The only man who gave La Barre any comfort in these depressing circumstances was Père Lamberville, missionary among the Onondagas. This amiable and kindly priest, who had written to Frontenac some valued words of commendation when he was leaving the country, wrote to La Barre to tell him that he had acted most wisely in making peace. So doubtless he had, in comparison with making war just at that time; but none the less the peace was one which made the colonists hang their heads with shame. Meulles in his despatch to the minister did not help to put the matter in a more favourable light. Speaking of the governor he said: "He signed the peace just as he decided on the war, without consulting any one but a few merchants; and he has uselessly expended forty-five thousand francs, of which he alone will owe an account to the king." So much severity on the intendant's part was hardly necessary; the facts spoke for themselves; and the king, when they were brought to his knowledge, wrote to the discomfited governor, under date the 10th March 1685, the following gently worded letter:--
"Monsieur de la Barre,--Having been informed that your years make it impossible for you to support the fatigues inseparable from your office of governor and lieutenant-general in Canada, I send you this letter to acquaint you that I have selected M. de Denonville to serve in your place; and my intention is that, on his arrival, after resigning to him the command, with all instructions concerning it, you embark for your return to France."
Thus ended an administration that cannot be regarded as a happy or a creditable one. In no respect was M. de la Barre on a level with the office he held. He had no clear policy of his own, and was, therefore, more or less, at the mercy of incompetent or interested advisers. As is not uncommonly the case with such men, he was sometimes foolishly impulsive. In a letter, dated 10th April 1684, the king expresses the greatest surprise that the governor should have actually proposed to hang, of his own authority, a colonist who was preparing to remove to the English settlements. He reminds him that, except in military matters, he possesses no judicial power whatever, and adds the sage observation that the exercise of such constraint would certainly increase the desire of the French inhabitants to go where they would enjoy more liberty. In the matter of ecclesiastical policy, La Barre failed to carry out the views of the king. His instructions were to afford all the help in his power to the clergy in their efforts for the good of the country, but to see that they did not extend their authority beyond its proper bounds. In his first despatch he indulges in a little criticism of the bishop for his delay in establishing permanent _cures_, as desired by the king; but this is his sole exhibition of anything like independence of the ecclesiastical power. There was a question pending at the time as to the emoluments to be secured to the country _curés_; and La Barre and Meulles are both blamed by the court for having allowed the bishop to appropriate a larger amount out of the royal grant for church purposes than the king had authorized or intended.