Guardianship of public morality and the maintenance of public order were the chief cares of the council.  It was ever intent on the suppression of vice.  On August 20, 1667, in the presence of Tracy, Courcelle, Talon, and Laval, the attorney-general submitted information of scandalous conduct on the part of some women and girls, and represented that a severe punishment would be a wholesome warning to all evil-doers; he also suggested that the wife of Sebastien Langelier, being one of the most disorderly, should be singled out for an exemplary penalty.  A councillor was immediately appointed to investigate the case.  What was done in this particular instance is not recorded, but there is evidence to show that licentious conduct was often severely dealt with.  Crimes and misdemeanours were ruthlessly pursued.  For a theft committed at night in the Hotel-Dieu garden, the intendant condemned a man to be marked with the fleur-de-lis, to be exposed for four hours in the pillory, and to serve three years in the galleys.  Another culprit convicted of larceny was sentenced to be publicly whipped and to serve three years in the galleys.  Both these prisoners escaped and returned to their former practices.  They were recaptured and sentenced, the first to be hanged, the second to be whipped, marked with the fleur-de-lis, and kept in irons until further order.  Rape in the colony was unhappily frequent.  A man convicted of this crime was condemned to death and executed two days later.  Another was whipped till the blood flowed and condemned to serve nine years in the galleys.

Let us now turn to activities of another order.  One of the most important ordinances enacted by the Sovereign Council under Talon’s direction was that which concerned the importation of spirits and the establishment in the colony of the brewing industry.  It was stated in this decree that the great quantity of brandies and wines imported from France was a cause of debauchery.  Many were diverted from productive work, their health was ruined, they were induced to squander their money, and prevented from buying necessaries and supplies useful for the development of the colony.  Talon, as we have read in another chapter, thought that one of the best means of combating the immoderate use of spirits was the setting up of breweries; at the same time he intended that this industry should help agriculture.  The Sovereign Council entered into these views and enacted that as soon as breweries should be in operation in Canada all importation of wines and spirits should be prohibited, except by special permission and subject to a tax of five hundred livres, payable one-third to the seigneurs of the country, one-third to the Hotel-Dieu, and one-third to the person who had set up the first brewery after the date of the enactment.  Under no circumstances should the yearly importation exceed eight hundred hogsheads of wine and four hundred of brandy.  When this amount had been reached, no further licences to import