of opportunity, that "carrière ouverte aux talents," the presence of which alone keeps the air of public life fresh and wholesome. The recognition of this principle belongs to no one form of government. None was more faithful to it than the despotism of the first Napoleon, and it is by no means a necessary consequence of popular government. It is because, in the England of to-day, this equality of opportunity prevails under democracy, far more than it ever did under other forms of government, that many, who approach it without predilections and not without misgivings, are still forced to subscribe themselves convinced democrats.

conquest.

CHAPTER IX

Canada IN the foregoing summary of American affairs, one potent after its cause of colonial dissatisfaction has been purposely omitted. 14 G. III., The Quebec Act of 1774 must be considered in connection c. 83. with the general question of Canada. We have already noted how the long struggle for pre-eminence between France and England ended in the final triumph of the latter, and how the genius of Pitt and Wolfe decided that whatever might be the political future of North America, at least it should not fall under French dominion. The government of French Canada was a new experiment in British Colonial history. It is true that Jamaica had been acquired by conquest, but Jamaica, so far as settlement was concerned, was a tabula rasa, on which England might write what she pleased. The peculiarity of Canada was that it possessed a French population, enjoying French customs and French laws. The total population at the time of the treaty of Paris was about 62,000 and for many years the number of English immigrants was very small. The French were concentrated in the present province of Quebec, there being no French settlers in Ontario. In this state of things, the problem of obtaining both security to the Empire and liberty to the subject was one of no little difficulty. The keynote of British policy was given in Amherst's instructions to Gage1-"These newly-acquired subjects, when they have taken the oath, are as much His Majesty's subjects as any of us, and are, so long as they remain deserving of it, entitled to the same protection." The period between 1760 and 1764 is known as the "Règne Militaire," but, in fact, the government introduced had nothing in common with martial law. French Canadian 1 Kingsford Hist. of Can., Vol. IV., p. 441.

writers have themselves 1 admitted the wisdom and discretion with which the administration was carried on. There was no attempt to introduce English laws. The regimental officers were, it is true, the administrators of the law, but they respected and followed, so far as possible, the ancient laws and customs of the country. On the death of George II. the citizens of Montreal 2 expressed their sense of the protection which they received under the British Government. Amherst had " behaved to us as a father rather than a conqueror." It must be remembered that all this was before the signing of the Treaty of Peace, which secured religious privileges to the Canadians.

There were other considerations which rendered easier the progress of British influence. The French Canadian Government had been a despotism, reaping where it did not sow. In Canada the ancien régime had meant government corvées, enforced military service, and the complete absence of all political rights. It is noteworthy that printing was for the first time introduced into Canada after the English conquest. By means of proclamations, full intelligence was given to the people of what was expected from them. An honest effort was made to prevent their simplicity from being taken advantage of. Nor was this wisdom and moderation confined to the English Governors in Canada. The Secretary of State in 1762 expressly 3 approved of the whole language and behaviour of Amherst regarding the Canadians; and the provincial Governors were to receive the most precise and express orders to forbid any insult to be addressed towards the language, dress, fashions, customs or religion of the French inhabitants. With justice Gage was able to boast that "no invasion of 1762. their property or insult on their persons had gone unpunished.

No distinction has been made betwixt the Briton and Canadian, but equally regarded as subjects of the same. prince. The soldiers live peaceably with the inhabitants, and they reciprocally acquire an affection for each other."

1 Hist. of Can., Vol. IV., p. 438.

Ibid., p. 450.

2

Ibid., p. 445.

4 Ibid., p. 455.

1762.

In this state of things the work of conciliation went on apace, and Haldimand1 was able to assure Amherst that there was nothing the Canadians dreaded so much as the return of French rule. Two causes, however, of discontent remained unsatisfied. The first related to the paper money held by the inhabitants. With regard to this, the action of the English Governors was straightforward. As soon as possible they issued proclamations, cautioning the inhabitants against its use, and when, through the action of British diplomacy, the French in the Treaty of Paris admitted a liability, another proclamation was at once issued, cautioning the people against sacrificing the paper money in their possession at a rate below its proper value. Of course, in such a state of things it was inevitable that bargaining and cheating should go on. But the blame of it cannot be fairly laid on the shoulders of the English administration. The other cause of discontent was of a more serious nature. It arose out of the fear naturally felt by the Canadians for the future of their religion. The Church of Rome has been too generally accustomed to mean by "militant" concerned in the mundane squabbles of national politics. But it has, perhaps, seldom sinned more deeply against what plain men must hold as the spirit of Christianity than in its behaviour in the 17th and 18th centuries in Canada. In the terrible Indian warfare of early days, it had been priests who had hounded the savages on against their fellow-Christians. It was of vital importance that the Canadian Church should not be a mere rallying ground for anti-English sentiment. For this purpose it was necessary that the close alliance between France and the Canadian Church should be severed, and that the bishops and clergy of Canada should be born and bred Canadians, approaching political questions from a Canadian and not a French point of view. Such then was the double task of the English government. To secure for the Roman Catholic Church the full exercise of all its privileges and rights, while at the same time taking due care that such 1 Hist. of Can., Vol. IV. p. 448.

privileges and rights should not be worked in a manner hostile to British interests. Perhaps the best comment on the success of the attempt is the present attitude of the Canadian Roman Catholic Church towards Imperial interests. Dr Kingsford1 has called attention to one very remarkable proof of Canadian feeling. In spite of loose and unsubstantiated assertions, it would seem that neither after the conquest nor after the peace was there any large emigration of Canadians to France. Of course a certain number who held military or civil employments under the French king naturally left. But there can be found no trace of any general exodus of the Canadian upper classes.

2

Although the Treaty of Paris was signed in the February of 1763, no change in the government of Canada was made for another eighteen months. Murray was appointed Governor in October, and in August 1764 the proclamation arrived which was to remodel the form of government. Under this, four new distinct and separate governments" were established, namely Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada. Dr Kingsford has commented on the obscurity of the boundaries ascribed to the provinces, "evidently written by some subordinate clerk ignorant of the subject, an incident by no means entirely unknown at this date." The Governors, “so soon as the state and circumstances of the said colonies will admit thereof," were to "summon and call general Assemblies within the said governments respectively, in such manner and form as is used and directed in those colonies and provinces in America, which are under our immediate government. . . In the meantime and until such Assemblies can be called, as aforesaid all persons inhabiting in or resorting in our said Colonies, may confide in our Royal protection for the enjoyment of the benefit of the laws of our realm of England." Courts of law were to be erected by the Governors, with the advice of their councils, to hear and determine "all causes as well criminal as civil, according to law and equity and as near as may be agreeable to the laws of England," with liberty to 1 Hist. of Can., Vol. IV. p. 464. 2 Vol. V. p. 135.