the Sovereign Council which likes to hear and judge
cases.

Colbert did not deem the decision of the council advisable.

It is contrary [he wrote] to the order of justice, in
virtue of which, leaving in their own sphere the
superior judges, the judges of first instance are
empowered to hear all cases within their jurisdiction,
and their judgments can be appealed from to the
Sovereign Council. Moreover it would be a burden for
the king's subjects living far from Quebec to go there
unnecessarily in order to ascertain before what tribunal
they should be heard.

We must now speak of a most important matter--the brandy
traffic. The sale of intoxicating liquor to the Indians
had always been prohibited in the colony. In 1657 a decree
of the King's State Council had ratified and renewed this
prohibition under pain of corporal punishment. Yet,
notwithstanding the decree, greedy traders broke the law
and, for the purpose of getting furs at a low price,
supplied the Indians with eau-de-feu, or firewater, which
made them like wild beasts. The most frightful disorders
were prevalent, the most heinous crimes committed, and
scandalous demoralization followed. In 1660 the evil was
so great that Mgr de Laval, exercising his pastoral
functions, decreed excommunication against all those
pursuing the brandy traffic in defiance of ordinances.
This might have stopped the progress of the evil had not