SESSIONAL PAPER No. 18

(Translation)

TO THE KING

The true Glory of a Victorious King consists in assuring to the vanquished the same happiness and the same tranquillity in their Religion. and in the possession of their property that they enjoyed before their defeat. We have enjoyed this Tranquillity even during the War, and it has increased since the establishment of Peace. Would that thus it had been secured to us! Deeply attached to our religion, we have sworn at the foot of the altar, unalterable fidelity to Your Majesty. From it we have never swerved and we swear anew that we never will swerve therefrom, although we should be in the future as unfortunate as we have been Happy: but how could we even be unhappy after those tokens of paternal affection by which Your Majesty has given us the assurance that we shall never be disturbed in the Practice of our Religion.

It has seemed to us indeed from the manner in which Justice has been administered among us up to the present time, that it was His Majesty's Intention that the Customs of our Fathers should be adhered to, so that what was done before the Conquest of Canada should be adhered to in the future in so far as it was not opposed to the Laws of England, and to the public good.

Mr. Murray, who was appointed Governor of the Province of Quebec to the satisfaction of all its inhabitants, has up to the present time, at the head of a Military Council administered to us all the justice that we could have expected from the most enlightened jurists. This could hardly have been otherwise, Disinterestedness and Equity being the basis of their decisions.

For four years we enjoyed the greatest tranquillity. By what sudden stroke has it been taken away through the action of four or five jurists, whose character we respect, but who do not understand our language, and who expect us, as soon as they have spoken, to comprehend legal constructions which they have not yet explained, but to which we should always be ready to submit, as soon as we become acquainted with them, but how can we know them, if they are not delivered to us in our own tongue?

It follows, that we have seen with grief our fellow citizens imprisoned without being heard, and this at considerable expense ruinous alike to debtor and creditor; we have seen all the family affairs, which before were settled at slight expense, obstructed by individuals wishing to make them profitable to themselves, who know neither our language nor our customs and to whom it is only possible to speak, with guineas in one's hand.

We hope to prove to your Majesty with all due submission the statements which we have the honour to lay before him.

Our Governor, at the Head of his Council, has issued an ordinance for the Establishment of Courts, by which we were rejoiced to see, that

6-7 EDWARD VII., A. 1907

to assist us in the settlement of family and other matters, a Lower Court of Justice was to be established where all cases between Frenchman and Frenchman could be decided. We have seen that by another ordinance, to avoid lawsuits, cases decided by this court should be without appeal, unless they were of the value of three Hundred Livres.

In proportion to the greatness of our Joy on seeing these wise regulations, was the distress with which we discovered that fifteen English Jurors as opposed to seven Jurors from the new Subjects had induced the latter to subscribe to Remonstrances in a language which they did not understand against these same Regulations. This is proved by their Remonstrances and Signatures of the evening before, in a Petition in which they urgently beg the Governor and his Council that their Judge may hold a sitting as their affairs were suffering for want of it.

With deep bitterness in our hearts we have seen, that after all the proofs of Your Majesty's Paternal Affection for your new Subjects, these same fifteen Jurors, with the assistance of the Lawyers have proscribed us as unfit, from differences of Religion, for any office in our country; even Surgeons and Apothecaries (whose professions are free in all countries) being among the number.

Who are those who wish to have us proscribed? About thirty English merchants, of whom fifteen at the most, are settled here. Who are the Proscribed? Ten thousand Heads of Families who feel nothing but submission to the orders of Your Majesty, and of those who represent you, who do not recognize as such this socalled Liberty with which the other party desire to incite them to opposition to all the Regulations which might be to their advantage, and who have enough intelligence to see that these persons are guided by their own Interest rather than the public good.

And in fact what would become of the general prosperity of the Colony, if those who form the principal section thereof, become incapable members of it through difference of Religion? How would Justice be administered if those who understand neither our Language nor our Customs should become our Judges, through the Medium of Interpreters. What confusion, what Expenditure of Money would not result therefrom? Instead of the favoured Subjects of Your Majesty, we should become veritable Slaves; a Score of Persons whom we do not know would become the Masters of our Property and of our Interests; We should have no further Redress from those equitable Men, to whom we have been accustomed to apply for the settlement of our Family Affairs, and who if they abandoned us, would cause us to prefer the most barren country to the fertile land we now possess.

It is not that we are not ready to submit with the most respectful obedience to all the Regulations which may be made for the Wellbeing and Prosperity of the Colony, but the favour which we ask is that we may be allowed to understand them. Our Governor and his Council have

SESSIONAL PAPER No. 18

instructed us concerning those which have been already issued. They are for the good of the Colony, we have shown our Gratitude for the same, and yet now we are made to represent as a hardship by those who are speaking in our name, what we have found to be a benefit.

That we may not further encroach upon Your Majesty's Precious Time, we conclude by assuring You, that without knowing the English Constitution we have during the past four years, enjoyed the Beneficence of the Government, and we should still enjoy it, if Mess" the English Jurors were as submissive to the wise decisions of the Governor and his Council, as we are; if they were not seeking by new regulations, by the introduction of which they hope to make us their slaves, to change at once the order and administration of Justice, if they were not desirous of making us argue our Family Rights in a foreign tongue, and thereby depriving us of those Persons, who from their knowledge of our Customs, can understand us, settle our differences, and administer Justice at slight expense; using every effort, on the plea of the difference of Religion, to prevent them even from acting as Counsel for their fellow countrymen. This we can only regard as due to the base anxiety for their own interests of those who have suggested such Principles.

We entreat Your Majesty with the deepest and most respectful submission to confirm the system of Justice which has been established for the French, by the deliberations of the Governor and Council, as also the Jurors and all others of different professions, to maintain the Notaries and advocates in the exercise of their functions, to permit us to transact our Family Affairs in our own tongue, to follow our customs, in so far as they are not opposed to the general Wellbeing of the Colony, and to grant that a Law may be published in our Language, together with the Orders of Your Majesty, whose most faithful Subjects, we do, with the most unalterable Respect, hereby declare Ourselves.

The most faithful Subjects.

ORDINANCE OF NOV. 6th 17641

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 vexatious 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 Well-fare and Prosperity of the Province in general, His Excellency, by and with the Advice and Consent of His Majesty's Council, Doth hereby

"Ordinances, made for the Province of Quebec, by the Governor and Council, &c. "Que. 1767, p. 18.

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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 Great-Britain, 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 Possession 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 forfeited 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 Consequence 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 Honourable 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 Quebec, 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., &c.

JA. MURRAY.

By Order of His EXCELLENCY in Council,

H. KNELLER, D.C.C.

SSIONAL PAPER No. 18

GOVERNOR MURRAY TO THE LORDS OF TRADE.1

Y LORDS

QUEBEC 29th Oct 1764

The inclosed papers will shew you the situation of affairs here and how ecessary it is for me to send Mr Cramahé to London' that your Lordships ay have the most Minute and Clearest Acct of every thing relating to this rovince. An immediate Remedy seems necessary. To any thing I in write doubts may arise and misrepresentations may be made (which find too frequently to be the case) the necessary delay to clear up such 'oubts and misrepresentations by letters, may be dangerous. Mr ramahé will answer every purpose, if properly attended too, he is thorughly informed of all I know, no Man has the good of this Colony more t heart, no Man is more zealous for the Kings service and certainly there oth not exist a Man of more Integrity and Application.

Little, very little, will content the New Subjects but nothing will satisfy he Licentious Fanaticks Trading here, but the expulsion of the Canadians vho are perhaps the bravest and the best race upon the Globe, a Race, vho cou'd they be indulged with a few priveledges wch the Laws of England leny 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 Ordonnance 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 beg leave further to represent to your Lordship that a Lieut Governor at Montreal is absolutely necessary, that Town is in the Heart of the most populous part of the Province, it is surrounded by the Indian Nations and is one Hundred and Eighty miles from the Capitol, it is there that the most opulent Priests live, and there are settled the greatest part of the French Nobless, consequently every intrigue to our disadvantage will be laid

1 Canadian Archives; vol. Q 2, p. 233.

2 Mr. H. T. Cramahé had been Civil Secretary for the District of Quebec, from the time that Gen. Murray had been appointed Lt. Governor, after the Conquest. When Canada, following the example of the older colonies, desired to appoint an agent in London, Mr. Cramahé was nominated for the position, in Feb. 1764. The appointment, however, was apparently not made. When civil government was established, in Aug. 1764, Mr. Cramahé became a member of the first Council of the Province.

'This letter and the following petitions incidentally reveal the very strained relations, extending to personal bitterness, which existed between Governor Murray and the British commercial element in the colony, and which led to the Governor's recall.

'The ordinance of Sept. 17th, 1764. See p. 205.