revoked all deeds previous to the charter of the company of New France, this seigniory was by the company granted anew to the Jesuits; and, on the company surrendering their charter to the crown, a fresh deed was granted in 1652, of the seigniory en Franc aleu, with the usual feudal rights.

It continued the property of the Order until 1800, when, with the other property of the Jesuits, it was taken possession of by the crown. It contains 28,000 square arpents, populously settled.

The fief of Pachigny, at Three Rivers, containing only 585 arpents, was granted to them in Franc Almoigne, by deed, in 1736, from the Company of New France, and secured by subsequent deeds.

They next acquired, in 1639, by deed from James de la Ferté, abbot of Ste. Mary Madeleine, of Chateaudun, and canon of the King's Chapel at Paris, the valuable and fertile seigniory of Batiscan, above Three Rivers, containing about 282,000 arpents. It is divided into four parishes, having an agricultural population of 2800 habitans.

The Isle aux Réaux, as a seigniory, was also granted to them by the Company of New France. It contains 385 arpents.

The seigniory of La Priairé de la Madeleine, opposite Montreal, was granted by deed to the Jesuits in 1647, by M. D. Lauzon. It contains two populous parishes, a large village, to which steam-boats ply from Montreal; and through it is the thoroughfare to the States. The soil is fertile, but the roads miserably bad.*

The population is about 8000.

Cap de la Madeleine seigniory, on the river St. Maurice, was granted in 1650, by the abbot La Ferté,

as an irrevocable gift, in like manner as he granted Batiscan. It contains 280,000 arpents of land; but it is not, according to its extensive surface, so populous as the other estates granted to the Jesuits, the number of inhabitants being only about 600. Isle St. Christopher, at the mouth of the seigniory, belongs to the same estate, by grant of the governor in 1657. It contains 60 arpents of poor land.

The seigniory of St. Gabriel was acquired in 1677, by deed from the Seigneur Robert Giffard and Mary Renouard his wife. It is near Quebec, contains the villages of Lorette, the Indian Mission, and about 180,000 arpents of land, of various degrees of fertility and barrenness.

The beautiful seigniory of Sillery, near Quebec, was first granted by the Company of New France, in 1651, to the Jesuits, and afterwards, en Franc aleu, by M. De Callieres, in 1699. It contains nearly 9000 arpents, populously settled.

The seigniory of Belair, or Montagne Bonhomте, containing 14,000 arpents, was acquired by purchase from the heirs of the original Seigneur William Bonhomme.

The fief of St. Nicholas de Lauzon contains about 1200 arpents of excellent land.

Several lesser grants, in the cities of Montreal and Quebec, of valuable property, belonging to the Order of the Jesuits; and the whole, not less than 778,000 arpents, is now under the management of the Legislature.

The motives for which these estates were given, are stated, in the different grants, to be, - the love of God; the great expenses which the Order sustained in supporting missions; the extraordinary fatigues and hazards to which the Jesuits exposed themselves among the savages; the instruction of the Indians; pious foundations; and the general purposes of “ civil and religious" education in New France.

CHAP. XΧΙΙ.

POPULATION. - RELIGION. - SCHOOLS. - EDUCATION, ETC.

THE population of Canada, since its acquisition by Great Britain, has increased with extraordinary rapidity.

Its progress under the French government was slow. This arose from the country being long monopolised by an exclusive company; and afterwards from the cupidity and avariciousness of the intendants, and all their subordinate officers, who, in the years preceding the conquest, accumulated immense fortunes at the expense of public justice and the prosperity of the inhabitants.

In 1622, the population of Quebec was only 50. In 1720, it was 7000; and that of Montreal about 2000. In 1676, the whole European population of Canada was no more than 8500. In 1700, it was 15,000, and for fifty-nine years after the population, by natural increase and by immigrations, only amounted to 65,000.

In 1784, after the acknowledgment of the independence of the United States, Lower and Upper Canada contained about 113,000 inhabitants of European race; and in 1800 we find, in the province of Lower Canada alone, a population of 220,000. By the census of 1825, the population is stated to be 423,000; but the actual number was considered to be at least 450,000, as it is well known that an objection prevails on the part of the inhabitants in Canada, as elsewhere in America, to tell their ages and numbers to those appointed for the purpose of collecting a census. This arises from the apprehension of a poll tax; and from the militia laws and statute labour, which imposes the duty of both on all males from 16 to 18 years.

On comparing carefully the well-known actual population of parishes and townships with the returns I have collected*, the total population is nearly (if not) 600,000. Of this number at least 500,000 are Canadian Catholics of French race; a most extraordinary natural increase from 65,000 in 63 years; and unaccountable to those acquainted with the condition of the Canadian habitans, which I will endeavour to describe in this and the following chapter.

The inhabitants consist, first, of the French Canadians, who may be considered as constituting fivesixths of the whole population; the other sixth consists of English, Scotch, Irish, American loyalists, and a few Germans and others. The Scotch and Irish are, after the French, by far the most numerous.

In Lower Canada, the Catholic religion, of which seven-eighths of the inhabitants are professors, is established on a constitutional foundation, as fully protected in all its immunities and privileges as that of the Church of England. All the revenues from lands, enjoyed under the government of France, and the twenty-sixth part of the grain only, raised on the farms cultivated by Catholics, are secured by law to