Out to his new colony on the St Lawrence the king sent this seigneurial system.  A gross and gratuitous outrage, a characteristic manifestation of Bourbon stupidity—­that is a common verdict upon the royal action.  But it may well be asked:  What else was there to do?  The seigneurial system was still the basis of land tenure in France.  The nobility and even the throne rested upon it.  The Church sanctioned and supported it.  The people in general, whatever their attitude towards seigneurialism, were familiar with no other system of landholding.  It was not, like the encomienda system which Spain planted in Mexico, an arrangement cut out of new cloth for the more ruthless exploitation of a fruitful domain.  The Puritan who went to Massachusetts Bay took his system of socage tenure along with him.  The common law went with the flag of England.  It was quite as natural that the Custom of Paris should follow the fleurs-de-lis.

There was every reason to expect, moreover, that in the New World the seigneurial system would soon free itself from those barnacles of privilege and oppression which were encrusted on its sides at home.  Here was a small settlement of pioneers surrounded by hostile aborigines.  The royal arm, strong as it was at home, could not well afford protection a thousand leagues away.  The colony must organize and learn to protect itself.  In other words, the colonial environment was very much like that in which the yeomen of the Dark Ages had found themselves.  And might not its dangers be faced in the old feudal way?  They were faced in this way.  In the history of French Canada we find the seigneurial system forced back towards its old feudal plane.  We see it gain in vitality; we see the old personal bond between lord and vassal restored to some of its pristine strength; we see the military aspects of the system revived, and its more sordid phases thrust aside.  It turned New France into a huge armed camp; it gave the colony a closely knit military organization; and, in a day when Canada needed every ounce of her strength to ward off encircling enemies both white and red, it did for her what no other system could be expected to do.

But to return to the little cradle of empire at the foot of Cape Diamond.  Champlain for a score of years worked himself to premature old age in overcoming those many obstacles which always meet the pioneer.  More settlers were brought; a few seigneuries were granted; priests were summoned from France; a new fort was built; and by sheer perseverance a settlement of about three hundred souls had been established by 1627.  But no single individual, however untiring in his efforts, could do all that needed to be done.  It was consequently arranged, with the entire approval of Champlain, that the task of building up the colony should be entrusted to a great colonizing company formed for the purpose under royal auspices.  In this project the moving spirit was no less a personage than Cardinal Richelieu, the great minister of Louis