ing of lands in the other provinces, that
is to say, free and common socage. The seigniors received liberal
remuneration for the abolition of the _lods et ventes, droit de
banalite_, and other rights declared legal by the court. The _cens et
ventes_ had alone to be met as an established rent (_rente
constituee_) by the _habitant_, but even this change was so modified
and arranged as to meet the exigencies of the _censitaires_, the
protection of whose interests was at the basis of the whole law
abolishing this ancient tenure. This radical change cost the country
from first to last over ten million dollars, including a large
indemnity paid to Upper Canada for its proportion of the fund taken
from public revenues of the united provinces to meet the claims of the
seigniors and the expenses of the commission. The money was well spent
in bringing about so thorough a revolution in so peaceable and
conclusive a manner. The _habitants_ of the east were now as free as
the farmers of the west. The seigniors themselves largely benefited by
the capitalization in money of their old rights, and by the
untrammelled possession of land held _en franc aleu roturier_.
Although the seigniorial tenure disappeared from the social system of
French Canada nearly half a century ago, we find enduring memorials of
its existence in such famous names as these:--Nicolet, Vercheres,
Lotbiniere, Berthier, Rouville, Joliette, Terrebonne, Sillery,
Beaupre, Bellechasse, Portneuf, Chambly, Sorel, Longueuil,
Boucherville, Chateauguay, and many others which recall the seigniors
of the old regime.

CHAPTER IX

CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES

In a long letter which he wrote to Earl Grey in August, 1850, Lord
Elgin used these significant words: "To render annexation by violence
impossible, or by any other means improbable as may be, is, as I have
often ventured to repeat, the polar star of my policy." To understand
the full significance of this language it is only necessary to refer
to the history of the difficulties with which the governor-general had
to contend from the first hour he came to the province and began his
efforts to allay the feeling of disaffection then too prevalent
throughout the country--especially among the commercial classes--and
to give encouragement to that loyal sentiment which had been severely
shaken by the indifference or ignorance shown by British statesmen and
people with respect to the conditions and interests of the Ca