as the annual rental received for a dozen farms would be hardly more than twenty dollars, the seigneur reaped no great profit from his tenants.  It was only when a tenant sold a holding, that the seigneur secured any considerable sum.  To him then went one-twelfth of the price.  The other chief source of profit, as settlement increased, was from the seigneur’s mill.  To it all the occupiers of his land must bring their grain and pay a fixed charge for its grinding.  In scattered settlements the mill brought little profit and was a source of expense rather than of income.  But, as population increased, this “droit de banalite” became valuable.  The mill at Malbaie was, in time, very prosperous.

In Canada the seigneur was not the oppressor of his people but rather their watchful guardian.  He planned roads and other improvements, checked abuses, and enforced justice.  At his side stood, usually, the priest.  The moment a parish was established a cure was entitled to the tithe; near every manor house, the village church was sure to spring up.  Even when, as at Malbaie, the priest and the seigneur were not of the same faith they were often fast friends.  Nairne’s relations were good with the neighbouring cure, when, at length, Malbaie had a resident priest.  Each village would thus usually have at least two men of some culture working together for its spiritual and temporal interests.  Both remained in touch with the outside world; the priest with his bishop at Quebec, the seigneur with the representative there of the sovereign.  Upon each change of governor Nairne was required to appear at Quebec to render fealty and homage.  With head uncovered and wearing neither sword nor spur he must kneel before the governor, and take oath on the Gospels to be faithful to the king, to be party to nothing against his interests, to perform all the duties required by the terms of his holding, and, especially, to appear in arms to defend the province if attacked.  We find Nairne excused by General Haldimand in 1781 from discharging this ceremony, but only because he was away on active service.

When Nairne settled at Murray Bay he was unmarried and so, no doubt, were the soldiers he brought with him.  Only after five or six years did he himself find a wife but we may be sure that his men did not wait so long.  What more natural than that they should marry the French Canadian servants of whom Nairne speaks?  A visitor at Murray Bay is struck with names like McNicol, Harvey, Blackburn, McLean, and one or two others that have a decidedly North British ring.  Some, if not all, are names of one or other of the half dozen soldiers who settled at Murray Bay in Nairne’s time.  There was no disbanding there of a regiment, as tradition has it.  In time the 78th Highlanders were disbanded, but certainly not at Murray Bay, and, though hundreds of them remained in Canada, only a few individual soldiers came to Nairne’s settlement.  Already when he arrived French Canadians were there and from