the governor Avaugour opened the door to renewed disorder
two years later by a most unfortunate policy. Thereupon
Laval crossed the ocean to France, obtained the governor's
recall, and succeeded, though with some difficulty, in
maintaining the former prohibition. In 1663 the Sovereign
Council enacted an ordinance strictly forbidding the
selling or giving of brandy to Indians directly or
indirectly, for any reason or pretence whatsoever. The
penalty for the offence was a fine of three hundred
livres, payable one-third to the informers, one-third to
the Hotel-Dieu, and one-third to the public treasury.
And for a second offence the punishment was whipping or
banishment. In 1667, after the Sovereign Council had been
finally reorganized, the prohibition was renewed, on a
motion of attorney-general Bourdon, under the same
penalties as before, and it devolved many times upon the
council to condemn transgressors of this ordinance to
fines, imprisonment, or corporal punishment. Talon was
present and concurred in these condemnations. But gradually
his mind changed. He was becoming daily more impressed
with the material benefits of the brandy traffic and less
convinced of its moral danger. He was besides displeased
with the bishop's excommunication. In his view it was an
encroachment of the spiritual upon the civil power. Under
the influence of these feelings he came to consider
prohibition of the liquor traffic as a mistake, damaging
to the trade and progress of the colony and to French
influence over the Indian tribes. These were the arguments
put forward by the supporters of the traffic. According
to them, to refuse brandy to the Indians was to let the