1675-82.] THE NEW MINISTER. 61 



principal author, has been so great that the last 

 ships were hardly gone, when, forgetting what 

 your Majesty had enjoined upon us both, he began 

 these dissensions afresh, in spite of all my precau- 

 tions. If I depart from my usual reserve in regard 

 to him, and make bold to ask justice at the hands 

 of your Majesty for the wrongs and insults I have 

 undergone, it is because nothing but your authority 

 can keep them within bounds. I have never suf- 

 fered more in my life than when I have been made 

 to appear as a man of violence and a disturber of 

 the officers of justice : for I have always confined 

 myself to what your Majesty has prescribed ; that 

 is, to exhorting them to do their duty when I 

 saw that they failed in it. This has drawn upon 

 me, both from them and from M. Duchesneau, 

 such cutting affronts that your Majesty would 

 hardly credit them." * 



In 1681, Seignelay, the son of Colbert, entered 

 upon the charge of the colonies ; and both Fron- 

 tenac and Duchesneau hastened to congratulate 

 him, protest their devotion, and overwhelm him 

 with mutual accusations. The intendant declares 

 that, out of pure zeal for the king's service, he 

 shall tell him every thing. " Disorder," he says, 

 " reigns everywhere ; universal confusion prevails 

 throughout every department of business ; the 

 pleasure of the king, the orders of the Supreme 

 Council, and my ordinances remain unexecuted ; 

 justice is openly violated, and trade is destroyed ; 

 violence, upheld by authority, decides every thing ; 



1 Frontenac au Roy, 2 Nov., 1681. 



