Table of Contents
In the edict establishing the Sovereign Council in 1663, there is no mention of the office of intendant. But it was soon found, perhaps as the result of the friction between the governor and the bishop, that it would be advisable to extend this office to Canada.[1] The office had gradually developed in France, and covered the spheres of justice, police and finance.
The first regular intendant in Canada was Jean Talon, who arrived in 1665, at a very opportune time for the beneficial exercise of his powers. The freedom and range of his administrative functions, combining both legislative and executive powers, minimized as far as possible the friction arising from the inevitable clashing of the various authorities in the colony.[2] Talon could not, of course, wholly prevent such difficulties, but the authority of the intendant certainly tended to lessen them, and gave to the colonial administration more efficiency and flexibility.
The powers and duties of the intendant in Canada are quite fully set forth in Talon’s commission, dated March 23, 1665.[3] The intendant was given supervision of the whole administration of justice. He was to act as chief justice in all civil matters, and as a final court of appeal. In the absence of the governor, he was to preside in the Sovereign Council. As administrator of the colonial finances, he was to supervise the equipment of the forces and the furnishing of military stores. The governor, the members of the council, and all other officials in the colony were required to recognize the authority of the intendant and to obey his commands within the sphere of his office. It will be seen that, at one stroke, a great deal of the power formerly vested in the governor and bishop was by this commission transferred to the intendant.
The Sovereign Council, to which the intendant was now added, was enlarged from time to time until it included seventeen members, the governor, the bishop, the intendant, twelve councillors, of whom one was clerk, an attorney-general, and a registrar. In their deliberations, the members of the council sat around a table, the governor at the head, with the bishop on his right and the intendant on his left. A regular session of the council was held every Monday and at such other times as business might require. In 1665 the right to sit ex officio in the council was given to Le Barrois, the agent of the West India Company. The chief courts were held at the palace of the intendant.
On June 30, 1665,[4] the Marquis de Tracy arrived at Quebec. Two years before, he had been appointed lieutenant-general of all the French dominions in America. He brought with him to Canada the first detachment of regular troops seen in the colony—the famous Carignan-Salières regiment.[5] The purpose of these troops was to drive back the Iroquois and relieve the colony from the Indian scourge of the past decade. This they triumphantly accomplished, thereby securing to the colony a period of peace and opportunity for internal development.[6] The colony was thus enabled to realize what was the most hopeful and inspiring period in its history—the golden age of New France—under the administration of Talon, the great intendant, and the governor, Daniel de Rémy, Sieur de Courcelle (1665-72), and, later, under that of Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac.
| [1] | The creation of the office of intendant in Canada resulted in a new division of the power which the edict establishing the council had placed exclusively in the hands of the governor and the bishop. Owing to the nature of the administrative duties of the office, it touched at every point the most constant and practical interests of the colonists. |
| [2] | At this time the West India Company was striving to control the Sovereign Council, and to exercise its arbitrary powers. |
| [3] | For the economic features of this commission see ‘The Colony in its Economic Relations’ in this section. |
| [4] | In the same year de Courcelle succeeded de Mézy as governor of the colony. |
| [5] | Many of the officers and soldiers of the Carignan regiment caught the new colonial spirit and remained to become citizens, taking up lands in various capacities, high and low, along the Richelieu River, and eventually forming one of the most stable and prosperous sections of the country. |
| [6] | See ‘The Colony in its Economic Relations’ in this section. |
