party lines above referred to, which lines seem to be drawn almost as finely in L'lslet as in Kamouraska.
On the seventh of November, 1873, Sir John A. Macdonald's Ministry having resigned, a new Government being in process of formation, Mr. Letellier, who had spent the whole of his political career in Opposition, was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Minister of Agriculture in the Government of the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie. He was also ex-officio Commissioner of Patents, and co-leader with the Hon. R. W. Scott for the Government in the Senate, up to the date of his appointment as Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec. He was also President of the Canadian division at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1875. Towards the close of the following year—on the 13th of December, 1876,—the Lieutenant-Governorship of the Province of Quebec became vacant in consequence of the death of the Hon. Rene Edouard Caron. The vacant position was offered to, and accepted by M. Letellier de St. Just, who assumed his governmental functions on the 15th of the month.
His tenure of office was characterized, as is well known, by a series of events which produced great excitement in the minds of the people of his Province. He had not long occupied the position of Lieutenant-Governor before he began to find himself more or less at variance with the Local Government, more especially with the Premier, M. De Boucherville. The variance arose partly from the different points of view from which they contemplated public affairs generally, and each seems to have been of opinion that the other was trying to usurp functions foreign to his office. M. De Boucherville on several occasions shewed a disposition to substitute the power of the Executive for that of the ordinary Courts of Law. It is fair to add that he was urged on to this course by some of his colleagues, and that the offence was by no means confined to him alone. The Lieutenant-Governor all along manifested a good deal of firmness, and used great plainness of speech in his conferences with the Premier. By degrees the differences between them became wider and wider, and ere long all the members of the Administration were parties to the dispute. Finally, on the 24th of March, 1878, matters were brought to a crisis. On that day it was announced to the world that the Lieutenant-Governor had dismissed his Cabinet, and was about to form a new one. The Province was thrown into a state of the greatest excitement by this announcement, which soon extended in a less degree over
