parliament should attempt now to dictate to our merchants
the selling price of their merchandise! But in the
seventeenth century such a thing was common enough. It
was a time of extreme official interference in private
affairs and transactions.

We have mentioned the syndic of the inhabitants--syndic
des habitants. A word about this officer will be in place
here. He was the spokesman of the community when complaints
had to be made or petitions presented to the governor or
the Sovereign Council. At that time in Canada there was
no municipal government. True, an unlucky experiment had
been made in 1663, under the governor Mezy, when a mayor
and two aldermen were elected at Quebec. But their
enjoyment of office was of brief duration; in a few weeks
the election was declared void, It was then determined
to nominate a syndic to represent the inhabitants, and
on August 3 Claude Charron, a merchant, was elected to
the office; but, as the habitants often had difficulties
to settle with members of the commercial class, objection
was taken to him on the ground that he was a tradesman,
and he retired. On September 17 a new election took place,
and Jean Le Mire, a carpenter, was elected. Later on,
during the troubles of the Mezy regime, the office seems
to have been practically abolished; but when the government
was reorganized, it was thought advisable to revive it.
The council decreed another election, and on March 20,
1667, Jean Le Mire was again chosen as syndic. Le Mire
continued to hold the office for many years.