CHAPTER IV.

THE SPIRIT AND DEVELOPMENT OF ADMINISTRATION.

In the previous chapter I have attempted a description of the surface conditions of government in the Province of Quebec throughout our period,- such a description as might have been given by a contemporary, especially a contemporary official. My object in the present chapter is to go behind the scenes, and examine the animating spirit under the official forms, with special reference to development in the bases of action. In so doing regard will be had mainly and constantly to the Quebec Act as the centre of the inquiry, with the purpose of seeing what light, if any, may thus be thrown on its genesis and intent.

A. The Colonial Governors.

My investigation here has therefore to do almost entirely with the Home or Imperial Administration. But, as the chief of the influences brought to bear on that authority, it will be necessary first to consider the general spirit and policy of the heads of the colonial government.' It is evident that a large discretion was necessarily always left to the Provincial Governor; but the normal limits of this discretion were at this time in the case of Quebec much extended from the fact that during the early part of the period the home government had no decided or consistent

These were, (a) Gen. James Murray (1725?-1794), younger son of a Scotch peer. Brigadier with Wolfe at capture of Quebec and left in charge of the conquered province during the Military Period, he was Governor-in-Chief from Aug. 10, 1784, to Oct. 26, 1768, but left the country finally in June, 1766.

(b) Col. Guy Carleton (1724-1808), of an Irish family, was at the siege of Louisbourg and Quebec, and came to the province as Lieutenant-Governor, September, 1768. He held that position until October, 1768, when he become governor-in-chief, so continuing till June, 1778, though absent from the province August 1st, 1770-September 18, 1774. Made Baron Dorchester and reappointed to Canadian Government, 1786.

policy, and that in the latter part the expectation of a speedy general constitutional settlement joined with other factors in causing a steady neglect of the immediate affairs of the province. It is therefore desirable to see in what ways and to what extent the actions of the Home Administration were based on the representations of the provincial authorities.

Gen. James Murray had been connected with Canada from the first hour of English rule there, and when put at the head of the new civil government had had almost five years' intimate knowledge of the country. If personal characteristics had prevented his fully profiting from his experience, there can be no doubt of his integrity, and of his strong desire to see justice done and the best interests of the country advanced. As has been shown above both he and the other military commanders seem from the first to have made every effort, consistently with the safety of the new possession, to reconcile the Canadians to the new rule. These same motives were no doubt as strongly present during his control of the civil government. That his success was not commensurate with his efforts, and that the two years of his civil administration were a period of constant turmoil, cannot, however, be denied; nor yet that the explanation must be largely found in his personal character, and in a want of tact and discernment which would have insured failure in a much less difficult situation. He was hasty in judgment and violent in temper, and his military training had prejudiced him in favour of the old Canadian military aristocracy, which he credited with more influence over the people than it had for a long time possessed. The same cause blinded him to the real character and importance of the new English-speaking commercial element. A light is thrown on Murray's character by some observations in his own defence just before the installment of civil government. After refer

1 To Board of Trade, April 24, 1764. (Can. Arch., Q. 2, p. 107.)

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ring to the difficulties that have attended the military rule owing to the character of the various sections of the population, and of the caution he has exercised in enforcing martial law, "knowing how jealous the people of England are of the military arm, upon all occasions, and how eagerly they would have laid hold of the least shadow of blame," he proceeds to speak of his mortification in being "too often obliged to substitute reprimands from my own mouth in place of fines and prisons, choosing to risk my own popularity rather than give a handle to the factious. Hence, I find I have been represented in England a man of a most violent, ungovernable temper." Unfortunately for the entire validity of this ingenuous defense, we find that the violent manifestations of temper continued under the civil government; and we cannot but conclude that there was too much ground for the complaint made in the English petitions in 1765 of his "rage and rudeness of language and demeanour. In general, however, we find his attitude towards the French Canadians to be one of forbearance and magnanimity," and the seigneurs came to look upon him as their special protector; but that even they were not always safe from his irritability may be seen in the memorial of the Chevalier de Lery. It must indeed be conceded that few positions could have been more trying than Murray's at this time. He was left without revenue or clear instructions to carry on government over a people who, rightly or wrongly, he thought had conceived a slighting idea of his position from the fact that he had been deprived of all military command in the province; feeling himself moreover under compulsion to introduce an order of things which he considered in the highest degree injurious and unjust. But making all allowances for his difficulties, we

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1 Rep. Can. Arch., 1888, p. 15.

* See letter to Justices of Montreal, Oct. 9, 1765. (Can. Arch., Q. 3, p. 90.)

Rep. Can. Arch., 1888, p. 9.

'Ibid., p. 31.

'See his defense, August 20th, 1766. (Can. Arch., B. 8, p. 1.)

must conclude that he was peculiarly ill-fitted to cope with them, and that his career in Canada cannot be considered to have been marked by much discernment or administrative ability.

Murray's own judgment and inclination were from the first strongly opposed to any radical changes in the civil law and constitution of the province. His views on this matter were probably closely connected with his strongly expressed opinion that the civil governor in Quebec ought also to have the chief military command. One of his first enactments was the Judiciary Ordinance of September 17, 1764, which, though evidently intended to give effect to the supposed Imperial policy of introducing the general body of the English law, was thought by the English extremists of the time to have given undue privileges to the French Canadian Catholics. In writing home in defense of this measure' Murray strongly recommends granting the Canadians "a few privileges which the laws of England deny the Roman Catholics at home." In the various and complicated disputes with the military authorities which soon follow, the governor appears in a comparatively favourable light as the upholder of civil law and the protector of the people against the military; though it is impossible to keep from feeling that his attitude was to some extent influenced by the strained nature of the personal relations then existing between himself and the military officers. Interesting hints as to his policy can be got from his defense against some anonymous charges made in 1765 or thereabouts, chiefly with reference to the military government. In this he says that it was a maxim of his "to shun addresses from the traders," and to consult the men of property in the colony (by whom he means the seigneurs, the possessors of landed property), and that he had displeased the Protestants in trying to conciliate the Canadians to British rule. That his partiality for the noblesse

1 Oct. 29, 1764. Can. Arch., Q. 2, p. 233.

went beyond the limits of justice and good government may be conjectured from the reference in their memorial in his defense to "the politeness and deference of this governor for persons of good birth," and from his own acknowledgment that he did "recommend to the magistrates at Montreal not to billet any of the soldiers upon the noblesse, unless in cases of the utmost necessity," a tenderness which he adds they had a right to expect from the regard paid to people of family in all countries. And he somewhat naively inquires, "Can there be a greater instance of the turbulent, levelling spirit of my accusers than this very complaint?"

Though recalled in apparent disgrace Murray succeeded in vindicating himself from all the charges brought against him, and retained the office for two years longer. His recollections of his Canadian stay may be seen by a reference in a letter to Haldimand from one of the East Indian ports in 1775, in which he speaks of spending his life tranquilly now, differently from what he did in Canada.3

Colonel Guy Carleton had also had early experience in Canada, but it does not appear to have afforded him much idea of the real state of the country. He and Murray were of the same profession; and the integrity and earnest endeavour after good government which characterized the former can even more unhesitatingly be ascribed to the latter. To him also must be conceded a larger share of statesmanlike qualities than is exhibited by any other official in the early history of the country. Carleton was indeed, like Murray, first a military man, and his most striking services to Canada were perhaps military ones; but he

1 Rep. Can. Arch., 1888, p. 19.

* See concerning his reception, Can. Arch., B. 68, p. 157. He was recalled on the recommendation of the Board of Trade on account, as expressly stated, of the complaints of the merchants trading to and in the colony. The severe strictures of Hillsborough (quoted below. See also above, p. 344) may perhaps be explained by the fact that Hillsborough had been president of the Board when the Proclamation which he accused Murray of grossly misinterpreting had been drawn.

'Can. Arch., B. 6, p. 278.