Excerpt from Nine Lectures on the Earlier Constitutional History of Canada: Delivered Before the University of Toronto in Easter Term, 1889 You probably know that seigniorial tenure was abolished in Canada in 1854. What is probably not so generally known is, that in the Empire State, in the midst of all the rush of American business energy, seigniorial tenure was only abolished about eight years before, in 1846 and that until that date it existed over a considerable part of the state. A number of the Dutch families, especially the Van Rensselaers and Livingstons, continued to hold their estates under the feudal conditions. The manor of Rens selaerwyck, we are told, comprised a tract of country extending twenty-four miles north and south, and forty eight miles east and west, lying on each side of the Hudson river. It was held by the tenants for perpetual leases. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.