Indeed, So
Little Have They Changed Since The Settlement Of The Country Two
Hundred Years Ago, That They Speak The French Of That Time Without The
Alloy Since Introduced Into The Language.
Their old modes of farming
are still in vogue; and they despise all change, satisfied to live in
quiet and simple comfort, without the worry of improvements.
In the
Quebec district the farmers singe their pigs when they have killed
them, and despise the use of hot water. Just as farmers do in Normandy,
and in some parts of the south of England. This pig-singeing is a great
event; and on one occasion during the Rebellion, the singeing of two or
three pigs on a hill-side at night, caused the Quebec garrison and the
country volunteers to turn out, under the belief that the light seen
was that of a beacon fire, and that the enemy were at hand.
"Montreal, and Quebec also, abound in fine Catholic churches, and the
streets swarm with comfortable-looking priests, dressed in black
cassocks and bands, and wearing big-buckled shoes and broad-brimmed
hats.
"The difference in language, customs, and religion, divides the
population into two distinct sections, and is a bar to united effort
and to the improvement of the country; which nevertheless does improve
in spite of this difficulty, though not as rapidly as it might and
ought. I did not fully appreciate this until I visited the Superior Law
Court, then sitting in Montreal. This court is held, during the
erection of the new court-house, in the old, low-walled, high-roofed,
building in which the French Government conducted their public affairs
a hundred and fifty years ago. In this building, in 1839, the Privy
Council decided to place the country under martial law, and the
proclamation was issued from it.
"The judges sitting when I visited the court were Smith, Van Feloon,
and Mondelet, the latter a French Canadian. The first case argued was a
long-pending one between Sir John Stewart and an architect, who had
superintended the erection of some buildings on one of Sir John's
farms. The counsel were not over clever, but sufficiently verbose, and
full enough of 'instances,' both ancient and modern. The counsel for
Sir John laid great stress upon the erroneous manner in which the
action had been laid, and contended that as the English form of'
assumpsit' had been taken, in order to get both debt and damages,
instead of a single action of damages being brought, all the
consequences of the form adopted must be taken by the plaintiff, who,
not having proved damages, or even stated them, must be held by
the court to have made out no case, and be cast accordingly. The
counsel quoted the old French law, and a French law-writer of 1700,
Chardon, and also English and Canadian authorities. The French Canadian
judge having, during the oration, thrown in an observation or two in
English, which he did not speak over fluently, at length uttered in
French a long comment upon the fallacy of the argument - which sounded
strangely. The counsel for the architect went at the argument of his
opponent with great vigour, stimulated by the expressed opinion of
Judge Mondelet, and went back to the days of ancient Rome to show that
forms of action had been difficult even in those days, having once
caused a revolt. He declared that even in England they were as
unsettled as ever; and wound up by propounding as a dogma, that the
Canadian law was neither English, French, Roman, nor of any other
precedent, but was founded upon common sense, which was the only guide
and authority in the administration of it. In corroboration of this,
the little black eye of Judge Mondelet brightly twinkled, and he nodded
his head in dignified approbation. Judge Van Feloon, who seemed more
phlegmatic, quietly settled the matter by saying, that he supposed if a
man did work for another, and the other had agreed to pay him,
he was entitled to the money, and that therefore the court would have
to see that a bargain had been made, and the work duly performed, and
then decide. The next case argued arose out of a fraudulent assignment;
and in this, too, French authorities, in the old language of a hundred
and fifty years since, were often appealed to - Chardon being apparently
the standard book of reference. The mixture of custom evidently caused
embarrassment, and it was clear that no fixed decisions could regulate
disputes concerning property, while the precedents relied upon were
based upon the differing laws of two separate countries - laws, perhaps,
not now operating in those very countries themselves.
"The tenure of property in Lower Canada is still in part based upon the
old French feudal system. There are still 'seigneurs' who hold lands,
and have 'censitaires' or tenants, paying fee-rent in produce,
services, and money. It is true that a law has been passed enabling a
fixed commutation, in money, of these seigneurial rights; but I am told
that the parties adhere in most cases to the old usage, and despise
innovation.
"A singular custom, too, prevails. Parents, when old and tired of
labour, assign their property to their children, or to one of them, in
consideration of a string of conditions for their own maintenance and
comfort, each one of which is recited in the deed with minute
exactness. They stipulate usually for a house, so much meat, bread,
sugar, tea, &c.; a caleche and horse to take them to church on Sundays
and holidays; so much tobacco or snuff; so many gowns and bonnets, or
suits of clothes and hats; and so on. These gifts lead to frequent law-
suits; and one can quite understand how, in a country with large tracts
of its land held upon tenures of the most complex character, under a
system which has passed away even in the country from whence it came,
and where to this mass of difficulty is added the cause of dispute just
alluded to, the legal profession should flourish, - which I understand
it does.
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