1672.] SPEECH OF FRONTENAC. 19 



their gallantry, and called upon them to be as 

 assiduous in the culture and improvement of the 

 colony as they were valiant in its 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 dis- 

 solved. 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 rep- 

 resent 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 rep- 

 resenting the king, reserved the right of confirma- 

 tion 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 capi- 



