SEIGNIORIES.
The extent of seigniorial rights in Canada, particularly in what relates to the levying of the lods and vents, seems to be by no means clearly ascertained, so that where the seignior happens to be a man of a rapacious disposition, the vassal is sometimes compelled to pay fines, which, in strict justice perhaps, ought not to be demanded. In the first provincial assembly that was called, this business was brought forward, and the equity and policy was strongly urged by some of the English members that possessed considerable abilities, of having proper bounds fixed to the power of the seigniors, and of having all the fines and services due from their vassals accurately ascertained, and made generally known: but the French members, a great number of whom were themselves seigniors, being strongly attached to old habits, and thinking that it was conducive to their interest that their authority should still continue undefined, opposed the measure with great warmth; and nothing was done.
Nearly all those parts of Canada which were inhabited when the country was under French government, as well as the unoccupied lands granted to individuals during the same period, are comprized under different seigniories, and these, with all the usages and customs thereto formerly pertaining, were confirmed to the proprietaries by the Quebec bill, which began to be in force in May 1775; these lands, therefore, are held by unquestionable titles. All the waste lands, however, of the crown, that have been allotted since the conquest, have been granted simply by certificates of occupation, or licences, from the governor, giving permission to persons who applied for these lands to settle upon them, no patents, conveying a clear possession of them, have ever been made out; it is merely by courtesy that they are held; and if a governor thought proper to reclaim them on the part of the crown, he has only to say the word, and the titles of the occupiers sink into air. Thus it is, that although several persons have expended large sums of money in procuring, and afterwards improving townships[[34]], none of them are yet enabled to sell a single acre as an indemnification for these expences; at least no title can be given with what is offered for sale, and it is not therefore to be supposed, that purchasers of such property will easily be found. It is true, indeed, that the different proprietaries of these townships have been assured, on the part of government, that patents shall be granted to every one of them, and they are fully persuaded that these will be made out some time or other; but they have in vain waited for them for three years, and they are anxiously waiting for them still[[35]].
[34]. Tracts of waste land, usually ten miles square.
[35]. I received a letter, dated early in the year 1796, from a gentleman in Canada, who has taken up one of these townships, which contains the following paragraph: “At present the matter remains in an unsettled state, although every step has been taken on my part to accelerate the completion of the business. Mr. D——’s patent, which was sent home as a model, is not yet returned. I received a letter lately from Mr. Secretary R——, in which he informs me, that Mr. G—— is again returned to the surveyor’s office, and he assures me, that in conjunction with him, he will do every thing in his power to expedite my obtaining a patent. The governor, he says, means that the land business should go forward.”
SPECULATIONS.
Different motives have been assigned for this conduct on the part of the British government. In the first place it has been alledged, that the titles are withheld, in order to prevent speculation and land-jobbing from rising to the same height in Canada as they have done in the United States.
It is a notorious fact, that in the United States land-jobbing has led to a series of the most nefarious practices, whereby numbers have already suffered, and by which still greater numbers must suffer hereafter. By the machinations of a few interested individuals, who have contrived by various methods to get immense tracts[[36]] of waste land into their possession, fictitious demands have been created in the market for land, the price of it has consequently been enhanced much beyond its intrinsic worth, and these persons have then taken the opportunity of selling what they had on hand at an enormous profit. The wealth that has been accumulated by particular persons in the United States, in this manner, is prodigious; and numberless others, witnesses to their prosperity, have been tempted to make purchases of land, in hopes of realizing fortunes in a similar way, by selling out small portions at an advanced price. Thus it is that the nominal value of waste land has been raised so suddenly in the United States; for large tracts, which ten years before were selling for a few pence per acre, have sold in numberless instances, lately, for dollars per acre, an augmentation in price which the increase of population alone would by no means have occasioned. Estates, like articles of merchandize, have passed, before they have ever been improved, through the hands of dozens of people, who never perhaps were within five hundred miles of them, and the consumer or farmer, in consequence of the profits laid on by these people, to whom they have severally belonged, has had frequently to pay a most exorbitant price for the little spot which he has purchased[[37]].
[36]. There have been many instances in the United States of a single individual’s holding upwards of three millions of acres at one time, and some few individuals have been known to hold even twice that quantity at once.
[37]. In the beginning of the year 1796, this traffic was at its highest pitch, and at this time General Washington, so eminently distinguished for his prudence and foresight, perceiving that land had risen beyond its actual value, and persuaded that it could not rise higher for some years to come, advertised for sale every acre of which he was possessed, except the farms of Mount Vernon. The event shewed how accurate his judgment was. In the close of the year, one of the great land-jobbers, disappointed in his calculations, was obliged to abscond; the land trade was shaken to its very foundation; bankruptcies spread like wildfire from one great city to another, and men that had begun to build palaces found themselves likely to have no better habitation for a time than the common gaol.