and others to attend to their missions and other duties, or even leave their residence without a passport from Montreal to Quebec; that you often summoned them for very slight causes; that you intercepted their letters and did not allow them liberty to write.  If the whole or part of these things be true, you must mend your ways.”  On his part Colbert enjoined upon the governor a little more calmness and gentleness.  “His Majesty,” wrote the minister, “has ordered me to explain to you, privately, that it is absolutely necessary for the good of your service to moderate your conduct, and not to single out with too great severity faults committed either against his service or against the respect due to your person or character.”  Colbert rightly felt that fault-finding letters were not sufficient to keep within bounds a temperament as fiery as that of the governor of Canada; on the other hand, a man of Frontenac’s worth was too valuable to the colony to think of dispensing with his services.  The wisest course was to renew the Sovereign Council, and in order to withdraw its members from the too preponderant influence of the governor, to put their nomination in the hands of the king.

By the royal edict of June 5th, 1675, the council was reconstituted.  It was composed of seven members appointed by the Crown; the governor-general occupied the first place, the bishop, or in his absence, the grand vicar, the second, and the commissioner the third.  As the latter presided in the absence of the governor, and as the king was anxious that “he should have the same functions and the same privileges as the first presidents of the courts of France,” as moreover the honour devolved upon him of collecting the opinions or votes and of pronouncing the decrees, it was in reality the commissioner who might be considered as actual president.  It is, therefore, easy to understand the continual disputes which arose upon the question of the title of President of the Council between Frontenac and the Commissioner Jacques Duchesneau.  The latter, at first “President des tresoriers de la generalite de Tours,” had been appointed intendant of New France by a commission which bears the same date as the royal edict reviving the Sovereign Council.  While thinking of the material good of the colony, the Most Christian King took care not to neglect its spiritual interests; he undertook to provide for the maintenance of the parish priests and other ecclesiastics wherever necessary, and to meet in case of need the expenses of the divine service.  In addition he expressed his will “that there should always be in the council one ecclesiastical member,” and later he added a clerical councillor to the members already installed.  There were summoned to the council MM. de Villeray, de Tilly, Damours, Dupont, Louis Rene de Lotbiniere, de Peyras, and Denys de Vitre.  M. Denis Joseph Ruette d’Auteuil was appointed solicitor-general; his functions consisted in speaking in the name of the king, and in making, in the name of the prince or of the public, the necessary statements.  The former clerk, M. Peuvret de Mesnu, was retained in his functions.