" [Footnote: Parkman, "Old Regime in
Canada," p. 341.]
And, apropos of the trend toward cities, there is the ordinance of Bigot,
issued with a view, we are told, of "promoting agriculture and protecting
the morals of farmers" by saving them from the temptations of the cities:
"We prohibit and forbid you to remove to this town (Quebec) under any
pretext whatever, without our permission in writing, on pain of being
expelled and sent back to your farms, your furniture and goods
confiscated, and a fine of fifty livres laid on you for the benefit of the
hospitals." [Footnote: Parkman, "Old Regime in Canada," p. 342.] There is
even a royal edict designed to prevent the undue subdivision of farms
which "forbade the country people, except such as were authorized to live
in villages, to build a house or barn on any piece of land less than one
and a half arpents wide and thirty arpents long." [Footnote: Parkman, "Old
Regime in Canada," p. 342.]
And this word should be added in intimation of the generosity of the
paternalism:
"One of the faults of his [Louis XIV's] rule is the excess of his
benevolence, for not only did he give money to support parish priests,
build churches, and aid the seminary, the Ursulines, the missions, and the
hospitals, but he established a fund destined, among other objects, to
relieve indigent persons, subsidized nearly every branch of trade and
industry, and in other instances did for the colonists what they would far
better have learned to do for themselves.
Pages:
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435