The Council met at the Chateau St Louis on Monday morning of each week, at a round table where the governor had the bishop on his right hand and the intendant on his left.  Nevertheless the intendant presided, for the matters under discussion fell chiefly in his domain.  Of the other councillors the attorney-general was the most conspicuous.  To him fell the task of sifting the petitions and determining which should be presented.  Although there were local judges at Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal, the Council had jurisdiction over all important cases, whether criminal or civil.  In the sphere of commerce its powers were equally complete and minute.  It told merchants what profits they could take on their goods, and how their goods should be classified with respect to the percentage of profit allowed.  Nothing was too petty for its attention.  Its records depict with photographic accuracy the nature of French government in Canada.  From this source we can see how the principle of paternalism was carried out to the last detail.

But Canada was a long way from France and the St Lawrence was larger than the Seine.  It is hard to fight against nature, and in Canada there were natural obstacles which withstood to some extent the forces of despotism.  It is easy to see how distance from the court gave both governor and intendant a range of action which would have been impossible in France.  With the coming of winter Quebec was isolated for more than six months.  During this long interval the two officials could do a great many things of which the king might not have approved, but which he was powerless to prevent.  His theoretical supremacy was thus limited by the unyielding facts of geography.  And a better illustration is found in the operation of the seigneurial system upon which Canadian society was based.  In France a belated feudalism still held the common man in its grip, and in Canada the forms of feudalism were at least partially established.  Yet the Canadian habitant lived in a very different atmosphere from that breathed by the Norman peasant.  The Canadian seigneur had an abundance of acreage and little cash.  His grant was in the form of uncleared land, which he could only make valuable through the labours of his tenants or censitaires.  The difficulty of finding good colonists made it important to give them favourable terms.  The habitant had a hard life, but his obligations towards his seigneur were not onerous.  The man who lived in a log-hut among the stumps and could hunt at will through the forest was not a serf.  Though the conditions of life kept him close to his home, Canada meant for him a new freedom.