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 was declared void, It was then determined to nominate a syndic to represent the inhabitants, and on August 3 Claude Charron, a merchant, was elected to the office; but, as the habitants often had difficulties to settle with members of the commercial class, objection was taken to him on the ground that he was a tradesman, and he retired. On September 17 a new election took place, and Jean Le Mire, a carpenter, was elected. Later on, during the troubles of the Mezy regime, the office seems to have been practically abolished; but when the government was reorganized, it was thought advisable to revive it. The council decreed another election, and on March 20, 1667, Jean Le Mire was again chosen as syndic. Le Mire continued to hold the office for many years.
To the colony of that day the Sovereign Council was, broadly speaking, what the legislatures, the executives, the courts of justice, and the various commissions—all combined—are to modern Canada. But, as we have seen, it had arbitrary powers that these modern bodies are not permitted to exercise. Its long arm reached into every concern of the inhabitants. In 1667, for example, the habitants asked for a regulation to fix the millers' fee—the amount of the toll to which they would be entitled for grinding the grain. The owners of the flour-mills represented that the construction, repair, and maintenance of their mills were two or three times more costly in Canada than in France, and that they should have a proportionate fee; still, they would be willing to accept the bare remuneration usually allowed in the kingdom. The toll was fixed at one-fourteenth of the grain. Highways were also under the care of the council. When the residents of a locality presented a petition for opening a road, the council named two of its members to make an inspection and report. On receipt of the report, an order would be issued for opening a road along certain lines and of a specified width (it was often eighteen feet), and for pulling stumps and filling up hollows. There was an official called the grand-voyer, or general overseer of roads. The office had been established in 1657, when Rene Robineau de Becancourt was appointed grand-voyer by the Company of One Hundred Associates. But in the wretched state of the colony at that time M. de Becancourt had not much work to do. In later years, however, the usefulness of a grand-voyer had become more apparent, and Becancourt asked for a confirmation of his appointment. On the suggestion of Talon, the council reinstated him and ordered that his commission be registered. During the whole French regime there were but five general overseers of roads or grands-voyers: Rene Robineau de Becancourt (1657-99); Pierre Robineau de Becancourt (1699-1729); E. Lanoullier de Boisclerc (1731-51); M. de la Gorgendiere (1751-59); M. de Lino (1759-60).
Guardianship of public morality and the maintenance of public order were the chief cares of the council. It was ever intent on the suppression of vice. On August 20, 1667, in the presence of Tracy, Courcelle, Talon, and Laval, the attorney-general submitted information of scandalous conduct on the part of some women and girls, and represented that a severe punishment would be a wholesome warning to all evil-doers; he also suggested that the wife of Sebastien Langelier, being one of the most disorderly, should be singled out for an exemplary penalty. A councillor was immediately appointed to investigate the case. What was done in this particular instance is not recorded, but there is evidence to show that licentious conduct was often severely dealt with. Crimes and misdemeanours were ruthlessly pursued. For a theft committed at night in the Hotel-Dieu garden, the intendant condemned a man to be marked with the fleur-de-lis, to be exposed for four hours in the pillory, and to serve three years in the galleys. Another culprit convicted of larceny was sentenced to be publicly whipped and to serve three years in the galleys. Both these prisoners escaped and returned to their former practices. They were recaptured and sentenced, the first to be hanged, the second to be whipped, marked with the fleur-de-lis, and kept in irons until further order. Rape in the colony was unhappily frequent. A man convicted of this crime was condemned to death and executed two days later. Another was whipped till the blood flowed and condemned to serve nine years in the galleys.
Let us now turn to activities of another order. One of the most important ordinances enacted by the Sovereign Council under Talon's direction was that which concerned the importation of spirits and the establishment in the colony of the brewing industry. It was stated in this decree that the great quantity of brandies and wines imported from France was a cause of debauchery. Many were diverted from productive work, their health was ruined, they were induced to squander their money, and prevented from buying necessaries and supplies useful for the development of the colony. Talon, as we have read in another chapter, thought that one of the best means of combating the immoderate use of spirits was the setting up of breweries; at the same time he intended that this industry should help agriculture. The Sovereign Council entered into these views and enacted that as soon as breweries should be in operation in Canada all importation of wines and spirits should be prohibited, except by special permission and subject to a tax of five hundred livres, payable one-third to the seigneurs of the country, one-third to the Hotel-Dieu, and one-third to the person who had set up the first brewery after the date of the enactment. Under no circumstances should the yearly importation exceed eight hundred hogsheads of wine and four hundred of brandy. When this amount had been reached, no further licences to import would be issued. The council begged Talon to take the necessary steps for the construction and equipment of one or more breweries. The owners of these were to have, during ten years, the exclusive privilege of brewing for trading purposes. The price of beer was fixed beforehand at twenty livres per hogshead and six sous per pot so long as barley was priced at three livres per bushel or less; if the price of barley went higher, the price of beer should be raised proportionately.
In 1667 the Sovereign Council—inspired by Talon—had to discuss a very important question. This was the formation of a company of Canadians to secure the exclusive privilege of trading. By its charter, the West India Company had been granted the commercial monopoly. Under pressure from Talon it had somewhat abated its pretensions and had allowed freedom of trade for a time. But again it was urging its rights. The council asked the intendant to support with his influence at court the plan for a Canadian company, which he did. Colbert did not say no; neither did he seem in a hurry to grant the request. In 1668 the council sent the minister a letter praying for freedom of trade. This year the company had enforced its monopoly and the people had suffered from the lack of necessaries, which could not be found in the company's stores; moreover, prices were exceedingly high. Such a state of things was detrimental to the colony. The council begged that, if Colbert were not disposed to grant freedom of trade, he would favourably consider the scheme for a trading company composed of Canadians, which had been submitted to him the year before. We shall see, later on, what came of this agitation against the West India Company.
The good understanding between the intendant and the Sovereign Council was absolute. The council had shown unequivocal confidence in Talon's ability and respect for his person and authority. A few days before the Marquis de Tracy had left the colony the council had ordered that all petitions to enter lawsuits should be presented to the intendant, who should assign them to the council or to the lieutenant civil and criminal, or try them himself, at his discretion. This was treating Talon as the supreme magistrate and acknowledging him as the dispenser of justice. M. de Courcelle, who was beginning to feel some uneasiness at Talon's great authority and prestige, refused to sign the proceedings of that day, inscribing these lines in the council's register: 'This decree being against the governor's authority and the public good, I did not wish to sign it.' At the beginning of the following year Talon, whose attention perhaps had not been called to Courcelle's written protest, requested the adoption of a similar decree; and the council did not hesitate to confirm its previous decision, notwithstanding the governor's former opposition, which he reiterated in the same terms. Courcelle was certainly mistaken in supposing that the council's decision was an encroachment on his authority. The superior jurisdiction in judicial matters belonged to the intendant. Under his commission he had the right to 'judge alone and with full jurisdiction in civil matters,' to 'hear all cases of crimes and misdemeanours, abuse and malversation, by whomsoever committed,' to 'proceed against all persons guilty of any crime, whatever might be their quality or condition, to pursue the proceedings until final completion, judgment and execution thereof.' Nevertheless, in practice and with due regard to the good administration of justice, the council's decree went perhaps too far. The question remained in abeyance and was not settled until four years afterwards, at the end of Talon's second term in Canada. He had written to Colbert on the subject stating that he would be glad to be discharged of the judicial responsibility, and to see the question of initiating lawsuits referred to the Sovereign Council.
As a matter of fact [he said], receiving the petitions for entering lawsuits does not mean retaining them before myself. I have not judged twenty cases, civil or criminal, since I came here, having always tried as much as I could to conciliate the opposing parties. The reason why I speak now of this matter is that very often, for twenty or thirty livres of principal, a plaintiff goes before the judge of first instance—which diverts the parties from the proper cultivation of their farms—and later on, by way of an appeal, before the Sovereign Council which likes to hear and judge cases.
Colbert did not deem the decision of the council advisable.
It is contrary [he wrote] to the order of justice, in virtue of which, leaving in their own sphere the superior judges, the judges of first instance are empowered to hear all cases within their jurisdiction, and their judgments can be appealed from to the Sovereign Council. Moreover it would be a burden for the king's subjects living far from Quebec to go there unnecessarily in order to ascertain before what tribunal they should be heard.