To the colony of that day the Sovereign Council was,
broadly speaking, what the legislatures, the executives,
the courts of justice, and the various commissions--all
combined--are to modern Canada. But, as we have seen, it
had arbitrary powers that these modern bodies are not
permitted to exercise. Its long arm reached into every
concern of the inhabitants. In 1667, for example, the
habitants asked for a regulation to fix the millers'
fee--the amount of the toll to which they would be entitled
for grinding the grain. The owners of the flour-mills
represented that the construction, repair, and maintenance
of their mills were two or three times more costly in
Canada than in France, and that they should have a
proportionate fee; still, they would be willing to accept
the bare remuneration usually allowed in the kingdom.
The toll was fixed at one-fourteenth of the grain. Highways
were also under the care of the council. When the residents
of a locality presented a petition for opening a road,
the council named two of its members to make an inspection
and report. On receipt of the report, an order would be
issued for opening a road along certain lines and of a
specified width (it was often eighteen feet), and for
pulling stumps and filling up hollows. There was an
official called the grand-voyer, or general overseer of
roads. The office had been established in 1657, when Rene
Robineau de Becancourt was appointed grand-voyer by the
Company of One Hundred Associates. But in the wretched
state of the colony at that time M. de Becancourt had
not much work to do. In later years, however, the usefulness
of a grand-voyer had become more apparent, and Becancourt