Elections, &c., after this Turn, shall be upon the Days and Times abovementioned and appointed for that Purpose. The Bailiffs are to oversee the King's High-ways and the publick Bridges, and see that the same are kept in good and sufficient Repair; to arrest and apprehend all Criminals, against whom they shall have Writs or Warrants, and to guard and conduct them through their respective Parishes, and convey them to such Prisons or Places as the Writ or Warrant shall direct: They are also to examine all Bodies that are exposed, and on whom any Marks of Violence appear, in presence of five reputable Householders of the same Parish, whom he is hereby impowered to summons to inspect the same, and report in Writing the State and Circumstances thereof to the next Magistrate that a further Examination may be made therein if necessary; but this to be done only where the Coroner cannot by any Possibility attend, which in this extensive Province may frequently happen. Where any Disputes happen concerning the Breaking or Repairing of Fences, upon Complaint made to the Bailiff, he shall summons the Defendant, who is to choose three indifferent Persons, and the Plaintiff three more, and these six, the Bailiff presiding, to decide the Dispute; from their Sentence either Party may appeal to the Quarter-Sessions; the Person found in Fault to pay One Shilling and no more, to the Person who shall draw up the Decision. These Bailiffs to be sworn into their Office by the next Justice of the Peace, as soon as may be after their Nomination as aforesaid, and the said Oath to be returned to the next Quarter-Sessions by such Justice. GIVEN by His Excellency the Honorable JAMES MURRAY, Esq.; Captain-General and Governor in Chief of the Province of Quebec, and Territories thereon depending in America, Vice Admiral of the same, Governor of the Town of Quebec, Colonel-Commandant of the Second Batlalion of the Royal American Regiment, &c., &c. In Council, at Quebec, the 17th of September, Anno, Domini, 1764, and in the Fourth Year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord George the III, by the Grace of God of Great-Britain, France and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c., &c. (Signed) JA. MURRAY. By Order of His Excellency in Council. VII GOVERNOR MURRAY TO THE LORDS OF TRADE' My Lords, [Trans. Shortt and Doughty.] Quebec, 29th Oct'r, 1764. Little, very little, will content the New Subjects but nothing will satisfy the Licentious Fanaticks Trading here, but the expulsion of the Canadians who are perhaps the bravest and the best race upon the Globe, a Race, who cou'd they be indulged with a few priveledges which the Laws of England deny to Roman Catholicks at home, wou'd soon get the better of every National Antipathy to their Conquerors and become the most faithful and most useful set of Men in this American Empire. I flatter myself there will be some Remedy found out even in the Laws for the Relief of this People, if so, I am positive the populer clamours in England will not prevent the Humane Heart of the King from following its own Dictates. I am confident too my Royal Master will not blame the unanimous opinion of his Council here for the Ordon This letter and the document which follows (No. VIII) are selected to illustrate the difficulties which Murray had with the few hundred British traders settled in Canada. nance establishing the Courts of Justice, as nothing less cou'd be done to prevent great numbers from emigrating directly, and certain I am, unless the Canadians are admitted on Jurys, and are allowed Judges and Lawyers who understand their Language his Majesty will lose the greatest part of this Valuable people. I have the Honor to be with the greatest truth and regard, VIII PETITION OF THE QUEBEC TRADERS [Trans.: Shortt and Doughty.] To the King's Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of Your Majesty's most faithful and loyal Subjects, British Merchants and Traders in behalf of themselves and their fellow Subjects, Inhabitants of your Majesty's Province of Quebec May it please Your Majesty. Confident of Your Majesty's Paternal Care and Protection extended even to the meanest and most distant of your Subjects, We humbly crave your Majesty's Gracious Attention to our present Grievances and Dis tresses. We presume to hope that your Majesty will be pleased to attribute our approaching your Royal Throne with disagreeable Complaints, to the Zeal and Attachment we have to your Majesty's Person and Government, and for the Liberties and Priviledges with which your Majesty has indulged all your Dutifull Subjects. Our Settlement in this Country with respect to the greatest part of us; takes it's date from the Surrender of the Colony to your Majestys Arms; Since that Time we have much contributed to the advantage of our Mother Country, by causing an additional Increase to her Manufactures, and by a considerable Importation of them, diligently applied ourselves to Investigate and promote the Commercial Interests of this Province and render it flourishing. To Military Government, however oppressive and severely felt, we submitted without murmur, hoping Time with a Civil Establishment would remedy this Evil. With Peace we trusted to enjoy the Blessing of British Liberty, and happily reap the fruits of our Industry: but we should now despair of ever attaining those desirable ends, had we not your Majesty's experienced Goodness to apply to. The Ancient Inhabitants of the Country impoverished by the War, had little left wherewith to purchase their common necessaries but a Paper Currency of very doubtfull Value: The Indian War has suspended our Inland Trade for two years past, and both these Causes united have greatly injured our Commerce. For the redress of which we repose wholly on your Majesty, not doubting but the Wisdom of your Majesty's Councils will in due time put the Paper Currency into a course of certain and regular Payment, and the Vigour of Your Majesty's Arms terminate that War by a peace advantageous and durable. We no less rely on your Majesty for the Redress of those Grievances we suffer from the Measures of Government practised in this your Masty's Province, which are The Deprivation of the open Trade declared by your Majesty's most gracious Proclamation, by the Appropriation of some of the most commodious Posts of the Resort of the Savages, under the Pretext of their being your Majesty's private Domain. The Enacting Ordinances Vextatious, Oppressive, unconstitutional, injurious to civil Liberty and the Protestant Cause. Suppressing dutifull and becoming Remonstrances of your Majesty's Subjects against these Ordinances in Silence and Contempt. The Governor instead of acting agreeable to that confidence reposed in him by your Majesty, in giving a favorable Reception to those of your Majesty's Subjects, who petition and apply to him on such important Occasions as require it, doth frequently treat them with a Rage and Rudeness of Language and Demeanor, as dishonorable to the Trust he holds of your Majesty as painful to those who suffer from it. His further adding to this by most flagrant Partialities, by formenting Parties and taking measures to keep your Majesty's old and new Subjects divided from one another, by encouraging the latter to apply for Judges of their own National Language. His endeavouring to quash the Indictment against Claude Panet (his Agent in this Attempt who laboured to inflame the Minds of the People against your Majesty's British Subjects) found by a very Worthy Grand Inquest, and causing their other judicious and honest Presentments to be answered from the Bench with a Contemptuous Ridicule. This discountenancing the Protestant Religion by almost a Total Neglect of Attendance upon the Service of the Church, leaving the Protestants to this Day destitute of a place of Worship appropriated to themselves. The Burthen of these Grievances from Government is so much the more severely felt, because of the natural Poverty of the Country; the Products of it been extemely unequal to support its Consumption of Imports. Hence our Trade is miserably confined and distressed, so that we lye under the utmost Necessary of the Aids and Succours of Government, as well from Our Mother Country as that of the Province, in the Place of having to contend against Oppression and Restraint. We could enumerate many more Sufferings which render the Lives of your Majesty's Subjects, especially your Mayesty's loyal British_Subjects, in the Province so very unhappy that we must be under the Necessity of removing from it, unless timely prevented by a Removal of the present Governor. Your Peitioners therefore most humbly pray your Majesty to take the Premises into your gracious Consideration, and to appoint a Governor over us, acquainted with other maxims of Government than Military only; And for the better security of your Majesty's dutiful and loyal Subjects, in the Possession and Continuance of their Rights and Liberties, we beg leave also most humbly to petition that it may please your Majesty, to order a House of Representatives to be chosen in this as in other your Majesty's Provinces; there being a number more than Sufficient of Loyal and well affected Protestants, exclusive of military Officers, to form a competent and respectable House of Assembly; and your Majesty's new Subjects, if your Majesty shall think fit, may be allowed to elect Protestants without burdening them with such Oaths as in their present mode of thinking they cannot conscientiously take. We doubt not but the good effects of these measures will soon appear, by the Province becoming flourishing and your Majesty's People in it happy. And for Your Majesty and your Royal House your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever pray, &c., &c. (Signed by 21 traders.) IX ORDINANCE OF NOV. 6th, 1764 [Trans.: Shortt and Doughty.] An ORDINANCE, for quieting People in their Possessions, and fixing the Age of Maturity. WHEREAS it appears right and necessary, to quiet the Minds of the People, in Regard to their Possessions, and to remove every Doubt respecting the same, which may any ways tend to excite and encourage vextatious Law-Suits; and until a Matter of so serious and complicated a Nature, fraught with many and great Difficulties, can be seriously considered, and such Measures therein taken, as may appear the most likely to promote the Welfare and Prosperity of the Province in General, His Excllency, by and with the Advice and Consent of His Majesty's Council, Doth hereby Ordain and Declare, That until the tenth day of August next, the Tenures of Lands, in respect to such Grants as are prior to the Cession thereof, by the Definitive Treaty of Peace, signed at Paris the tenth day of February, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-three, and the Rights of Inheritance, as practised before that Period, in such Lands or Effects, of any Nature whatsoever, according to the Custom of this Country, shall remain to all Intents and Purposes the same, unless they shall be altered by some declared and positive Law; for which Purpose the present Ordinance shall serve as a Guide and Direction in all such Matters, to every Court of Record in this Province: Provided that nothing in this Ordinance contained shall extend, or be construed to extend to the Prejudice of the Rights of the Crown, or to debar His Majesty, His Heirs or Successors from obtaining, by due Course of Law, in any of His Courts of Record in this Province, according to the Laws of GreatBritain, any Lands or Tenements, which at any Time hereafter may be found to be vested in His Majesty, his Heirs or Successors, and in the Fossession of any Grantee or Grantees, his, her, or their Assigns, or such as claim under them, by Virtue of any such Grants as aforesaid, or under Pretence thereof, or which hereafter may be found to have become forleited to His Majesty, by Breach of all or any of the Conditions in such Grants respectively mentioned and contained. And be it Ordained and Declared, by the Authority aforesaid, That from and after the first Day of January, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-five, every Person arrived at the Age of Twenty-one compleat Years, shall be deemed for the future of full Age and Maturity agreeable to the Laws of England, and shall be entituled to take full Possession from that Time of every Estate or Right to him belonging; in Conquence thereof to sue for the same, or bring to Account the Guardians, or other Persons who may have been entrusted therewith. GIVEN by His Excellency the Honorable JAMES MURRAY, Esq.; Captain-General and Governor in Chief of the Province of Quebec, and Territories thereon depending in America, Vice Admiral of the same, Governor of the Town of Quebec, Colonel-Commandant of the Second Battalion of the Royal American Regiment, &c., &c. In Council, at Que bec, the 6th Day of November, Anno, Domini, 1764, and in the Fifth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the III, by the Grace of God, of Great-Britain, France and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c., JA. MURRAY. &c. X REPORT OF ATTORNEY AND SOLICITOR GENERAL REGARDING THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF QUEBEC, 17661 [Trans. Shortt and Doughty.] To the Right honble the Lords of the Committee of Council for Plantation affairs. My Lords,-In humble obedience to your Order of the 19th of November last wherein it is recited, that His Majesty having been pleased, to refer to your Lordships several memorials and Petitions from His Majesty's Subjects in Canada as well British as French, complaining of several of the Ordinances and proceedings of the Governor and Council of Quebec, and of the present Establishment of Courts of Judicature and other Civil Constitutions; Your Lordships had on that Day, taken the said paper into your Consideration, together with a Report made thereupon by the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations dated the 2d Sept. last and finding that the said Lords Commissioners had proposed another System of Judicature to be substituted in lieu of that which is now subsisting You thought it proper to Order, that the said Memorials, Fetitions and Reports (which were thereunto annexd) should be referr'd to Us, to consider and report Our Opinion, and observations thereon, together with such alterations to be made in what is proposed in the said Report of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, and such other regulations and propositions as we should think fitt to suggest for the forming a proper plan of Civil Government for the said province of Quebeck; and to that end we were directed to take into our Consideration such parts of the annex't report of Governor Murray, upon the state of the said province as relate to the Civil Government thereof whilst the same was Annex'd to the Crown of France, And were also required to send for Lewis Cramahé, Esq., Secretary to Governor Murray, and Fowler Walker, Esq., Agent for the said Province of Quebec, who were Order'd to attend us from time to time, to give us such further Lights and information as might be requisite for the purpose aforementioned. We have perused the several papers referr'd to us, together with the said two Reports and have also been attended by the Gentlemen named in your Order; and upon the whole matter, beg leave humbly to submit to your Lordships such Reflections as have occurred to us in the Course of that imperfect Consideration, which we have been able at this Busy Season of the year to give to the Great subject of the Civil Govrnment of Quebec and the propositions made by the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations. My Lords, it is evident that Two very principal sources of the Disorders in the province have been. 1st The attempt to carry on the Administration of Justice without the aid of the natives, not merely in new forms, but totally in an unknown tongue, by which means the partys Understood Nothing of what was pleaded or determined having neither Canadian Advocates or Sollicitors to Conduct their Causes, nor Canadian jurors to give Verdicts, even in Causes between Canadians only, Nor Judges Conversant in the French Language to declare the Law, and to pronounce Judgment; This must cause the Real Mischiefs of Ignorance, oppression and Corruption, or else what is almost equal in Government to the mischiefs themselves, the suspicion and Imputation of them. The second and great source of disorders was the Alarm taken at the Construction put upon His Majesty's Proclamation of October 7th, 1763. As if it were His Royal Intentions by his Judges and Officers in that Country, at once to abolish all the usages and Customs of Canada, with "This document is the first of a series of documents, official and otherwise, which throw light on the state of law in Canada during the period 1763-1774. (For others, see Nos. XII, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX.) |