1G72.] THE THREE ESTATES. 17 



the provinces of France ; and Frontenac conceived 

 the idea of reproducing them in Canada. Not 

 only did he cherish the tradition of faded liberties, 

 but he loved pomp and circumstance, above all, 

 when he was himself the central figure in it ; and 

 the thought of a royal governor of Languecloc or 

 Brittany, presiding over the estates of his province, 

 appears to have fired him with emulation. 



He had no difficulty in forming his order of the 

 clergy. The Jesuits and the seminary priests sup- 

 plied material even more abundant than he wished. 

 For the order of the nobles, he found three or four 

 gentilshommes at Quebec, and these he reinforced 

 with a number of officers. The third estate con- 

 sisted of the merchants and citizens ; and he 

 formed the members of the council and the magis- 

 trates into another distinct body, though, properly 

 speaking, they belonged to the third estate, of 

 which by nature and prescription they were the 

 head. The Jesuits, glad no doubt to lay him 

 under some slight obligation, lent him their church 

 for the ceremony that he meditated, and aided in 

 decorating it for the occasion. Here, on the 

 twenty- third of October, 1672, the three estates of 

 Canada were convoked, with as much pomp and 

 splendor as circumstances would permit. Then 

 Frontenac, with the ease of a man of the world 

 and the loftiness of a grand seigneur, delivered 

 himself of the harangue he had prepared. He 

 wrote exceedingly well ; he is said also to have 

 excelled as an orator ; certainly he was never 

 averse to the tones of his own eloquence. His 



