defence. The magistrates, the merchants, and the colonists in general
were each addressed in an appropriate exhortation. "I can assure you,
messieurs," he concluded, "that if you faithfully discharge your
several duties, each in his station, his Majesty will extend to us all
the help and all the favor that we can desire. It is needless, then,
to urge you to act as I have counselled, since it is for your own
interest to do so. As for me, it only remains to protest before you
that I shall esteem myself happy in consecrating all my efforts, and,
if need be, my life itself, to extending the empire of Jesus Christ
throughout all this land, and the supremacy of our king over all the
nations that dwell in it." He administered the oath, and the assembly
dissolved. He now applied himself to another work: that of giving a
municipal government to Quebec, after the model of some of the cities
of France. In place of the syndic, an official supposed to represent
the interests of the citizens, he ordered the public election of three
aldermen, of whom the senior should act as mayor. One of the number
was to go out of office every year, his place being filled by a new
election; and the governor, as representing the king, reserved the
right of confirmation or rejection. He then, in concert with the chief
inhabitants, proceeded to frame a body of regulations for the
government of a town destined, as he again and again declares, to
become the capital of a mighty empire; and he farther ordained that
the people should hold a meeting every six months to discuss questions
involving the welfare of the colony. The boldness of these measures
will scarcely be appreciated at the present day. The intendant Talon
declined, on pretence of a slight illness, to be present at the
meeting of the estates. He knew too well the temper of the king, whose
constant policy it was to destroy or paralyze every institution or
custom that stood in the way of his autocracy. The despatches in which
Frontenac announced to his masters what he had done received in due