not make a substantial start in clearing his farm, the land should be forfeited in a year to the seigneur.  This arret, unlike its companion decree, was rigidly enforced.  The council at Quebec was made up of seigneurs, and to the seigneurs as a whole its provisions were soon made known.  During the twenty years following the issue of the decree of 1711 the intendant was called upon to declare the forfeiture of over two hundred farms, the owners of which had not fulfilled the obligation to establish a hearth and home (tenir feu et lieu) upon the lands.  As a spur to the slothful this decree appears to have had a wholesome effect; although, in spite of all that could be done, the agricultural development of the colony proceeded with exasperating slowness.  Each year the governor and intendant tried in their dispatches to put the colony’s best foot forward; every autumn the ships took home expressions of achievement and hope; but between the lines the patient king must have read much that was discouraging.

It may be well at this point to take a general survey of the colonial seigneuries, noting what progress had been made.  The seigneurial system had been a half-century in full flourish—­what had it accomplished?  That is evidently just what the home authorities wanted to know when they arranged for a topographical and general report on the seigneuries in 1712.  This investigation, on the intendant’s advice, was entrusted to an engineer, Gedeon de Catalogne.  Catalogne, who was a native of Bearn, born in 1662, came to Canada about the year 1685.  He was engaged on the improvement of the colonial fortifications until the intendant set him to work on a survey of the seigneuries.  The work occupied two or three years, in the course of which he prepared three excellent maps showing the situation and extent of all the seigneuries in the districts of Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal.  The first two maps have been preserved; that of the district of Montreal was probably lost at sea on its way to France.  With the two maps Catalogne presented a long report on the ownership, resources, and general progress of the seigneuries.  Ninety-three of them are dealt with in all, the report giving in each case the situation and extent of the tract, the nature of the soil and its adaptability to different products, the mineral deposits and timber, the opportunities for industry and trade, the name and rank of the seigneur, the way in which he had come into possession of the seigneury, the provisions made for religious worship, and various other matters.

Catalogne’s report shows that in 1712 practically all the lands bordering on both sides of the St Lawrence from Montreal to some distance below Quebec had been made into seigneuries.  Likewise the islands in the river and the lands on both sides of the Richelieu had been apportioned either to the Church orders or to lay seigneurs.  All these tracts were, for administrative purposes, grouped into the three districts of Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec; the intendant himself took direct charge of affairs at Quebec, but in the other two settlements he was represented by a subordinate.  Each district, likewise, had its own royal court, and from the decisions of these tribunals appeals might be carried before the Superior Council, which held its weekly sessions at the colonial capital.