Fortunately a change was at hand.  The prolonged struggle of the Thirty Years’ War and of the war against Spain had been ended by the treaty of Munster and Osnabruck in 1648 and by that of the Pyrenees in 1659.  The civil dissensions of the Fronde were over, thanks to the skilful policy of Cardinal Mazarin, Richelieu’s successor.  After the death of Mazarin in 1661, Louis XIV had taken into his own hands the reins of administration.  He was young, painstaking, and ambitious; and he wanted to be not only king but the real ruler of his kingdom.  In Jean Baptiste Colbert, the man who had been Mazarin’s right hand, he had the good fortune to find one of the best administrators in all French history.  Colbert soon won the king’s confidence.  He was instrumental in detecting the maladministration of Fouquet as superintendent of Finance, and became a member of the council appointed to investigate and report on all financial questions.  Of this body he was the leading spirit from the beginning.  Although at first without the title of minister, he was promptly invested with a wide authority over the finances, trade, agriculture, industry, and marine affairs.  Within two years he had shown his worth and had justified the king’s choice.  Great and beneficial reforms had been accomplished in almost every branch of the administration.  The exhausted treasury had been replenished, trade and industry were encouraged, agriculture was protected, and a navy created.  Under a progressive government France seemed to awake to new life.

The hour was auspicious for the entreaties of New France.  Petitions and statements were addressed to the king by Mgr de Laval, the head of ecclesiastical affairs in the colony, by the governor Avaugour, and by the Jesuit fathers; and Pierre Boucher, governor of the district of Three Rivers, was sent to France as a delegate to present them.  Louis and his minister studied the conditions of the colony on the St Lawrence and decided in 1663 to give it a new constitution.  The charter of the One Hundred Associates was cancelled and the old Council of Quebec—­formed in 1647—­was reorganized under the name of the Sovereign Council.  This new governing body was to be composed of the governor, the bishop, the intendant, an attorney-general, a secretary, and five councillors.  It was invested with a general jurisdiction for the administration of justice in civil and criminal matters.  It had also to deal with the questions of police, roads, finance, and trade.

To establish a new and improved system of administration was a good thing, but this alone would hardly avail if powerful help were not forthcoming to rescue New France from ruin, despondency, and actual extermination.  The colony was dying for lack of soldiers, settlers, and labourers, as well as stores of food and munitions of war for defence and maintenance.  Louis XIV made up his mind that help should be given.  In 1664 three hundred labourers were conveyed to Quebec