Men could rise by their own efforts or come down through
their own defaults; their places in the community were not determined
for them by the accident of birth as was the case in the older land.
Some of the most successful figures in the public and business affairs
of New France, some of the social leaders, some of those who attained
the highest rank in the _noblesse_, came of relatively humble
parentage.
In France of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the chief
officials of state, the seigneurs, the higher ecclesiastics, even
the officers of the army and the marine, were always drawn from the
nobility. In the colony this was very far from being the case. Some
colonial officials and a few of the seigneurs were among the numerous
_noblesse_ of France before they came, and they of course retained
their social rank in the new environment. Others were raised to this
rank by the King, usually for distinguished services in the colony and
on the recommendation of the governor or the intendant. But, even if
taken all together, these men constituted a very small proportion of
the people in New France. Even among the seigneurs the great majority
of these landed gentlemen came from the ranks of the people, and not
one in ten was a member of the _noblesse_. There was, therefore, a
social solidarity, a spirit of fraternity, and a feeling of universal
comradeship among them which was altogether lacking at home.
The pivot of social life in New France was the settlement at Quebec.
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