A HISTORY

OF THE

LATE PROVINCE OF

LOWER CANADA,

Parliamentary and Political,

FROM THE COMMENCEMENT TO THE CLOSE OF ITS EXISTENCE
AS A SEPARATE PROVINCE;

Embracing a period of Fifty Years, that is to say:-from the erection
of the Province, in 1791, to the extinguishment thereof, in 1841,
and its reunion with Upper Canada, by act of the Imperial Parlia-
ment, in consequence of the pretensions of the Representative
Assembly of the Province, and its repudiation, in 1837, of the
Constitution, as by law established, and of the Rebellions to which
these gave rise, in that and the following year; with a variety of
interesting notices, financial, statistical, historical, &c., available
to the future historian of North America, including a prefatory
sketch of the Province of Quebec, from the conquest to the passing
of the Quebec Act, in 1774, and thence to its division, in 1791,
into the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada; with details of
the Military and Naval operations therein, during the late war
with the United States; fully explaining also the difficulties with
respect to the Civil List and other matters; tracing from origin to
outbreak, the disturbances which led to the reunion of the two
Provinces.

BY ROBERT CHRISTIE.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

QUEBEC:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY T. CARY & CO.,
BOOKSELLERS AND STATIONERS.

ENTERED according to the Act of the Provincial Legislature, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, "for the protec"tion of copy rights in this province," by ROBERT CHRISTIE, in the office of the Registrar of the Province of Canada.

February, 1848.

INTRODUCTION.

THE history of Canada previous to the conquest and thence to the division of the province of Quebec into the two provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada, is pretty well understood; but, of neither of these two late provinces, now reunited, has any complete memorial of their separate existence, from first to last, nor any thing beyond pieces of their history, in the english language at least, in so far as has come to the writer's knowledge, been published. The present is an attempt to supply, with respect to Lower Canada, the desideratum, if such there be in the public mind, and with what fidelity and success, the reader will determine. The constitution of this province, modelled upon that of Great Britain, as far as circumstances admitted, having, after a fair trial of nearly fifty years, and much patience and long forbearance on the part of the imperial authorities, proved a failure, the questions, why?-and-how? very naturally present themselves to those, who, happy enough not to have been mixed up with the agitation and intrigues by which the country was allowed too long to be distracted, nevertheless take an interest in its history and welfare, and look for instruction on the subject. The present work may tend to solvetho se queries.