man than the governor himself. So
jealously did the Bourbons guard their despotism that the crown would
not place wide authority in the hands of any one representative. The
governor, as a noble and a soldier, knew little or nothing of civil
business. To watch over the finances and the prosperity of the
province, an intendant was appointed. This official was always chosen
from the middle class and owed his position, his advancement, his whole
future, to the king. The governor might possess wealth, or family
connections. The intendant had little save what came to him from his
sovereign's favour. Gratitude and interest alike tended to make him a
faithful servant.

But, though the crown had destroyed the political power of the nobles,
it left intact their social pre-eminence. The king was as supreme as a
Christian ruler could be. Yet {4} by its very nature the monarchy
could not exist without the nobles, from whose ranks the sovereign drew
his attendants, friends, and lieutenants. Versailles without its
courtiers would have been a desert. Even the Church was a stronghold
of the aristocracy, for few became bishops or abbots who were not of
gentle birth.

The great aim of government, whether at home or in the colonies, was to
maintain the supremacy of the crown. Hence all public action flowed
from a royal command. The Bourbon theory required that kings should
speak and that subjects should obey. One direct consequence of a
system so uncompromisingly despotic was the loss of all local
initiative. Nothing in the faintest degree resembling the New England
town-meeting ever existed in New France. Louis XIV objected to public
gatherings of his people, even for the most innocent purposes. The
sole limitation to the power of the king was the line of cleavage
between Church and State. Religion required that the king should
refrain from invading the sphere of the clergy, though controversy
often waxed fierce as to where the secular ended and the spiritual
began.

{5}

When it became necessary to provide institutions for Canada, the
organization of the province in France at once suggested itself as a
fit pattern. Canada, like Normandy, had the governor and the intendant
for her chief officials, the seigneury for the groundwork of her
society, and mediaeval _coutumes_ for her laws.

The governor represented the king's dignity and the force of his arms.
He was a noble, titled or untitled. It was the business o