32 W. B. Miinroe time their banal rights, to file plans {aven ct dcnombreincnt) of their seigniories, and so on. On the other hand, the intendant was expected to uphold the seignior in the enforcement of all his rightful claims; and his intervention to compel censitaires to render their just dues and services was sought on frequent occasions. One finds a large number of ordinances directing censitaires to pay their rentes, to render their corvces, to carry their grain exclusively to the seig- niorial mill, to exhibit their titles for the seignior's inspection — ordinances, in short, relating to almost every incident which might be a matter of dispute between the seigniors and their dependents. ' But while the intcnd.-mt carefully protected the interests of the crown and supported the_ just claims of the seigniors, he was equally the protector of the censitaires against seigniorial oppression and rapacity. When a seignior refused to grant lands at a reasonable rate, the intendant was empowered to make the grant over the seig- nior's head.^ When he found seigniors exacting dues and services to which they did not appear entitled, he promptly forbade such ex- actions.' When complaints were made that the seigniorial mill was defective or out of order, he did not hesitate summarily to order improvements.^ When he found that seigniors were exacting cor- vce labor during the busy seed-time and harvest seasons, he inter- dicted all seigniors from exacting more than one day's work at a time."^ Whenever it could be shown that seigniorial exactions, even though legal, were operating to the detriment of general colonial progress, his intervention might be sought, and usually with success, to secure their modification." The work of the intendant served appreciably to make the land-tenure system work smoothly ; it was the failure of the British authorities after the conquest to continue this administrative jurisdiction that led to the development of many abuses. The intendant was charged with a general supervision of the roads and bridges of the colony. The immediate supervision of construction and repair was, however, in the hands of an official known as the grand voyer, who was from time to time empowered by intendant's ordinance to command the personal labor {corvee) of the habitants in the work.' Colonial industrial interests likewise demanded the intendant's 1 These decrees are printed, under the title " Ordonnances des Intendans du Canada", in Edits et Ordonnances, II. 257-421. ^Ibid., I. 326. ^Ibid., II. 440. * Ibid., 340. ^ Ibid., 444. 6 Raudot to Pontchartrain, November 10, 1707, Correspondance Generale, XXVI. 9 et seqq. 'See, for example, Edits ct Ordonnances, III. 176, 197, 216, 217, 284, 436, etc.
