camp near St. Johns. It was at length agreed to set him and his friends at liberty on his promise to obtain for them General Carleton's pardon for this outrage, and on his further promise never to come again amongst them on a like errand.

Violent as the proceedings of these people may appear, and averse as they may seem to the service required of them, they had intimated that if General Carleton would promise by affixing a writing to that purport to the church door, that he would use his influence and endeavors for the repeal of the Quebec Bill and for restoring to them those privileges of which they were deprived by its operation; in that case they all declared themselves ready to defend the province for Government. "But," say they, "as things are now circumstanced, what have we to fight for? We have enjoyed very valuable privileges since we became subjects of Great Britain; we had the royal promise for the continuance of that enjoyment. On a sudden, without our having done anything to merit such treatment, we are deprived of those inestimable privileges, and reduced to our former state of slavery. The people whom we are desired to regard as our enemies tell us they are our real friends; and they give us convincing proofs of their sincerity.

They are now in arms for our defence from our oppressors ; and they make the repeal of the Quebec Bill one of the conditions on which they offer to lay them down. Which party then ought we to assist? Certainly that one which is fighting for the restoration of that liberty to us, of which we have been wantonly and most cruelly deprived by the other."

It is further added "this is not the language of that dis"trict (Berthier) only; the same is in the mouths of the "most ignorant peasants all over the province."

Carleton promised but did not perform, and therefore did not succeed, notwithstanding his proclamation of martial law, in securing the services of any considerable number of

the French peasantry; on the other hand many openly joined the forces of the provincials while the greater number maintained a doubtful neutrality so long as the invaders remained on Canadian soil. Well was it for England that no Papineau arose among them at this time, as nothing would then have prevented the onward course of the provincials to the summit of Quebec Hill and the planting in after days of the Stars and Stripes with a fourteenth star for Canada, on the citadel flagstaff.

Reviewing the events of this period in the light of the present, it is difficult to comprehend the attitude of the French-Canadians (the tiers-état) towards their priesthood, their gentry and their laws, all of which they held so dear and cherished under French regime, in thus openly proclaiming their opposition to them and dissatisfaction with any movement tending to restore, even partially, the customs they formerly lived under. Fifteen years of liberty outweighed one hundred and fifty years of the former religious and military dominancy.

Evidently a plebiscite would have altered the destiny of Canada, for an overwhelming majority would have declared in favor of the adoption of the whole body of English customs and laws, and the English language would in a generation or two have followed, as has actually taken place in Louisiana, the sister French colony of America.

It is likewise a strange anomaly to find England pursuing so different a course in the treatment of her conquest of

Canada to that which she had universally adopted hitherto. Eng Dealing with such populous countries as Ireland and Wales she enforced the adoption of her laws and customs. Conquering New Netherland she not only made the Hollanders replace their laws by hers, but she added the greater change of transforming it into a new country by altering the name to New York. In her other conquests made in this very war, of Florida. Dominica and other places in the West Indies, she substituted English, for the Spanish and French laws and customs in use.

Foreign languages likewise received no official recognition elsewhere as they did in Canada; while the Roman Catholic religion wherever existent was proscribed as a religion of state: tolerated in Maryland persecuted in Ireland, but established in Canada!

Wherefore the concessions to Canada? Wherefore so radical a change from precedent? Was it the reflex of that little spark struck at Boston in 1773 by which the torch of republicanism was set burning, and which the British Government feared might extend to so close a neighbor as Canada, were they to meet the wishes of the English popula tion by establishing a House of Assembly at Quebec, the political and fiscal policy of which might not be any more in accord with British ideas, than those of the neighboring colonies which were now occasioning so much trouble and in open revolt? Between the two stools Britain fell; the Quebec Bill was as obnoxious to the provincials as the stamp act, and was as injurious to the British interests in Canada as the latter was to its sovereignty in the American colonies. Whatever was the cause the result has not been beneficial to Canada or England, for instead of the homogeneous unity expected by the conquest, from which unity in language, laws and customs, there would be strength; a very disunited and complex dominion has ensued by the growth of a "nation within a nation" solely attributable to the mistaken policy of the Quebec Act.

APPENDIX.

1. List of Signatures attached to the French Petition to the King, asking for the Quebeck Bill p.................

2. Letter of the period, unpublished, from Mr. Joseph Howard, a prominent merchant at Montreal, to George Allsopp, Esq., at Quebec, then Dep. Commissary General, afterwards Member Legislative Council, Judge Court of Appeals, etc., etc. p.......

3. Extracts from the Debate in the House of Commons at time of passing the Quebeck Bill, by Lord North the Prime Minister, Mr. Edmund Burke Leader of the Opposition, the Solicitor-General, Mr. Townshend, Col. Barré, etc., etc. p..............

[Extract from Petition of French Residents.]

Nous esperons d'autant mieux cette grace que nous possédons plus de dix douzièmes des seigneuries et presque

here confirm'd through so many channells, there now cannot be the least doubt. our worthy Agients advice

ought to be wrought on our minds viz: not to exult too much, this I understand, to be while in suspence I mean the stroke of the recall, but after that is sure we certainly sho'd not conseal by our faces the real sentiments of our