The hour was auspicious for the entreaties of New France.
Petitions and statements were addressed to the king by
Mgr de Laval, the head of ecclesiastical affairs in the
colony, by the governor Avaugour, and by the Jesuit
fathers; and Pierre Boucher, governor of the district of
Three Rivers, was sent to France as a delegate to present
them. Louis and his minister studied the conditions of
the colony on the St Lawrence and decided in 1663 to give
it a new constitution. The charter of the One Hundred
Associates was cancelled and the old Council of
Quebec--formed in 1647--was reorganized under the name
of the Sovereign Council. This new governing body was to
be composed of the governor, the bishop, the intendant,
an attorney-general, a secretary, and five councillors.
It was invested with a general jurisdiction for the
administration of justice in civil and criminal matters.
It had also to deal with the questions of police, roads,
finance, and trade.

To establish a new and improved system of administration
was a good thing, but this alone would hardly avail if
powerful help were not forthcoming to rescue New France
from ruin, despondency, and actual extermination. The
colony was dying for lack of soldiers, settlers, and
labourers, as well as stores of food and munitions of
war for defence and maintenance. Louis XIV made up his
mind that help should be given. In 1664 three hundred
labourers were conveyed to Quebec at the king's expense,
and in the following year the colonists received the