COLBERT
"Since it has pleased God," says this prince, "to give peace to our kingdom, we have nothing more strongly to heart than the re-establishment of commerce, as being the source and the principle of the abundance which we take upon ourselves to procure for our people. This has led us to inform ourselves of the state of New France which our king, our very honoured lord and father, had given over by a treaty of 1626 to a company of one hundred persons. But in place of learning that this country had been populated as it should be, considering the long time of its possession, we have recognized with regret that not only the number of its inhabitants is very small, but that they are every day in danger of being driven out by the Iroquois. Recognizing, besides, that this company of one hundred men is nearly extinct owing to the voluntary retirement of a great number, and that the few remaining are not powerful enough to maintain this country, by sending forces and men necessary to swell and defend it, we have resolved to take it from the hands of this company, which has resigned it to our good purposes. For which reasons we declare that all the rights of property, justice and seigneurie granted by our most honoured lord and father, by the charter of April 29, 1626, shall be and do remain reunited to our crown, to be henceforth exercised in our name by the officers whom we shall name to this effect."
Thus the future Canadian society was being thought out on the basis of an over-parental feudalism, probably the best form for the times, though it sadly crippled the initiative of the French-Canadian population, with results seen to this day. Yet the population was no more than twenty-five hundred souls, of which eight hundred were at Quebec.
At the same time the negotiations for the transfer of the seigneury of the island of Montreal were completed. During the visit of Mademoiselle Mance several meetings of the Company of Montreal had been held, the members of which, with the exception of some directors of the Seminary of Paris, and M. de Maisonneuve, were reduced to five. On March 9th the act of transfer, to be found in the Edicts and Ordinances of the Province of Quebec, states that:
"Considering the great blessings, which God has poured upon the Island of Montreal for the conversion of the savages and the edification of the French, by the help of MM. Olier, de Renty and others, for twenty years; and now, in later years the gentlemen of the Seminary of St. Sulpice have laboured by their care and zeal to uphold this good work, having exposed their persons and having made contributions for the good of the colony and increase of the glory of God; the Associates desiring moreover to contribute on their part by seconding the pious designs of the Gentlemen of the Seminary, and in honour of the memory of the founder and one of the promoters and benefactors of the work of Montreal, they have, after several conferences on the subject, and in furtherance of the greater glory of God, given to these gentlemen all the proprietorial rights which they have in the Island of Montreal, as also the seigneurial manor house, called the Fort, the farm, the tilled lands and all the rights that they have in their island." [90]
In this donation special reference was made to the services of M. de Maisonneuve. He was to continue, during his life, governor and captain of the island and of the seigneurial manor house under, however, the pleasure of the Gentlemen of the Seminary. He was to have, in place of remuneration, half of the farm lands and the revenues of the mill.
He was to have his apartments in the seigneurial manor house, in which the Gentlemen of the Seminary, as Seigneurs, shall henceforth have the right to live.