ich arose upon the question of the title of
President of the Council between Frontenac and the Commissioner Jacques
Duchesneau. The latter, at first "_President des tresoriers de la
generalite de Tours_," had been appointed _intendant_ of New France by a
commission which bears the same date as the royal edict reviving the
Sovereign Council. While thinking of the material good of the colony,
the Most Christian King took care not to neglect its spiritual
interests; he undertook to provide for the maintenance of the parish
priests and other ecclesiastics wherever necessary, and to meet in case
of need the expenses of the divine service. In addition he expressed his
will "that there should always be in the council one ecclesiastical
member," and later he added a clerical councillor to the members already
installed. There were summoned to the council MM. de Villeray, de Tilly,
Damours, Dupont, Louis Rene de Lotbiniere, de Peyras, and Denys de
Vitre. M. Denis Joseph Ruette d'Auteuil was appointed
solicitor-general; his functions consisted in speaking in the name of
the king, and in making, in the name of the prince or of the public, the
necessary statements. The former clerk, M. Peuvret de Mesnu, was
retained in his functions.

The quarrels thus generated between the governor and the commissioner on
the question of the title of president grew so embittered that discord
did not cease to prevail between the two men on even the most
insignificant questions. Forcibly involved in these dissensions, the
Sovereign Council itself was divided into two hostile camps, and letters
of complaint and denunciation rained upon the desk of the minister in
France: on the one hand the governor was accused of receiving presents
from the savages before permitting them to trade at Montreal, and was
reproached for sending beavers to New England; on the other hand, it was
hinted that the commissioner was interested in the business of the
principal merchants of the colony. Scrupulously honest, but of a
somewhat stern temperament, Duchesneau could not bend to the imperious
character of Frontenac, who in his exasperation readily allowed himself
to be impelled to arbitrary acts; thus he kept the councillor Damours in
prison for two months for a slight cause, and banished from Quebec three
other councillors, MM. de Villeray, de Tilly and d'Auteuil. The climax
was reached, and in spite of the services rendered to the country by
these two administrators, th