After some hesitation, in view of the expense of the undertaking, the Seminary of St. Sulpice at Paris, on March 31st, finally undertook the work for which their founder had always intended them, and Montreal was saved from the abandonment which at one time during the negotiations looked imminent. There was a desire to have M. de Queylus sent back, but Laval, then in Paris, was adamant in his firmness.
On his part, he was very well received at court. The king would have Laval made "Bishop of Quebec" and he gave him the abbey revenues of Maubec in the diocese of Bourges to sustain the position when the see of Quebec should be erected, which was not to be for many years. The most important preparation for the better government of New France, and one in favor of Laval, was the edict, published in March by the king, of the appointment of a Sovereign Council to sit at Quebec, unless judged more convenient elsewhere. This was to consist of the governor general, the bishop, or in default the highest ecclesiastic on the spot, the intendant when appointed, five councillors and a procureur du roi.
The nomination of these councillors was to be made conjointly by the governor general and the bishop, and they could dismiss them or continue them at pleasure. This gave Laval greater power than before, for hitherto under d'Avaugour, he had only a right to be called to the council with a "voix délibératrice," as a simple councillor among creatures chosen by the governor general. The Baron d'Avaugour was recalled, [91] and Laval was constrained to name his successor, his choice falling unfortunately on M. Saffray de Mézy, then town major of Caen, whom he had formerly met at the Hermitage of Caen, where M. Bernières gathered his pious friends whom he thought he could rely on to extend the glory of God. De Mézy's letters were signed on May 1st, before d'Avaugour's second year of the usual term of three years was completed. On March 26th Laval, in preparation for rearing a colonial clergy, erected a seminary and united it with that of the Foreign Missionaries of Paris, from whom he wished to draw some volunteers.
In the April following he obtained an edict from the king regulating the "dime" for church support and the poor rate, to be fixed at the thirteenth part of the income of each colonist. It was arranged also that the curés should be removable at the will of the bishop and his successors.
The bishop of Petrea reached Quebec on September 15th with the new governor general, de Mézy, and M. Louis Gaudais, Sieur du Pont. The latter had been sent by the king as an envoy to enquire into the government of d'Avaugour, and in addition to report on the most convenient means for the colonization and cultivation of the country. The troops which the king had desired to send to subdue the Iroquois were not as yet at liberty to come, but in their place, 100 families containing 500 persons, with expenses defrayed for a year, were dispatched this year.
By September 28th the new councillors, Rouer de Villeray, keeper of the seals; Jucherau de la Ferté, M. Ruette d'Auteuil, Legardeur de Tilly, d'Amours; and the new king's procurator, M. Bourdoin, with Gaudais, the royal commissioner acting as intendant ad interim, had collaborated with de Mézy and Laval and had issued a severe edict forbidding the liquor traffic with the Indians.
There was now great stir under the new form of Royal Government. Mézy and Laval were announced as Chiefs of the Council. The inhabitants made offer of their "foi et hommage" for their land tenures. Officers for the administration of justice, according to civil law, were appointed. Regulations for commerce and social progress were promulgated. New France was declared a province or a kingdom and Quebec a "town." A mayor, Legardeur de Repentigny, and two aldermen, Jean Maudry and Claude Charron, were elected, and municipal life seemed promised. These officers met on October 6th, but by November 14th their election was revoked by the council and the office of syndic again restored. This abortive municipal life was apparently too great a stride in the autocratic government then in vogue. Yet Canada was beginning to emerge from its petty parish condition and its struggling state. The privilege granted Laval of exacting one-thirteenth part of the fruits of the earth and of a man's labour on the earth for church establishment was not satisfactory, and finally it was reduced to one-twentieth for the rest of monseigneur's life; later it was reduced by Laval to a twenty-sixth.
The taking over of the colony as a royal possession began to affect other places than Quebec. At Montreal, the assumption of the seigneurial duties and privileges was not without difficulty. On August 18th, the commission which had been privately given by M. de Bretonvilliers to M. Souart was publicly ratified. But hardly had the Sovereign Council been installed than it took away the right of the Seigneurs to administer justice in civil and criminal cases, and on September 28th appointed M. Arthur de Sailly as judge, Charles Le Moyne, king's procurator, Bénigne Basset as chief clerk and notary of the sénéchal's court, all of whom took the oath on October 19th.
Similar inferior courts of justice were also established at Three Rivers; appeal could be made on trivial causes to the supreme council. The customary law of Paris, or "coutume de Paris," based on the civil law of Rome, was the fundamental law of Canada, and still governs the civil rights of the people.