For the purpose of preventing confusion, it may be advisable to give a specific detail of the boundaries of the province.

The country lies between 45° and 52° of north latitude, and 63° and 81° of west longitude from Greenwich. The territory of the Hudson's Bay Company, or East Maine, is its northern boundary: the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the river St. John, and part of the Labrador coast, bound it on the east. Its southern limit is formed partly by New Brunswick, and partly by a portion of the territory of the United States; viz. the district of Maine, the province of New Hampshire, the state of Vermont, and of New York. The western boundary was settled by the Act of the Imperial Parliament, passed in 1791, dividing the province of Quebec. The line running between the two provinces of Lower and Upper Canada, is, by that Act, directed to commence at a stone boundary, on the north bank of the lake St. Francis, at the cove of Pointe au Baudette, in the limit between the township of Lancaster and the seigneury of New Longeuil; then along the northern boundary of the seigneury of Vaudreuil, running north; twenty-five degrees east, until it strikes the Ottawa river; to ascend the said river, into the lake Temiscaming; and, from the head of the said lake, by a line drawn due north, until it strikes the boundary line of Hudson's Bay, including all the territory to the westward and southward of the said line, to the utmost extent of the country, commonly called or known by the name of Canada*."

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Differences having arisen between Great Britain and the United States, respecting the boundaries of their respective territories, commissioners were appointed to arrange the difficulties. The line between the province of Upper Canada and the United States was accordingly settled by them; but finding that they could not agree respecting

See BOUCHETTE's Topography, pp. 1-3.

the division between Lower Canada and the district of Maine, the matter was referred to the emperor of Russia; from whose decision it was eventually transferred to that of the king of the Netherlands, to the great discontent, it is asserted, of the United States. The matter, in a military point of view, is considered of importance, and is still undecided.

The object of the present work is to give a succinct detail of the government of the country thus described, from the epoch of its passing under the dominion of the English, down to the period of the termination of Lord Dalhousie's administration, in the year 1828. Into a very minute discussion of the proceedings of the colonial government, during the first years of the English rule, however, it is not my intention to enter; and with a cursory view of the more important legislative proceedings of the Imperial Parliament I shall dismiss this early portion of our history: but as I come nearer to the present time, a more particular detail will be required. I flatter myself that an exposition of the conduct of this specimen of colonial administration will not be entirely destitute of interest, even to the English reader: it will give him an insight into the workings of a vast, and, in my mind, an ill-constructed machine of government: it will prove to him the pernicious consequences of having irresponsible rulers, and the utter impossibility of a wellorganized administration being composed of persons drawn from a distant country, ignorant of the manners and situation of the people they are destined to rule, and careless of those interests with which they are but temporarily connected: it will exhibit to him a scene of complicated and vexatious oppression, on the one side; of unsuspecting confidence and willing obedience, changed by ill-usage into distrust and opposition, on the other: it will prove how the best intentions on the part of the English people have been constantly defeated, by the avarice and despotism of petty officers: it will teach him, in short, how a whole people

have been checked in the progress of improvement, enthralled, ill-treated, abused, and then misrepresented, by the evil influence of a handful of grasping functionaries.

Having exposed the evils, it is then my intention to propose the remedies; to lay bare the injuries which my country has suffered; to point out the means of redress. These are the sole objects of the present undertaking.

By the treaty of Paris, signed on the 10th of February, 1763, the Canadas were ceded to His Britannic Majesty, under certain provisions, which provisions, in some measure, were the objects of various articles in the capitulation entered into by the inhabitants of Quebec and Montreal with General Amherst*. On the 7th of October, the same year, His Majesty issued a proclamation, the objects of which were as follow. Both by the capitulation above mentioned, and the treaty of Paris, the inhabitants of Canada were contemplated under the character of British subjects; in conformity with the understanding which led to such contemplation, the proclamation of the King was issued. No distinction was made between the old and newly-acquired subjects of His Majesty, in this document; so that we may safely conclude that no distinction was intended. The whole of the inhabitants were considered as an out-lying portion of the English people, inhabiting a territory for which the King was, by the nation at large, allowed to legislate.

After certain regulations respecting the administrative portion of the Government, came certain articles, providing—

1. That the English criminal and civil code of law, with the laws of the Admiralty, should have full force within the province.

2. That the trial by jury, both in civil and criminal cases, should always be employed.

We may here observe, that two important consequences flowed from the establishment of this law: First, no citizen

*See Appendix, No. V.

+ See Article 41 of the Capitulation of Montreal, Appendix, No. V.

could be condemned to punishment, but on account of some infringement of the law; which infringement must previously have been decided on by the legal tribunals. Second, the liberty of the press, as it existed in England, became ipso facto a part of the law of the land.

To give effect to this proclamation, the provincial authorities erected tribunals, to administer justice according to the letter and the spirit of the law thus established.

I may here be permitted to remark, that a violent and unnecessary revolution was, by this measure, brought about. The inhabitants of Canada had hitherto been accustomed to the law according to the customs of Paris; their expectations were framed in accordance with this law; and much of the property of one portion of the people depended entirely upon its existence. To break in upon the old habits of the people, without the expectation of one earthly benefit, was a piece of injustice, which, had it sprung from any thing but ignorance, would deserve severe reprobation. I have no doubt but that the English ministry had a sincere desire to benefit the Canadian people; and, with the bold presumption usually attendant on ignorance, they altered the whole law of a people, without the slightest anticipation of mischief. One other determination deserves also to be recorded: no language but English was permitted in the law proceedings of a people who could not understand a syllable of that language.

The mischievous consequences of some of the above regulations, passed in defiance of treaties, of justice, and humanity, were immediately felt. Surprised, angered, and, in many cases, ruined by their influence, our ancestors, after a few years of silent suffering, at length raised their voices, and transmitted a statement of their complaints to the King. The Ministry paid attention to their remonstrances, and partially removed the cause of them, by passing, in 1774, an Act, commonly called the Quebec Act*. By recalling into

*See Appendix, No. VI.

force the ancient laws of the country, this Act provided, as far as was in the power of the Ministry, for the safety of our private rights, but, at the same time, served to rob the people of expectations which they fondly entertained, upon their coming under the dominion of England, viz. that a representative government would be conferred on them, as soon as circumstances permitted. In the place of such a system, a local legislature was created, in which the people had no part; laws might now be enacted without their consent, and thus they were disappointed of one great privilege, which they had been taught to believe was the inalienable right of a British subject. This Act, moreover, by establishing, without reserve, the ancient laws of the country, did away, at once, with the trial by jury in civil cases; with the writ of habeas corpus; and also with the liberty of the press. However, the Act was received with gratitude for the good that it brought. In time, nevertheless, the evils it occasioned were loudly complained of, till, at length, the present constitution was, by the Imperial Parliament, conferred upon the country. Before this happened, indeed, several ameliorations had taken place in the situation of the people-ameliorations brought about by the express commands of the Ministry in England. The Council had, in accordance with these commands, issued two ordinances one in 1784, calling into power the writ of habeas corpus; the other in 1785, establishing the trial by jury in civil cases. The joy created by the first ordinance, among all classes of people, was extreme; their personal security seemed thereby established, as was their political existence, by the Act of the Imperial Parliament in the year 1791, which conferred on them their present constitution.

The exertions of the Ministry to benefit the people of Canada, were not undertaken for persons wholly undeserving of the favour of the English nation. In the disastrous war of American independence, the Canadians steadily adhered to the fortunes of the English, and bravely repelled an