Ontario Teachers' Manuals: History Part 15

3. Va.s.sals swore allegiance to their immediate superior.

By means of problem-questions develop from the pupils what William would probably do to strengthen his own position.

STEP IV

_The Feudal System under William:_ (Note the innovations of William.)

1. The land belonged solely to the king; it was not the Normans as a tribe, but William personally, who conquered England.

2. The estates of the n.o.bles were divided, either deliberately or because the land was conquered piecemeal and parcelled out as it was conquered. (For example, Odo had 473 manors in 17 counties.)

3. The va.s.sals swore direct allegiance to the king.

4. The Witan was displaced by the Great Council, the members of which were the king's va.s.sals; therefore with him, not against him.

5. The king's use of shire-reeves, personal dependants, who led the military levy of the counties and collected the king's taxes.

6. What were the chief taxes? From them came much political trouble in later times by attempts to rectify abuses in connection with them.

7. The teacher may describe the ceremony of the feudal oath.

The important points of each step should be written on the black-board as they are described or developed.

(The decay of the Feudal System in England may be the topic of another lesson.)

SEIGNIORIAL TENURE

The aim of the lesson is to give the pupils a knowledge of the method of land tenure introduced into Canada by the French; to enable them to trace the effects of this system upon the progress of the people and the development of the country; and to increase their interest in the present system of tenure.

METHOD

In connection with sections 3 and 4 the description of the Feudal System would show how the land was held in France; first by the king, under him by the greater n.o.bles, then by the lesser n.o.bles and the gentry, then by the large farmers who sublet it in small farms or hired men to work it.

Every one who held land had to do something for his lord. When this description is complete, let the pupils apply it to Canada, the teacher supplying the names of the corresponding cla.s.ses in Canada. Then the pupils may be asked to consider what return each holder would make for his land; this leads to a statement of the conditions of tenure in Canada. Then the evils connected with this system may be presented as another problem; for example, how would the actual workers be discouraged in making improvements that they would get no credit for? In connection with section 5, the pupils can contrast the method of holding land that they are familiar with, that is, by complete ownership, and can imagine what changes the English settlers would want. They are then ready to hear how and when these changes were brought about, and at what cost.

The method is therefore a combination of the narrative and development, or problem, methods.

THE LESSON

1. Introduce the lesson by a reference to the system of holding land in Ontario. (See lesson on the Feudal System.) Develop the leading principles of freehold tenure. What Act gave the people of Ontario this method of holding land? We are going to learn something about the system of holding land adopted by the French when they ruled Canada. (See _Ontario Public School History_, Chapter IX, also _Ontario High School History of Canada_, Chap. VIII.)

2. Under the French the lands of Canada were held in feudal tenure, which means that the King was regarded as the owner, and that rent was paid to him, not altogether in money, but partly in military service.

Large portions of land were granted in this way to officers and n.o.bles.

An important and imposing ceremony was that at which the lords of manors annually did homage to the King's representative at Quebec. These _seigniors_, as they were called, had great powers within their domains.

This method of tenure was similar to the system of holding land in France, called the Feudal System.

At this point the teacher might give a short description of the Feudal System. Picture to the pupils the old Feudal castle and its surroundings. Show how ill the common people were provided for in comparison with the lords.

3. Cardinal Richelieu introduced feudalism into Canada about the year 1527. He had two objects in view: (_a_) to create a Canadian aristocracy, (_b_) to establish an easy system of dividing land among settlers. This system of holding land came to be known as Seigniorial Tenure. The seignior received vast tracts of land from the King, became his va.s.sal, and in turn made grants to the _censitaires_, those who held their land on the payment of an annual rental. The censitaires secured _habitants_ to cultivate the soil.

4. The seignior was compelled to clear his estate of forest within a certain time. In order to do this he rented it, at from half a cent to two cents an acre, and received his rent in produce. If the censitaire sold the land which was cleared, he had to pay his seignior one twelfth of the price. If the seignior parted with his estate, he had to pay the King one fifth of the selling price. The forests of Canada were not very attractive to the n.o.bles of France; hence, but few of them settled in this country. Some of the prominent colonists, however, were granted patents of n.o.bility and became seigniors. Prevented by their rank from cultivating the soil, they soon became bankrupt. Then they turned their attention to the fur-trade, and later many of them became explorers and the most gallant defenders of New France.

5. In the year 1760, Canada became a British possession, and English settlers commenced to make homes for themselves in Upper Canada. Their number was greatly increased by the United Empire Loyalists who came over after the American Revolution. The English disliked the French method of holding land. Under Seigniorial Tenure, the seller of land in a seigniory was compelled to pay the seignior an amount equal to one twelfth of the purchase money. As this was chargeable not only on the value of the land, but also on the value of all buildings and improvements, which, costing the seigniors nothing, were often more valuable than the land itself, it was considered by the English settlers an intolerable handicap. (Centuries before this the Feudal System had been abolished in England.)

6. In 1791 the British Parliament pa.s.sed the Const.i.tutional Act which gave the people of Upper Canada the privilege of holding lands in their own name. In Lower Canada, too, those who wished were allowed to avail themselves of the freehold system, but the French did not take advantage of their opportunity. In the year 1854 Seigniorial Tenure was abolished, the Government recompensing the seigniors for the surrender of their ancient rights and privileges, and freehold tenure, as in Ontario, was introduced.

7. Reasons why the Seigniorial Tenure failed:

(_a_) It was not adapted to conditions in Canada.

(_b_) It did not provide sufficient incentive to settlers to improve their lands.

(_c_) It gave the habitant no chance to rise.

(_d_) It tended to divide the population into three cla.s.ses.

(_e_) It failed to develop a civic spirit. This fact alone made progress practically impossible. Each seignior was the master of his own domain. Thus the people had no opportunity of working together, and under such circ.u.mstances no great national spirit could be developed.

8. Note the effect of the conquest of Canada and of the American Revolution, upon Seigniorial Tenure.

CONFEDERATION OF CANADIAN PROVINCES

TOPICAL a.n.a.lYSIS

_Causes:_

1. The idea of union an old one in Canada and the Maritime Provinces; foreshadowed in Durham's Report.

2. Immediate cause in Canada was the question of representation by population; deadlock in Parliament.

3. Immediate cause in Maritime Provinces was the feeling between Britain and the Colonies and the United States over the _Trent_ affair, the _Alabama_ trouble, and the idea in the Northern States that the British Colonies favoured the cause of the South in the Civil War.

_Steps toward Confederation:_

1. Meeting of delegates from the Maritime Provinces in Charlottetown in 1864.

2. Meeting in Quebec, 1864, of delegates from all the provinces favours Confederation.

3. Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island reject the proposal, and delegates from Upper Canada (Ontario), Lower Canada (Quebec), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick proceed to London to secure an Act of Union from the Imperial Government.

4. Movement in favour of union hastened by United States giving notice in 1865 of the termination of the Reciprocity Treaty in a year, and by the Fenian Raid, 1866.

5. Union accomplished by means of the British North America Act pa.s.sed by the British Parliament in 1867, and brought into force on July 1st, 1867. The provinces confederated as the Dominion of Canada; a Federal Union.