remedy of the really pressing evils in the uncertainty of the law and the abuses of its administration. The remedy for these abuses did not depend on the return to the old institutions; on the contrary we have seen that that return was not accompanied by it. Still less do we find it followed by the expected improvement with regard to the confusion and uncertainty of the law. The immediate and continued result was in accordance with the mixture of aim and motive. To show this it is necessary only to refer to any respectable history of the period. It was not till 1777 that the civil courts were re-established in Quebec; we are informed by a writer who is almost contemporary, and who had had exceptional means of knowing the exact legal conditions, that an official investigation in 1787 disclosed "such a scene of anarchy and confusion in the laws and in the administration of them by the courts as no English province ever before laboured under; English judges followed English law; French judges followed French law; some of them followed no particular law, but decided according to what appeared to be the equity of the case. Christie writes of the year 1790, that it was complained that although the Quebec Act had been sixteen years in force, the courts had not yet decided whether the whole of the French laws or what part of them composed the custom of Canada, as they sometimes admitted and sometimes rejected whole codes of French law."" Garneau a groups together the whole period from 1760 to 1786 as marked by the same "excès de tyrannie et de désordres," and states that the investigation into the judiciary by Dorchester in 1786 showed the utmost uncertainty and confusion. More modern writers' accept this condition of affairs

1 Smith, History of Canada, II. 175.

2 History of Lower Canada, I, 67.

"1

Hist. du Canada, III. 57. The statement is apparently endorsed by Lareau, Hist. Droit Canadian, II., 168.

See for example Kingsford and Bourinot.

without dispute. It is only intended here to point out that the Quebec Act has thus no defence, in at least this first stage of its life, from the standpoint of good government in the Province. This should be kept in mind as we pass to the special consideration of some of its more immediate disastrous effects, and as we reflect more generally upon its remoter results in the history of British North America.

CHAPTER VI.

THE QUEBEC ACT AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

A. The Revolution in the Province of Quebec.

In the frequent extolling by British and Canadian writers of the policy of the Quebec Act, the reference is of course to the supposed effect of that Act in confirming the loyalty of the French Canadians at the revolutionary crisis, and thus in preserving the newly-acquired territories from the grasp of the revolutionary movement. If the conclusions of the last chapter be well taken, it will be seen that, whatever the outcome of the measure, the inference as to policy is largely mistaken; that in other words, if the results were as stated, it would seem a rare and happy instance of immediate temporal reward for disinterested well-doing. It is not meant to deny that in the generally threatening conditions in America the firm attachment of the new subjects must have appeared to the home government as a very desirable thing; nor that the conviction of this desirability was probably a considerable factor in confirming the final conclusions as to their treatment. Such a motive would be of necessity strongly present in the case of such an unknown quantity as the new acquisition of a segment of another nationality; I have simply tried to show that it was not accentuated by the contemporary existence of other colonial problems to the extent of appreciably affecting the policy adopted toward the new subjects.

But further, I am obliged to take exception to the position of the upholders of the Act for other and stronger reasons. The credit for political sagacity assigned to the authors of that measure must be impugned not only on the ground that their work had little if any reference to the circumtances on which the credit is given, but also for the conclusive reason that the immediate results of the Act were

precisely the opposite of what had been anticipated and have ever since been assumed. It is the object of this chapter to show that not only was the Quebec Act not effectual in keeping the mass of the Canadians loyal, but that what effect it did have was in exactly the opposite direction. And before proceeding to this it should be noticed that in anticipating or extolling the results of the new settlement on the French Canadians there is curiously left out of sight by the upholders of the Act, any consideration of its effects either on the British in Canada or on the older colonies. Yet it is evident that for the true estimate of its policy, wisdom, or results there must be an accurate balancing. In view of the accompanying measures of the Government of the day in regard to the other colonies directly it is not surprising to find any thought of this entirely absent at the time. We however have no excuse for now neglecting it.

The question of the influence, direct or indirect, in general or in particular parts of the country, of the new settlement of Quebec affairs on revolutionary development in the other colonies, is one of an interest so great and so closely connected with my work that I can only express my regret at being unable at present to investigate it thoroughly. It must be left with a reference to the general classing of the Act with those of the same session in regard to Massachusetts Bay,' and to the emphasis so placed upon the measure in the early steps of the Continental Congress. One remarkable bit of private testimony in connection there with might also be mentioned. In the Dartmouth Papers we find a letter from one Joseph Reed to the Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State, dated Philadelphia, Sept. 25, 1774, and giving an account of the alarming proceedings of the Congress then sitting there. The writer proceeds: -"But what shall I say to your

2 This has been universal among American writers. See Roosevelt, Winning of the West, I., for a more emphatic and recent position; and in connection the treatment above of Quebec boundaries, Chapter V, section B, a.

Lordship of the appearances in this country; what seemed a little time since to be a spark which with prudence and wisdom might have been extinguished, is now a flame that threatens ruin both to parent and child. The spirit of the people gradually rose when it might have been expected to decline, till the Quebec Act added fuel to the fire; then all those deliberate measures of petitioning previous to any opposition was laid aside as inadequate to the apprehended danger and mischief, and now the people are generally ripe for the execution of any plan the Congress advises, should it be war itself." Without delaying further on the direct influence in the revolting colonies of the general feeling with regard to the Quebec settlement, it may be pointed out that the attitude of that section of the British party in the Province itself which I have above distinguished as closely in sympathy with what became the revolutionary element, is a fairly correct index to the general feeling. That element in Quebec had, in the circumstances of the province, no legitimate or immediate share in the general colonial quarrel; its grievance was the Quebec Act purely; yet we find this a grievance of strength sufficient to drive it almost immediately into secret and as soon as possible into open revolt.

In noting these consequences of the new settlement with regard to the English-speaking party in Quebec, we have first to observe its efficacy in openly separating the more advanced and more moderate section. The first step of

2

1 Hist. MSS. Commission, Report XI. Appendix, V. p. 362. I am indebted for the reference to the Report for 1890 of the Canadian Archivist, p. XXI. It will be noticed that the writer selects from the various obnoxious measures of the late Parliamentary session, the Act in regard to Quebec, without any mention apparently of the more directly threatening ones concerning Massachusetts Bay. His thought may probably be more distinctly seen in a later horrified reference to "The idea of bringing down the Canadians and savages upon the English Colonies." Of the writer I know nothing surely; but he is possibly the same person to whom the Congressional Diary of Richard Smith makes reference March 1, 1776, as the "Secretary to Gen. Washington," and as having his salary then raised by Congress on account of important naval duties. (See Amer. Hist. Review, April, 1896, p. 507.)

See above c. 3, for analysis of the English party.