of my own, especially when I consider that I spend in the colony what I earn therein.’  Prosecutions for violating the law were frequent.  During the month of June 1667, at a sitting of the Sovereign Council, Tracy, Courcelle, Talon, and Laval being present, the attorney-general Bourdon made out a case against Jacques de la Mothe, a merchant, for having sold wines and tobacco at higher prices than those of the tariff.  The defendant acknowledged that he had sold his wine at one hundred livres and his tobacco at sixty sous, but alleged that his wine was the best Bordeaux, that his hogsheads had a capacity of fully one hundred and twenty pots, that care, risk, and leakage should be taken into consideration, that two hogsheads had been spoiled, and that the price of those remaining should be higher to compensate him for their loss.  As to the tobacco, it was of the Maragnan quality, and he had always deemed it impossible to sell it for less than sixty sous.  After hearing the case, the council decided that two of its members, Messieurs Damours and de la Tesserie, should make an inspection at La Mothe’s store, in order to taste his wine and tobacco and gauge his hogsheads.  Away they went; and afterwards they made their report.  Finally La Mothe was condemned to a fine of twenty-two livres, payable to the Hotel-Dieu.  It may be remarked here that very often the fines had a similar destination; in that way justice helped charity.

The magistrates were vigilant, but the merchants were cunning and often succeeded in evading the tariff.  In July 1667, the habitants’ syndic appeared before the council to complain of the various devices resorted to by merchants to extort higher prices from the settlers than were allowed by law.  So the council made a ruling that all merchandise should be stamped, in the presence of the syndic, according to the prices of each kind and quality, and ordered samples duly stamped in this way to be delivered to commissioners specially appointed for the purpose.  It will be seen that these regulations were minute and severe.  Trade was thus submitted to stern restrictions which would seem strange and unbearable in these days of freedom.  What an outcry there would be if parliament should attempt now to dictate to our merchants the selling price of their merchandise!  But in the seventeenth century such a thing was common enough.  It was a time of extreme official interference in private affairs and transactions.

We have mentioned the syndic of the inhabitants—­syndic des habitants.  A word about this officer will be in place here.  He was the spokesman of the community when complaints had to be made or petitions presented to the governor or the Sovereign Council.  At that time in Canada there was no municipal government.  True, an unlucky experiment had been made in 1663, under the governor Mezy, when a mayor and two aldermen were elected at Quebec.  But their enjoyment of office was of brief duration; in a few weeks the election