The conditions on which the censitaire held his land from the seignior were exceedingly easy during the greater part of the French regime.  The cens et rentes which he was expected to pay annually, on St. Martin’s day, as a rule, varied from one to two sols for each superficial arpent, with the addition of a small quantity of corn, poultry, and some other article produced on the farm, which might be commuted for cash, at current prices.  The censitaire was also obliged to grind his corn at the seignior’s mill (moulin banal), and though the royal authorities at Quebec were very particular in pressing the fulfilment of this obligation, it does not appear to have been successfully carried out in the early days of the colony on account of the inability of the seigniors to purchase the machinery, or erect buildings suitable for the satisfactory performance of a service clearly most useful to the people of the rural districts.  The obligation of baking bread in the seigniorial oven was not generally exacted, and soon became obsolete as the country was settled and each habitant naturally built his own oven in connection with his home.  The seigniors also claimed the right to a certain amount of statute labour (corvee) from the habitants on their estates, to one fish out of every dozen caught in seigniorial waters, and to a reservation of wood and stone for the construction and repairs of the manor house, mill, and church in the parish or seigniory.  In case the censitaire wished to dispose of his holding during his lifetime, it was subject to the lods et ventes, or to a tax of one-twelfth of the purchase money, which had to be paid to the seignior, who usually as a favour remitted one-fourth on punctual payment.  The most serious restriction on such sales was the droit de retraite, or right of the seignior to preempt the same property himself within forty days from the date of the sale.

There was no doubt, at the establishment of the seigniorial tenure, a disposition to create in Canada, as far as possible, an aristocratic class akin to the noblesse of old France, who were a social order quite distinct from the industrial and commercial classes, though they did not necessarily bear titles.  Under the old feudal system the possession of land brought nobility and a title, but in the modified seigniorial system of Canada the king could alone confer titular distinctions.  The intention of the system was to induce men of good social position—­like the gentils-hommes or officers of the Carignan regiment—­to settle in the country and become seigniors.  However, the latter were not confined to this class, for the title was rapidly extended to shopkeepers, farmers, sailors, and even mechanics who had a little money and were ready to pay for the cheap privilege of becoming nobles in a small way.  Titled seigniors were very rare at any time in French Canada.  In 1671, Des