The Great Intendant | Page 6

appointing judicial officers, magistrates, and sovereign councils, and of naming, subject to the king's sanction governors and other functionaries; it had full power to sell the land or make grants in feudal tenure, to receive all seigneurial dues, to build forts, raise troops, and equip war-ships. The company's charter had been granted in 1664, and of course Canada, as well as the other French colonies in the New World, was included in its jurisdiction. The situation of this colony was therefore very peculiar. In 1663 the king had cancelled the charter of the One Hundred Associates and had taken back the fief of Canada; but a year later he had granted it again to a new company. At the same time he showed clearly that he intended to keep the administration in his own hands. Thus Canada seemed to have two masters. In accordance with its charter, the company held the ownership and government of the country de jure. But in point of fact the king wielded the government, thus taking back with one hand what he had given with the other. By right the company controlled the administration of justice; it could, and actually did, establish courts. But, in fact, the king appointed the intendant supreme judge in civil cases, and made the Sovereign Council a tribunal of superior jurisdiction. By right, to the company belonged the power of granting land and seigneuries. In fact, the governor or the intendant, the king's officers, made the grants at their pleasure. This strange situation, which lasted ten years--until the West India Company's charter was revoked in 1674--is often confusing to the student of the period.
Talon saw at a glance the anomaly of the situation; but, being a practical man, he was less displeased with the falsity of the principle than apprehensive of the evil that was likely to result. In a letter to Colbert, dated October 4, 1665, he discussed the subject at length, putting it in plain terms. If, when the grant was made, it was the king's intention to benefit only the company--to increase its profits and develop its trade--with no ulterior consideration for the development of the colony, then it would be well to leave to the company the sole ownership of the country. But if His Majesty had thought of making Canada one of the prosperous parts of his kingdom, it was very doubtful whether he could attain that end without keeping in his own hands the control of lands and trade. The real aim of the West India Company, as he had learned, was to enforce its commercial monopoly to the utmost; and become the only trading medium between the colony and the mother country. Such a policy could have but one result; it would put an end to private enterprise and discourage immigration.
In spite of the company's apparent overlordship, Talon thought that, as the king's agent, he was bound to exercise the powers appertaining to his office for the good of the colony. By the end of the year 1665 he had planned a new settlement in the vicinity of Quebec on lands included in the limits of the seigneury of Notre-Dame- des-Anges at Charlesbourg, which he had withdrawn from the grant to the Jesuits, under the king's authority. This was the occasion of some friction between the Jesuits and the intendant. Talon gave the necessary orders for the erection of about forty dwellings which should be ready to receive new settlers during the following year. These were to be grouped in three adjacent villages named Bourg-Royal, Bourg-la-Reine, and Bourg-Talon. We shall learn more of them in a following chapter.
Another enterprise of the intendant was numbering the people. Under his personal supervision, during the winter of 1666-67, a general census of the colony was taken--the first Canadian census of which we have any record. The count showed, as we have already said, a total population of 3215 in Canada at that time--2034 males and 1181 females. The married people numbered 1109, and there were 528 families. Elderly people were but few in number, 95 only being from fifty-one to sixty years old, 43 from sixty-one to seventy, 10 from seventy-one to eighty, and 4 from eighty-one to ninety. In regard to professions and occupations, there were then in New France 3 notaries, 5 surgeons, 18 merchants, 4 bailiffs, 3 schoolmasters, 36 carpenters, 27 joiners, 30 tailors, 8 coopers, 5 bakers, 9 millers, 3 locksmiths. The census did not include the king's troops, which formed a body of 1200 men. The clergy consisted of the bishop, 18 Priests and aspirants to the priesthood, and 35 Jesuit fathers. There were also 19 Ursulines, 23 Hospitalieres, and 4 Sisters of the Congregation. The original record of this, the first Canadian census, has been preserved and is without question