Islets, Talon’s seigniory, was erected into a barony, and subsequently into an earldom (Count d’Orsainville).  Francois Berthelot’s seigniory of St. Laurent on the Island of Orleans was made in 1676 an earldom, and that of Portneuf, Rene Robineau’s, into a barony.  The only title which has come down to the present time is that of the Baron de Longueuil, which was first conferred on the distinguished Charles LeMoyne in 1700, and has been officially recognized by the British government since December, 1880.

The established seigniorial system bore conclusive evidence of the same paternal spirit which sent shiploads of virtuous young women (sometimes marchandises melees) to the St. Lawrence to become wives of the forlorn Canadian bachelors, gave trousseaux of cattle and kitchen utensils to the newly wed, and encouraged by bounties the production of children.  The seigniories were the ground on which these paternal methods of creating a farming community were to be developed, but despite the wise intentions of the government the whole machinery was far from realizing the results which might reasonably have been expected from its operation.  The land was easily acquired and cheaply held, facilities were given for the grinding of grain and the making of flour; fish and game were quickly taken by the skilful fisherman and enterprising hunter, and the royal officials generally favoured the habitants in disputes with the seigniors.

Unlike the large grants made by the British government after the conquest to loyalists, Protestant clergy, and speculators—­grants calculated to keep large sections of the country in a state of wildness—­the seigniorial estates had to be cultivated and settled within a reasonable time if they were to be retained by the occupants.  During the French dominion the Crown sequestrated a number of seigniories for the failure to observe the obligation of cultivation.  As late as 1741 we find an ordinance restoring seventeen estates to the royal domain, although the Crown was ready to reinstate the former occupants the moment they showed that they intended to perform their duty of settlement.  But all the care that was taken to encourage settlement was for a long time without large results, chiefly in consequence of the nomadic habits of the young men on the seigniories.  The fur trade, from the beginning to the end of French dominion, was a serious bar to steady industry on the farm.  The young gentilhomme as well as the young habitant loved the free life of the forest and river better than the monotonous work of the farm.  He preferred too often making love to the impressionable dusky maiden of the wigwam rather than to the stolid, devout damsel imported for his kind by priest or nun.  A raid on some English post or village had far more attraction than following the plough or threshing the grain.  This adventurous spirit led the young Frenchman to the western prairies where the Red and Assiniboine waters mingle, to the