1 8 JV. B. Munro appointed by the crown, the bishop or other head of the church in the colony, and five other members, presumably colonials, ap- pointed jointly (conjointcincnt et de concert) by the governor and bishop.' The council was to have the assistance and advice of an attorney-general, but as to the right of this officer to a seat at the council-board the edict is not clear. Contrary to the common assertion of historians, the edict of April, 1663, made no mention of a colonial intendant ; but there is good reason to believe that the king and his ministers intended to send such an official to Canada, and had in fact already selected the first appointee. About a month before the edict was issued, one M. Robert had been duly commissioned as intendant of New France. The commission of Robert was never enregistered in the records at Quebec, and it is certain that he never came out to the colony. In fact, I have found no evidence that he ever performed any official act. There was, however, sent out to New France in 1663 a special royal commissioner, the Sieur Gaudais-Dupont, who was directed by the terms of his commission to study closely the ad- ministration of justice, the methods of maintaining law and order, and the existing arrangements for the raising of revenue.- The commission of this official gave him a seat and a vote in the Sov- ereign Council, where he was to take precedence immediately after the bishop.^ Gaudais remained at Quebec but a short time, return- ing in the following year to France, where he made a report of his investigations to the king. It was at this point that colonial affairs took a new and sudden shift. The royal administration had no more than firmly estab- lished itself in the province when, under the auspices of Colbert, a powerful commercial company known as the Company of the West Indies was organized, and to this company was given a trad- ing monopoly throughout all the domains of France in the western world. ^ In these territories the new company was empowered to appoint " such governors " as might be deemed " requisite ".^ and " to name judges and officers of justice wherever need be " ; > As the governor and bishop found themselves unable to agree in the selec- tion, the king soon took the appointment of councillors into his own hands. In 1675 the number of appointive councillors was increased from five to seven {ibid., 83), and in 1703 a further increase to twelve was ordered (ibid., 2()()^. ^ " Commission octroyee au Sieur Gaudais pour aller examiner le pays de la Nouvelle-France ", May 7, 1663, ibid., III. 22-23. 'Gaudais never, as Kingsford (History of Canada, I. 306) seems to suppose, had the title of intendant.
- " fitablissement de la Compagnie des Indes Occidentales ", £:dits ct Ordon-
' Ibid., § XXVI.
