rge civil,
commercial and maritime jurisdiction, and could issue ordinances which
had full legal effect in the country. Associated with the governor and
intendant was a council comprising in the first instance five, and
eventually twelve, persons, chosen from the leading people of the
colony. The change of name, from the "Supreme Council" to the "Superior
Council," is of itself some evidence of the determination of the king to
restrain the pretensions of all official bodies throughout the kingdom
and its dependencies. This body exercised legislative and judicial
powers. The bishop was one of its most important members, and the
history of the colony is full of the quarrels that arose between him and
the governor on points of official etiquette or with respect to more
important matters affecting the government of the country.

Protestantism was unknown in Canada under French rule, and the
enterprise of the Huguenots was consequently lost to a country always
suffering from a want of population. Even the merchants of La Rochelle,
who traded with the country, found themselves invariably subject to
restrictions which placed them at an enormous disadvantage in their
competition with their Roman Catholic rivals. The Roman Catholic Church
was all powerful at the council-board as well as in the parish. In the
past as in the present century, a large Roman Catholic church rose, the
most prominent building in every town and village, illustrating its
dominating influence in the homes of every community of the province.
The parishes were established at an early date for ecclesiastical
purposes, and their extent was defined wherever necessary by the
council at Quebec. They were practically territorial divisions for the
administration of local affairs, and were conterminous, whenever
practicable, with the seigniory. The cure, the seignior, the militia
captain (often identical with the seignior), were the important
functionaries in every parish. Even at the present time, when a
canonical parish has been once formed by the proper ecclesiastical
authority, it may be erected into a municipal or civil division after
certain legal formalities by the government of the province. Tithes were
first imposed by Bishop Laval, who practically established the basis of
ecclesiastical authority in the province. It was only in church matters
that the people had the right to meet and express their opinions, and
even then the intendant alone could give the