oppressed peasant exchanged the rigorous vassalage of French feudalism for the security and freedom of British citizenship. To the reign of violence succeeded the reign of law.*

There were no towns of any consequence save Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers. At St. Johns, L'Assomption, Berthier, and Sorel there were military establishments surrounded by scanty settlements. What we now know as the flourishing Province of Ontario was wilderness. The population at the time of the conquest has been estimated at from sixty to sixty-five thousand. Some of the wealthier residents of the towns returned to France. The bulk of the people, however, remained in Canada. A number of the soldiers who had brought about the change of flag settled in the country. The government gave them grants of land. They married French wives. The children spoke the tongue of the mother. Hence we find in Lower Canada to-day men bearing German, English, Scotch and Irish names and speaking a Latin dialect. The Battle of the Plains had given an impulse to emigration to Canada. In a few years we find an English-speaking population important enough to lead an enterprising firm to publish a newspaper.+

In the autumn following the Treaty of Peace a Royal Proclamation was put forth, announcing that the King had granted letters patent under the great seal to erect Quebec into a government, and defining the boundaries of that Province to be the St. John (Saguenay) on the Labrador coast, from the head of which river a line was drawn through Lake St. John to the south end of Lake Nipissim, whence crossing the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain in 45 degrees of N. latitude, it passed along the High Lands which divide the rivers emptying themselves into the St. Lawrence from those which fall into the sea, sweeping by the north coast of the Baie des Chaleurs and the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, by the west end of the Island of Anticosti, and terminating at the river whence it set out. The proclamation declared that the King had given power and direction to the Governor, when the circumstances of the colony would permit,

* Speech of M. Papineau to the electors of Montreal, 1820.

+ The Quebec Gazette.

to summon a general assembly. It promised that until such an assembly could be called, the inhabitants should enjoy the full benefit of the laws of England. General Murray was appointed governor immediately after the proclamation. He was instructed, until an assembly could be called in accordance with the proclamation, to nominate a council to aid him in the administration of the government. A Court of King's Bench and a Court of Common Pleas were established, and shortly afterwards a Court of Chancery. We need not be surprised if the French population grew dissatisfied with laws to which they were unaccustomed and a method of procedure wholly novel, and carried on in a language of which they did not understand a word. Still less need we be surprised that when officials were chosen from the ranks of Britishborn subjects who did not number one hundred and fiftieth part of the population, extortion and oppression were the rule.

In 1767 Carleton was rewarded for his distinguished services by the lieutenant-governorship of Quebec. In 1768 he was already popular because of his humanity, and the people with a true instinct turned towards him as a protector. His demeanour has been variously judged, some attributing the wisdom and gentleness of his rule to the native goodness of his heart, others to a far-seeing policy. According to one view he was a friend of the French Canadians because he took the trouble to know them. He wished to redress their grievances because he had diligently inquired into their situation. Being a virtuous man, he sought with activity and constancy to do right in behalf of those to whom he stood in the light of a shepherd. According to another view, he foresaw the rupture of the thirteen colonies with the mother country, and determined to conciliate the favour of the people of Canada. We shall not detract from the claims of Carleton on our admiration, nor be untrue to the probabilities of the case, if we say we think both views are necessary to give the complete truth, as blending stars make one light.

One of the first acts of Carleton was to erase two influential names from his list of councillors, and to appoint two other councillors in their place. Remonstrances were addressed to him from the English portion of the population. He replied that the new councillors had been appointed by the King-that he would in

conducting the government consult those of his councillors whom he believed capable of giving him the best advice—that in matters not coming strictly within the domain of government, he would seek advice outside his council, and confer with men of sense whose characters challenged confidence, men who placed before private interest the public good and their duty to the King-that after hearing advice, he would then act in that manner which he believed most advantageous to the service of the King and to the well-being of the Province-that the number of his council was a dozen, and that those nominated by the King should have precedence over those nominated by General Murray. In 1766 representations had been sent to England against the system of judicature recently introduced. Carleton, who was a statesman as well as a soldier, saw that this system was quite unsuited to a people with all whose prejudices and traditions it was at war. He therefore caused the leading French lawyers to compile the civil laws of France for him, and armed with this compilation he proceeded in 1770 to England. He wished to see the "Coutume de Paris" re-established, but abridged and edited so as to be better adapted to the needs of Canada. The compilation having been revised by the law officers of the Crown, became the principal authority in cases relating to land and inheritance. In other matters English law ruled, much to the disgust of the old French gentry, who did not understand tradesmen and labourers sitting in judgment on gentlemen. And though we smile, it must have seemed hard to them.

There was great dissatisfaction among the British at the delay which had taken place in granting them an Assembly. The French were also in favour of an Assembly. But, like the extreme Protestants and the extreme Roman Catholics of to-day, they could not act together in politics, with the result that both suffered. The discontent was increased by the fact that in 1772 Prince Edward Island was given a Lieutenant-Governor, a Legislative Council, a Legislative Assembly, a Custom-house, and a Court of Vice-Admiralty. But the difficulty was to decide on a plan of united action. The British desired a Parliament composed exclusively of Protestants: the French wanted the complete reestablishment of their former laws and customs in all civil mat

ters. The former invited the latter to attend their meetings; but when these heard that they were to swell a petition for a system by which they themselves should be deprived of full citizenship, they naturally stood aside. The British were forced to act alone.. On the 3rd of December, 1773, they presented to LieutenantGovernor Cramahe a request that he would, in accordance with the Royal promise, and the powers given him by the proclamation of 1763, convoke an Assembly. M. Cramahe replied that he would transmit their request to the Minister of the Colonies.. The petitioners then addressed themselves to the King. The French Canadians acted separately, and contented themselves with asking for the re-establishment of their former civil jurisprudence. Carleton was examined on oath before a Committee of the House of Commons. He stated that an Assembly composed exclusively of the British inhabitants would give great offence to the Canadians. To such an Assembly they would prefer the rule of a Governor and a Legislative Council. Several French Canadians had told him that assemblies had drawn upon. the other colonies so much distress, riot, and confusion, that they wished never to have one of any kind. M. de Lotbinière, native French Canadian nobleman, deposed that the French would like to have an Assembly, provided they might sit in it.

Carleton, in pressing his views on the Committee, was naturally more anxious about the one hundred and fifty thousand French Canadian Roman Catholics under his charge than about the handful of English-speaking Protestants. When we remember the ignorance and political incapacity of the mass of the people, we shall probably be inclined to doubt whether they were ripe for popular institutions. But the Home Government owed some consideration to the British inhabitants, and the Quebec Act, even in the face of impending war, must be pronounced a vicious, short-sighted measure. The framers of the measure had no prophetic hint of the extent to which English-speaking Canada was to grow, and from their limited vision those who despair of this. country may learn a useful lesson. In the House of Commons, Irishmen whose names have become household words opposed it. Col. Barré and Edmund Burke gave it strenuous opposition. Burke pleaded for delay. He contended for the rights of the

English-speaking inhabitants. One day he brought all the weight of his powerful dialectics and mighty rhetoric against the bill. On another he ridiculed it until his hearers roared with mirth. On June the 8th, he "ran on in such a vein of humour that the House was in a continual laugh during the whole of his speech." On the 10th, he was equally happy. "Little did I think," cried Townshend," when I called for a Government for Canada, that I was invoking a despotism." In the House of Lords, the Earl of Chatham, speaking from the brink of the grave, denounced the bill as a cruel, oppressive, and odious measure. He went so far as to say that it would shake the affection and confidence of the King's subjects in England, and Ireland. and lose him the hearts of all the Americans. However the bill passed.

And what was this Act against which Fox in the ripening glory of his morning in one house, and Chatham in another, in the paling splendours of his setting, thundered? It revoked the Royal proclamation of 1763, with its promise of an Assembly. It granted the Roman Catholics the free exercise of their religion, subject to the King's supremacy as defined by the Act of Elizabeth. It guaranteed to the Roman Catholic clergy their accustomed dues and rights, with respect to Catholics only, but out of such dues and rights the King held himself at liberty to make such provision as he might deem expedient for the Protestant clergy. The Catholics were relieved of the oath of the 1st of Queen Elizabeth, and thus a barrier against their holding office under the Crown was removed, an oath of simple allegiance to the King being substituted. In all matters relating to property and civil rights, the French laws were re-established. In regard to criminal matters, on the other hand, the English law was established for ever. council of not more than twenty-three, and not less than seventeen, was to be appointed by the Crown. Local and municipal taxes, and the administration of internal affairs, were within its jurisdiction; over imports and exports the British Parliament kept a jealous control. The bounds of the province were extended on the one hand over Labrador, and on the other as far as Ohio and the Mississippi. It deprived the colonists of trial by jury in civil cases, of the Habeas Corpus, and, in a word, of constitutional government. The French Canadians did not regret