Protestantism was unknown in Canada under French rule, and the enterprise of the Huguenots was consequently lost to a country always suffering from a want of population.  Even the merchants of La Rochelle, who traded with the country, found themselves invariably subject to restrictions which placed them at an enormous disadvantage in their competition with their Roman Catholic rivals.  The Roman Catholic Church was all powerful at the council-board as well as in the parish.  In the past as in the present century, a large Roman Catholic church rose, the most prominent building in every town and village, illustrating its dominating influence in the homes of every community of the province.  The parishes were established at an early date for ecclesiastical purposes, and their extent was defined wherever necessary by the council at Quebec.  They were practically territorial divisions for the administration of local affairs, and were conterminous, whenever practicable, with the seigniory.  The cure, the seignior, the militia captain (often identical with the seignior), were the important functionaries in every parish.  Even at the present time, when a canonical parish has been once formed by the proper ecclesiastical authority, it may be erected into a municipal or civil division after certain legal formalities by the government of the province.  Tithes were first imposed by Bishop Laval, who practically established the basis of ecclesiastical authority in the province.  It was only in church matters that the people had the right to meet and express their opinions, and even then the intendant alone could give the power of assembling for such purposes.

The civil law of French Canada relating to “property,” inheritance, marriage, and the personal or civil rights of the community generally, had its origin, like all similar systems, in the Roman law, on which were engrafted, in the course of centuries, those customs and usages which were adapted to the social conditions of France.  The customary law of Paris became the fundamental law of French Canada, and despite the changes that it has necessarily undergone in the course of many years, its principles can still be traced throughout the present system as it has been modified under the influences of the British regime.  The superior council of Canada gave judgment in civil and criminal cases according to the coutume de Paris, and below it there were inferior courts for the judicial districts of Quebec, Three Rivers and Montreal.  The bishop had also special jurisdiction over ecclesiastical matters.  The intendant had authority to deal with cases involving royal, or seigniorial, rights, and to call before him any case whatever for final review and judgment.  In all cases appeals were allowable to the king himself, but the difficulty of communication with Europe in those days practically confined such references to a few special causes.  The seigniors had also certain judicial or magisterial powers, but they never acted except in very trivial cases.  Torture was sometimes applied to condemned felons as in France and other parts of the old world.  On the whole justice appears to have been honestly and fairly administered.