d unsuitable for
ecclesiastical functions, in which one is constantly obliged to converse
and deal with one's neighbours, both children and adults. Having given
him the cassock and having admitted him to the refectory, I hardly see
any other means of getting rid of him than to send him back to France."

In his correspondence with Saint-Vallier, Laval gives an account of the
various steps which he was taking at court to maintain the integrity of
the diocese of Quebec. This was, for a short time, at stake. The
Recollets, who had followed La Salle in his expeditions, were trying
with some chance of success to have the valley of the Mississippi and
Louisiana made an apostolic vicariate independent of Canada. Laval
finally gained his cause; the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Quebec
over all the countries of North America which belonged to France was
maintained, and later the Seminary of Quebec sent missionaries to
Louisiana and to the Mississippi.

But the most important questions, which formed the principal subject
both of his preoccupations and of his letters, are that of the
establishment of the Recollets in the Upper Town of Quebec, that of a
plan for a permanent mission at Baie St. Paul, and above all, that of
the tithes and the support of the priests. This last question brought
about between him and Mgr. de Saint-Vallier a most complete conflict of
views. Yet the differences of opinion between the two servants of God
never prevented them from esteeming each other highly. The following
letter does as much honour to him who wrote it as to him to whom such
homage is rendered: "The noble house of Laval from which he sprang,"
writes Mgr. de Saint-Vallier, "the right of primogeniture which he
renounced on entering upon the ecclesiastical career; the exemplary life
which he led in France before there was any thought of raising him to
the episcopacy; the assiduity with which he governed so long the Church
in Canada; the constancy and firmness which he showed in surmounting all
the obstacles which opposed on divers occasions the rectitude of his
intentions and the welfare of his dear flock; the care which he took of
the French colony and his efforts for the conversion of the savages; the
expeditions which he undertook several times in the interests of both;
the zeal which impelled him to return to France to seek a successor; his
disinterestedness and the humility which he manifested in offering and
in giving so willingly his