* Mémoire instructif sur le Canada, joint a la lettre de M. de Champigny du 10 May, 1691. ** Lettre de Denonville au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1685. in the same condition. They come to me with tears in their eyes. All our married officers are beggars; and I entreat you to send them aid. There is need that the king should provide support for their children, or else they will be tempted to go over to the English.” * Again he writes that the sons of the councillor D’Amours have been arrested as _coureurs de bois_, or outlaws in the bush; and that if the minister does not do something to help them, there is danger that all the sons of the _noblesse_, real or pretended, will turn bandits, since they have no other means of living. The king, dispenser of charity for all Canada, came promptly to the rescue. He granted an alms of a hundred crowns to each family, coupled with a warning to the recipients of his bounty that “their misery proceeds from their ambition to live as persons of quality and without labor.” ** At the same time, the minister announced that no more letters of nobility would be granted in Canada; adding, “to relieve the country of some of the children of those who are really noble, I send you (_the governor_) six commissions of _Gardes de la Marine_, and recommend you to take care not to give them to any who are not actually _gentilshommes_." The _Garde de la Marine_ answered to the midshipman of the English or American service. As the six commissions could bring little relief to the crowd of needy youths, it was further ordained * Lettre de Denonville au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1686. (Condensed in the translation.) ** Abstract of Denonville’s Letters, and of the Minister’s Answers, in N. Y. Colonial Docs., IX. 317, 318. that sons of nobles or persons living as such should be enrolled into companies at eight sous a day for those who should best conduct themselves, and six sous a day for the others. Nobles in Canada were also permitted to trade, even at retail, without derogating from their rank. *