In Upper Canada, all lands obtained from the crown are held in free and common soccage; but, in the Lower Province, all lands granted by the French Kings are held under the feudal tenures.

When the colony was first settled, extensive grants of land, called " seigniories," were made to officers of the army, or to such other influential characters as possessed sufficient interest to procure them. The Seigneurs were generally noblesse of small fortune; and, being unacquainted with agriculture, and not very partial to its calm pursuits, were never much disposed to undertake the cultivation of their extensive Canadian estates. They therefore assigned a great portion of their seigniories to those soldiers who evinced a disposition to continue in the country, and to such other emigrants as were favourably recommended to them. The quantity of land ceded to each of these persons, amounted to about 240 acres, commencing at the banks of the St. Lawrence, with a front of three acres in breadth, and running back into the country to a length of about eighty acres. The conditions upon which these grants were made, were, that the Seigneur should receive a quit-rent for ever, together with a small annual rent, usually between 2s. 6d. and 5s., and certain trifling articles of domestic consumption, such as a pair of fowls, a goose, or a bushel of wheat. The grantees were also bound to grind their corn at the Moulin Bannal, or the Lord's Mill, where a fourteenth is taken for the Lord's use, as mouline, or payment for grinding. In this manner, the great mass of

the Canadians hold their land; but many farms are held by various other tenures, particularly by that of bail amphiteotique, or long lease of 20, 30, 40, or any number of years, subject also to a small annual rent.

But the most grievous restriction, under which the Canadians labour with respect to the tenure of their lands, is that which compels them to pay to the Seigneur what are termed "lods et ventes," or fines of alienation on all mutations of property en roture. By this law, if an estate changes its proprietors half a dozen times in a year, the Seigneur is entitled on every mutation to receive one-twelfth of the whole purchase-money; which one-twelfth, be it remembered, must be paid by the new purchaser, and is exclusive of the sum agreed to be given to the actual proprietor. To preclude the possibility of practising any fraud upon the Seigneur, he has the privilege of purchasing the property himself, for the price stipulated between the parties, if he be of opinion, that it is less than the actual value of the property, and choose to exercise this prerogative within forty days from the announcement of sale.

FIEF is an estate held on conditions of fealty and homage, and certain rights payable by the. grantee to the Lord of whom the fief is held. These rights are quinte and relief: The former is the fifth part of the purchase-money, and must be paid on every transfer of the property by sale, or what may be esteemed equivalent to sale. The only property which is exempt from the payment

of this charge, is that which changes its proprietors in the line of hereditary succession. If the quinto is paid immediately by the purchaser, it entitles him to the rebat, or a reduction of two-thirds of the quinte.

"Relief is the revenue of one year due to the Lord for certain mutations;-thus, if a fief comes to a vassal by succession in the direct line, there is nothing due to the Seigneur, except fealty and homage; but if in the collateral line, then a fine is paid to the Lord by the new proprietor, on his taking up the estate so lapsed, or fallen, by the death of the late tenant. To prevent any fraud, the feudal Lord has also the power of taking the property to himself for the sum for which it is alleged to be sold."

The succession to fiefs is different from that of property held en roture or by villenage. Under the former tenure, the oldest son, if there are more than two, is entitled to the chateau, or principal mansionhouse, with an acre of the garden adjoining thereunto, and half the real estate, with all mills, presses, or ovens erected on the whole of the premises. The remaining property is equally divided among the heirs, if they exceed two; but if there are only two, the elder has a right to twothirds of the fief, the mansion-house, &c.; and the younger, to the remaining third. If the oldest son dies without issue, the next does not succeed to his part of the estate; but it is equally divided among the surviving heirs.

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In Canada, a married man cannot dispose of his estate, without the consent of his wife; for she is entitled by her marriage-rights to one half of the property possessed by her husband, and also to a similar division of all property which may subsequently become his in the direct line of inheritance. This is called "the customary dower," to distinguish it from the stipulated dower, which is a sum of money sometimes laid apart for the wife in lieu of the customary dower. If the wife outlives her husband, she has no power to will or otherwise to dispose of her dower, as it falls to the children of her first husband.

This community of property between man and wife, is often a source of very bad consequences. When the wife dies without a will, her children have the power of claiming their mother's division of the family-estates; however expedient it may be for the father to hold it, that the younger branches of the family may be suitably maintained and educated. It not unfrequently happens, that tradesmen, finding it convenient to balance their creditors' accounts, by an entry on the friendly side of profit and loss, afterwards carry on business in the name of their wives, but not without strong suspicion that a community of property still exists between them.

It is very unsafe to purchase property in Canada, unless the sale is effected by the agency of a sheriff, whose notification of sale clears it from all incumbrances and uncertainty.

LETTER XXIII.

LAWS AND GOVERNMENT OF UPPER CANADA DESCRIPTION OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ELECTIONS ANECDOTE-

THE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT MORE RESPECTABLE THAN IN FORMER DAYS-COURT OF KING'S BENCH-DISTRICT COURTS→ COURTS OF REQUEST GENERAL CHARACTER OF JURORS JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

IN Upper Canada the form of government is exactly similar to that of the sister Province.

The LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL at present consists of seventeen members, appointed, as in Lower Canada, by Mandamus from the King, according, I presume, to the recommendation of the LieutenantGovernor. The members of this assembly are the most respectable persons in the Province, the members of the Executive Council excepted, who are men of exactly the same rank in life. All these are dignified with the title of “ Honourable," and are perhaps the only body of men in the country that would not disgrace the appellation. They are not only men of moderate property and respectable literary acquirements, in the American acceptation of these terms, but also men who can boast of as much integrity as is commonly the lot of "American Nobility," if the term may be allowed.