full of allusions and references to those laws on a variety of different subjects, and did not contain the least intimation of a saving of any part of the laws and customs that prevailed there, in the time of the French government.

It appears, therefore, upon the whole, from the proclamation and commission, to have been his Majesty's intention, with respect to the said province of Quebec, to assimilate the laws and government of it to those of the other American colonies and provinces which were under his Majesty's immediate government, and not to continue the municipal laws and customs by which the conquered people had heretofore been governed, any farther than as those laws might be necessary to the preservation of their property. And his Majesty's ministers, at the time of passing those instruments, were evidently of opinion that, by the refusal of General Amherst to grant to the Canadians the continuance of their ancient laws and usages; and by the reference made in the fourth article of the definitive treaty of peace to the laws of Great Britain, as the measure of the indulgence intended to be shown them with respect to the exercise of their religion, sufficient notice had been given to the conquered inhabitants of that province, that it was his Majesty's plea

sure that they should be governed for the future according to the laws of England. It is evident also, that the inhabitants, after being thus apprised of his Majesty's intention, had consented to be so governed, and had testified their said consent, by continuing to reside in the country, and taking the oath of allegiance to his Majesty, when they might have withdrawn themselves from the province, with all their effects, and the produce of the sale of their estates, within the eighteen months allowed by his Majesty in the treaty of peace, for that purpose.

In consequence of this introduction of the laws of England into the province, by the aforesaid proclamation and commission, Governor Murray and his Council, in the great ordinance dated on the 17th day of September 1764 (passed at the commencement of the civil government of the province, for the establishment of courts of justice in it), directed the chief justice of the province (who was to hold the superior court or Court of King's Bench, established by that ordinance), to determine all criminal and civil causes agreeable to the laws of England, and the ordinances of the province; and the judges of the inferior court, established by the said ordinance (which was called the Court of Common Pleas), to determine the

matters before them agreeably to equity, having regard nevertheless to the laws of England, as far as the circumstances and situation of things would permit, until such time as proper ordinances for the information of the people could be established by the governor and council, agreeable to the laws of England; with this just and prudent proviso, that the French laws and customs should be allowed and admitted in all causes in the said court between the natives of the said province, in which the cause of action arose, before the 1st day of October 1764.'

In consequence of these instruments of government, the laws of England were generally introduced into it, and consequently became the rule and measure of all contracts and other civil engagements entered into by the inhabitants after the introduction of them, that is, after the establishment of the civil government of the province, or after the said 1st day of October 1764.

At this time the population of Canada amounted to 65,000 souls, and was confined to the banks of the St. Lawrence and its tributary streams. As the people had now become British subjects, it was deemed expedient to introduce, as soon as possible, emigrants of English

extraction, as well for the purpose of creating a defensive power within the province, as to induce the French to acquire the language, and adopt the habits of their conquerors. The officers and soldiers of the army that had served in America were rewarded with grants of land in the country which they had conquered, and liberal offers were made to people in the other provinces, and to emigrants from Europe to remove thither. The facilities of internal transport, the fertility of the soil, and salubrity of the climate, operated so powerfully, that in a short time the influx of strangers was so great as to induce the hope that it would speedily rival the New England states in population and in wealth; and no doubt can now be entertained that if the terms of the proclamation had been honestly adhered to, these expectations would have been fully realised. As a matter of policy nothing could have been more wise, than since it had now become a British colony, to endeavour, as soon as possible, to make it so in fact as well as in name. The introduction of English laws had a natural tendency to disseminate the language, by rendering the study of it necessary to the Canadian French, and a constant intercourse with the emigrants could not fail, by rendering their

customs familiar, to have gradually led to their adoption. This change, though great in the first instance, and no doubt repugnant to their feelings, would have gradually recommended itself to the French, and by the time a new generation had sprung up, all inconvenience would have ceased to be felt any longer. The first fatal error that was committed was ordering a code of laws to be prepared for the province, with such modifications as would secure to the French the system of tenure and inheritance, to which they had been accustomed. This occasioned much delay, and enabled their leaders to represent that any change would alienate the affections of the inhabitants, who would naturally extend to the government the dislike that they felt to their institutions. Unfortunately, while this was under consideration, the time had arrived when they could enforce their demands with a threat, and the rebellion which shortly afterwards broke out in the English colonies (now constituting the United States), made their conciliation become a matter of state policy. It was therefore determined at once to restore the French laws as they existed at the conquest, and the celebrated Quebec Act, 14 Geo. 3, c. 83, was passed for that purpose. This statute enacted, "that his