as some of a personal kind. This system became ultimately unsuited to the advanced state of society; but it was not till 1854 that the legislature made provision for its abolition, the seigneurs being compensated for the privileges they were called on to surrender. In 1629 Quebec fell into the hands of the English, who were led on by three refugee French Calvinists, whose sect had been formally excluded from the colony. On March 29, 1632, Canada was restored to its ancient mistress by the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye; but in the interval there had been much discussion in France as to whether the colony were worth receiving back. In 1663 one of the most remarkable earthquakes on record occurred in Canada. It commenced on Feb. 5, and continued, with some short intermissions, over six months. If the accounts of it do not grossly exaggerate, it changed the entire face of the country, causing mountains and rivers to disappear, and forming lakes where mountains had stood before. The fountains were dried up, and the color of the rivers was changed, some of them having their waters tinged with yellow, others with red, those of the St. Lawrence being white as far down as Tadousac. Near Three Rivers two mountains are said to have been precipitated into the St. Lawrence, to have changed its course, and to have given the white appearance to the vast body of water which it contained. Near Tadousac the continuity of the motion was least broken, and at that point a storm of ashes is said to have been driven across the St. Lawrence. The tone of portions of the contemporary narrative gives reason to suspect exaggeration, the more especially as not a single colonist was injured, and none of the houses suffered greater damage than the falling of a chimney. In the infancy of the colony the governors, in connection with the intendant, held the military and civil administration in their hands; and in connection with the seigneurs, who possessed the right of administering justice in their seigneuries, they exercised judicial functions. In time the accumulation of duties rendered it necessary for the governors, of whom there were three, one at Quebec, another at Three Rivers, and a third at Montreal, to perform part of their functions by deputy. Jesuit and other priests became conspicuous in the public service. Afterward,

at the instance of the parliament of Paris, which had supreme control in all the affairs of the colony, the French king established the conseil souverain de Québec. Besides acting as a court of appeal when the decisions of the subaltern judges were called in question, the supreme council registered, upon the order of the king, all edicts, ordinances, declarations, letters patent, &c. It was composed at first of the governor, the bishop, five councillors appointed by them every year, and a king's attorney. The intendant was afterward accorded a place in the supreme council, which had power to hold its sittings at Three Rivers, Montreal, or any other place, as well as Quebec. After the appointment of a bishop of Quebec, serious dissensions broke out between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, victory sometimes declaring for one side and sometimes for the other. Bishop Laval was powerful enough to procure the recall of a governor, and the appointment of a successor of his own selection. The supreme council, on the other hand, reduced the tithes payable by the Roman Catholics from to. In 1690 an English fleet, under Admiral Phips, made an unsuccessful attack upon Quebec, and after receiving considerable damage had to retire under cover of a dark night. The establishment of the French colony at Detroit, and the discovery of the Mississippi by La Salle, are among the principal events of this part of the history of Canada. By the treaty of Utrecht, signed April 11, 1713, Louis XIV. restored to England Hudson bay, ceded Newfoundland and Acadie (Nova Scotia), and renounced all right to the Iroquois country, reserving to France only the valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. The terms of the treaty were sufficiently vague to give rise to disputes as to the extent of the territories respectively belonging to each country; and as neither country was willing to be confined to the limits which the other wished to assign it, a final struggle for supremacy, extending over a period of seven years, ended by the cession of Canada to England and of Louisiana to Spain in 1763. The conquered colonists were guaranteed the free exercise of their religion, and the right of the Catholic clergy to continue to receive their accustomed rights and dues. Whether the subsequent confiscation of the Jesuits' estates was a violation of this stipulation is a question that has been much disputed. In 1774 the parliament of England passed an act to provide for the government of the province of Quebec, as the new acquisition was then called. By this act the king was empowered to appoint a council of not less than 17 nor more than 23 members, for the government of the colony. Except for public roads or buildings, the council was not empowered to levy taxes, and no ordinance which it might pass concerning religion was to be valid till it had received the express approbation of the king. The criminal law of England, which had previously been