Crusaders of New France: A Chronicle of the Fleur-de-Lis in the Wilderness; Chronicles of America, Volume 4 — John Shaqi
Crusaders of New France: A Chronicle of the Fleur-de-Lis in the Wilderness; Chronicles of America, Volume 4Munro, William Bennett
History
Crusaders of New France: A Chronicle of the Fleur-de-Lis in the Wilderness; Chronicles of America, Volume 4
Munro, William Bennett
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); New France -- Discovery and exploration
But when the new viceroy arrived at Quebec he was in high fettle;
he was pleased with the situation of the town and flattered by the
enthusiastic greeting which he received from its people. His first
step was to familiarize himself with the existing machinery of
colonial government, which he found to be far from his liking. He
proceeded, accordingly, in his own imperious way, to make
some startling changes. For one thing, he decided to summon a
representative assembly made up of the clergy, the seigneurs, and
the common folk of New France. This body he brought together for his
inauguration in October, 1672. No such assembly had ever been convened
before, and nothing like it was ever allowed to assemble again.
Before another year had passed, the minister sent Frontenac a polite
reprimand with the intimation that the King could not permit in the
colony an institution he was doing his best, and with entire success,
to crush out at home. The same fate awaited the governor's other
project, the establishment of a municipal government in the town of
Quebec. Within a few months of his arrival, Frontenac had allowed
the people of the town to elect a syndic and two aldermen, but the
minister vetoed this action with the admonition that "you should very
rarely, or, to speak more correctly, never, give a corporate voice
to the inhabitants, for ... it is well that each should speak for
himself, and no one for all." In the reorganization of colonial
administration, therefore, the governor found himself promptly called
to a halt. He therefore turned to another field where he was much more
successful in having his own way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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