During the twenty years following the conquest the externals of the seigneurial system remained unaltered; but its spirit underwent a great change.  This was amply shown during the American War of Independence, when the province was invaded by the Arnold-Montgomery expeditions.  In all the years that the colony had been under French dominion a single word from any seigneur was enough to summon every one of his able-bodied habitants to arms.  But now, only a dozen years after the English had assumed control, the answer made by the habitant to such appeals was of a very different nature.  The authorities at Quebec, having only a small body of regular troops available for the defence of Canada against the invaders, called on the seigneurs to rally the old feudal array.  The proclamation was issued on June 9, 1775.  Most seigneurs responded promptly and called their habitants to armed service.  But the latter, for the most part, refused to come.  The seigneurs threatened that their lands would be confiscated; but even this did not move the habitants to comply.  A writer of the time narrates what happened in one of the seigneuries, and it is doubtless typical of what took place in others.  ’M.  Deschambaud went over to his seigneury on the Richelieu,’ he tells us, ’and summoned his tenants to arms; they listened patiently to what he had to say, and then peremptorily refused to accede to his demands.  At this the seigneur was foolish enough to draw his sword; whereupon the habitants gave both him and a few friends who accompanied him a severe thrashing, and sent them off vowing vengeance.  Fearing retaliation, the habitants armed themselves, and to the number of several hundred prepared to attack any regular forces which might be sent against them.  Through the discretion of Governor Carleton, however, who hastened to send one of his officers to disavow the action of the seigneur, and to promise the habitants that if they returned quietly to their homes they would not be molested, they were persuaded to disperse.’ [Footnote:  Maseres, Additional Papers concerning the Province of Quebec (1776), pp. 71 et seq.]

As the eighteenth century drew to a close it became evident that the people were getting restive under the restraints which the seigneurial system imposed.  Lands had risen in value so that the lods et ventes now amounted to a considerable payment when lands changed owners.  With the growth of population the banal right became very valuable to the seigneurs and an equally great inconvenience to the habitants.  Many seigneurs made no attempt to provide adequate milling facilities.  They gave the habitants a choice between bringing their grain to the half-broken-down windmill of the seigneury or paying the seigneur a money fine for his permission to take their grist elsewhere.  New seigneurial demands, unheard of in earlier days, were often put forth and enforced.