One of Talon's last official acts was the allotment, under authority of a decree of the King's Council of State, of a large number of seigneuries--a matter of the highest importance for the development of the colony. He set himself to the task with his usual activity and earnestness. From October 10 to November 8 he authorized about sixty seigneurial concessions to officers and others desirous of forming settlements. In one day alone (November 3) he made thirty-one grants. The autumn of 1672, during which all these seigneuries were created, should be remembered in the history of New France. Before Talon, it is true, seigneurial grants had been made in Canada, but only intermittently and without any preconceived plan or well-defined object. Now it was quite different. The grants made by Talon, and the way in which they were made, show clearly the execution of a well thought-out scheme. If Talon was not the founder he was the organizer of the seigneurial institution in Canada. The object was twofold--to protect and to colonize the country. By his concessions to Sorel, Chambly, Varennes, Saint-Ours, Contrecoeur--all officers of the Carignan regiment--he created so many little military colonies whose population would be composed chiefly of disbanded soldiers. These, being warriors as well as farmers, would be a strong barrier against possible Iroquois incursions. His second object, to stimulate colonization in general, was anticipated by a provision--inserted in each grant--that the seigneurs should live on their domains, and that their tenants should do the same; this would mean the planting of many new settlements on both shores of the St Lawrence. It was a sound policy. For over a century the seigneurial system was to Canada a source of strength and progress. [Footnote: This view is fully sustained by Prof. W. B. Munro of Harvard University, who has made an exhaustive study of the subject. The reader is referred to the narrative of The Seigneurs of Old Canada in the present Series, written by him.] Its organization was the crowning work of the intendant Talon in New France.