I. CHAP. all convenient speed, of the great benefits and advantages that would accrue, from the great and valuable acquisitions ceded to His Majesty in America, to their commerce, manufactures, and navigation; and, as an encouragement to them to do so, he informed them, that in the commissions he had given to the civil Governors of the said four new provinces, he had given express power and directions that, so soon as the state and circumstances of the said colonies would admit thereof, they should, with the advice and consent of the members of His Majesty's Councils in the said provinces, sunimon and call general Assemblies of the people within the said governments, in such manner as was used in those colonies and provinces in America which were under His Majesty's immediate government; and " that in the mean "time, and until such assemblies could be called, all persons inhabiting in, or resorting to His Majesty's said colonies, might confide in His Majesty's royal protecti❝ on for the enjoyment of the benefit of the laws of his "realm of England:" that for that purpose His Majesty had given power, under the great seal, to the Governors of His Majesty's said new colonies, to erect and constitute, with the advice of His Majesty's said Councils respectively, courts of judicature, and public justice within the said colonies, for the hearing and determining all causes, as well criminal as civil, according to law and equity, and, as near as may be, agreeably to the laws of England; with liberty to all persons who might think themselves aggrieved by the sentence of such courts, in all civil cases, to appeal, under the usual limitations and restrictions, to His Majesty in his Privy Council. On the twenty-first day of November, one thousanu har. seven hundred and sixty-three, about six weeks after the publication of the aforesaid proclamation, His Majesty issued his commission of Captain General and Governor in Chief of the province of Quebec to Major General Murray, which was received by him, and published in the province in the month of August, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four. This commission, and the instructions that accompanied it, seemed every where to pre-suppose that the laws of England were in force in the province, being full of allusions and referrences 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 seemed 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 appeared, at the time of passing those instruments, to have been 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 I. CHAP. peace to the laws of Great Britain, as the measure of the indulgence intended to be shewn 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 pleasure, that they should be governed for the future, according to the laws of England; and 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 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 pursuance of this supposition that the laws of England had been introduced into the province, by the aforesaid proclamation and commission, Governor Murray and his Council, in the great ordinance dated on the seventeenth day of September, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four, (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 agreeable to equity, having regard nevertheless to the laws of England, as far as the circumstances and situation of things I. would permit, until such time as proper ordinances for the CHAP. information of the people could be established by the Gover nor 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 first day of October, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four." IN In consequence of these instruments of Government, all purporting to introduce the laws of England into the province of Quebec, those laws were generally understood to have been introduced into it, and consequently to be 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 first day of October, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four. Thus were the laws of England supposed to have been introduced, until the revival of the French laws in matters of property and civil rights by the Quebec Act passed some years afterwards. As General James Murray had been appointed Governor of the province, and had been empowered by a Royal Instruction to nominate a Council of eight members of his choice, with power to make laws and ordinances; he was sworn in as Governor this year, and the Council nominated by him, were : William Gregory †-Chief Justice, * 21st November, Council Books. Recalled on the representation of General Murray. CHAP. Hector Theophilus Cramahé, Samuel Hollana, I. -} Adam Mabane, Walter Murray, Thomas Dunn, François Mounier. As His Majesty's commander in chief in America, General Amherst, immediately after the conquest of this country, had ordered and directed that justice should be administered to the inhabitants by military courts established for that purpose in the several governments, which were afterwards approved by His Majesty, with an order that they should exist until civil government could be restored; the Legislative Council, therefore, at the first meeting, passed an ordinance to confirm the decrees of the several military courts, and the act declared that from the eighth day of September one thousand seven hundred and sixty, the date of the capitulation of Montreal, to the time civil government took place throughout the province, all orders, judgments and decrees of the military councils of Quebec, and of all other courts of justice in the said government, or in those of Montreal and Trois Rivières, should be approved, ratified and confirmed, and have full force and effect, except in cases where the value in dispute exceeded the sum of three hundred pounds sterling, in which case the other party was allowed to appeal to the Governor and Council of the province, on the appeal being lodged with the clerk of the Council of Quebec, within two months after the publication thereof, on sufficient security being given by the appellant to pay costs and charges as might be awarded, if the decree was affirmed, and an appeal allowed to the King and Council where the value in dispute was above five hun |