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Updated: June 27, 2025
Now it was to the intendant, in Talon's time, that the king committed the duty of granting seigneuries and of supervising the seigneurial system in operation. But, later, when Count Frontenac, the iron governor of the colony, came into conflict with the intendant on various other matters, he made complaint to the court at Versailles that the intendant was assuming too much authority.
Undoubtedly Colbert wished to help and strengthen New France, but he seemed to think that Talon's aim was too ambitious. In one of his letters the intendant had gone the length of submitting a plan f or the acquisition of New Netherlands, which had been conquered by the English in 1664.
He erected thereon a large house, a barn, and other buildings; and, in course of time, his fine property, comprising cultivated fields, meadows, and gardens, and well stocked with domestic animals, became a source of pride to him. Under Talon's wise direction and encouragement, the settlement of the country progressed rapidly.
He meant in this way to help the grain-growers by taking part of their surplus product, and also to do something to check the increasing importation of spirits which caused so much trouble and disorder. However questionable the efficacy of beer in promoting temperance, Talon's object is worthy of applause.
The gate was opened. It was in vain that the ordinance went on to forbid the Indians to get drunk under a penalty of two beavers and exposure in the pillory. A fearful punishment indeed! Talon's good faith was undeniable. On this occasion he doubtless thought that he was still serving the cause of public welfare.
At no time during the French period was this region made entirely secure; but Talon's plan made the Richelieu route much more difficult for the colony's foes, both white and red, than it otherwise would have been. Here was an interesting experiment in Roman imperial colonization repeated in the New World.
On the very day of his landing he went alone to the Hotel-Dieu, and asking for the superioress, introduced himself as the valet de chambre of the intendant, pretending to be sent by his master to assure the good ladies of the hospital of M. Talon's kindly disposition and desire to bestow on them every favour in his gift.
The question remained in abeyance and was not settled until four years afterwards, at the end of Talon's second term in Canada. He had written to Colbert on the subject stating that he would be glad to be discharged of the judicial responsibility, and to see the question of initiating lawsuits referred to the Sovereign Council.
Courcelle had asked for his own recall; his request was also granted and the Comte de Frontenac was named in his stead. No intendant was appointed to fill Talon's place. One of Talon's last official acts was the allotment, under authority of a decree of the King's Council of State, of a large number of seigneuries a matter of the highest importance for the development of the colony.
It must be admitted that the great intendant, in his fervid zeal for the public good and his passion for action, was not always careful or tactful in his behaviour to the governor. In the survey of Talon's first term of office mention was made of the many enterprises he set on foot for the internal progress of the colony. One of these was shipbuilding.
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