that followed, Cauchon supported the government's decisions to eliminate the seigneurial system (over Louis-Joseph Papineau's objections) and secularize the clergy reserves. In 1855, he introduced a bill to make the Legislative Council elective; this was passed into law, and came into effect the following year. Later in 1855, Cauchon was appointed to the McNab–Étienne-Paschal Taché cabinet as Commissioner of Crown Lands. He resigned in April 1857, when his government refused to allocate funds for a railway on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Cauchon remained a member of the Parti bleu, however, and was re-elected in the general election of 1857. Cauchon voted against his party on some occasions in 1858, and spoke out against its early support of Canadian Confederation. Nevertheless, he was appointed in 1861 as Minister of Public Works in the George-Étienne Cartier-Macdonald cabinet, and held this position until the Cartier-Macdonald government was defeated in the house the following year. Cauchon was returned by acclamation in the general election of 1861, and defeated a Mr. Tourangeau by 526 votes to 367 in 1863. When the Conservatives returned to power in March 1864, Cauchon was again chosen as Public Works minister. He was forced to resign this position after the creation of a "Grand Coalition" ministry in August, though he continued to support the government from the back benches. Despite his previous opposition, he also emerged as a leading supporter of the confederation plan. In 1865, he published (in French and English) a work entitled The union of the provinces of British North America, which rejected his earlier opposition to the plan. While retaining his seat in parliament, Cauchon also served as mayor of Quebec City from 1865 to 1867. It is difficult to determine what he accomplished, as he never published a report during this period. After Confederation was achieved in July 1867, Cauchon was called upon to become the first Premier of Quebec. He was unable to accomplish this task, however, as his plans to include an anglophone in cabinet broke down on the issue of educational funding for the province's Protestant minority. Cauchon opposed the creation of a Protestant Superintendency for the province, while all of his potential anglophone ministers supported it. Accordingly, Cauchon stood aside, and Pierre Chauveau became the province's first Premier instead. Despite this setback, Cauchon was re-elected for Montmorency to both the federal and provincial parliaments later in the