icating with its governor.... I
have blamed the action of the Abbe de Fenelon, and have commanded him to
return no more to Canada; but I must tell you that it was difficult to
enter a criminal procedure against him, or to compel the priests of St.
Sulpice to bear witness against him. He should have been delivered over
to his bishop or to the grand vicar to suffer the ecclesiastical
penalties, or should have been arrested and sent back to France by the
first ship. I have been told besides," added the monarch, "that you
would not permit ecclesiastics 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 wh