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for settlement, particularly for agriculture; vast tracts, however, are held, unoccupied and unimproved, in consequence of grants having been made to various leaders and their associates, who never fulfilled the conditions; but who, or their assigns, hold those valuable grants to the exclusion of others, who would soon cultivate and reside on them.

CHAP. XXI.

JESUITS' ESTATES.

THE estates of the Jesuits, since the death of Father Cazot, the last of the order in Canada, have formed the grounds of much enquiry in the province, and the application of the revenue arising from them has long formed a claim of dispute between the executive and the legislative assembly; the latter considering them property which should be devoted, as formerly, to the purposes of public instruction, and their application to any other purpose, for the last thirty years, unjust to the province.

The revenues of these estates have, at length, been transferred by the crown to the legislature, for the above object.

The Jesuits, who were at first only missionaries, accompanying the early adventurers, became afterwards, by royal patent, holders of lands in Canada, and other parts of New France. Their estates were acquired by grants from the king or by gifts from individuals, and by purchase.

The first property in land, possessed by the Jesuits in Canada, was the seigniory of Notre Dames des Anges, near Beauport and Quebec, by deed 1626, from the Duke de Ventadour (see the preceding history of Canada). The edict of the King of France having 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,

* See page 297.

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 Bonhomme, 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.

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