Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/34

 weeks; but from any act of the colonial intendant appeals could be forwarded only by the ships which left in the autumn of each year, and the royal decision could not be had until the year following. The independence enjoyed by the colonial intendant was therefore much greater than that allowed to any similar officer at home.

Owing to the broad scope of the duties and powers of the intendant of New France, it is not easy to summarize them succinctly; but it may simplify matters somewhat to group them under two main heads: (1) those which he had as a member of the council, and (2) those which he had as an independent official.

1. As has been pointed out, the edict creating the council made no provision that the intendant should have a seat in the new body; but the commissions of the various intendants supplied this omission. From 1663 to 1675 the governor presided at the meetings of the council, the bishop ranked next to him, and the intendant third; but in the latter year the king, for some unexplained reason, ordered that henceforth the intendant should preside at the meetings, although retaining the third place of precedence on all other official occasions. The new intendant, Duchesneau, however, who came out to Quebec in the same year, complicated the matter somewhat by bringing with him a commission which gave him the right to preside only when the governor happened to be absent. Governor Frontenac therefore refused to yield his place at the head of the table to the new intendant, especially since the king and the minister continued to address him in their instructions as "chief and president of the council". Pending a reference of the matter to the king, a somewhat undignified squabble ensued between governor and intendant. The king, however, promptly decided in favor of the intendant's contention, pointing out that the wording of the edict of 1675 was perfectly plain, and reprimanding Frontenac severely for having "set up pretentions entirely opposed" to this royal decree. Henceforth the intendants presided at the council meetings and exercised the usual powers of a presiding officer, taking the votes, signing the records, and calling special meetings.

Although possessing but a single vote in a body of ten (and