Of the Character, Manners, Customs, Industry, and Religion of the Canadians-French Population- Page. CHAP. V. CHAP. VI. IV. Articles of Capitulation agreed on between General Townshend and M. de Ramsay, V. Articles of Capitulation between General Am- herst, Commander-in-Chief of His Britannic Majesty's Troops and Forces in North Ame- rica, and the Marquess de Vaudreuil, Lieute- nant-General for the King of France, in Canada, on the 8th of September, 1760 VI. An Act for making more effectual Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec, in North America, passed in the Fourteenth Year of the Reign of George III........................................... VII. An Act to repeal certain Parts of the preced- ing (No. VI.), and to make further Provision for the Government of the Province, passed in the Thirty-first Year of the Reign of Geo. III. 231 VIII. An Address to the Electors of Lower Canada... 247 IX. Extract from a Bill for uniting the Legisla tures of Lower and Upper Canada; printed X. A Poetical Composition inserted in the Quebec Gazette on New Year's Day, 1829................................ 251 XI. Statement of the different Establishments for POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF LOWER CANADA. CHAPTER I. Discovery of the Country, and Origin of its Name-Passes into the Hands of the English-Boundaries-Object of the present Work. IN the year 1497, Sebastian Cabot, holding a commission from Henry VII. of England, discovered the countries situated on the south-west of the river St. Lawrence. The appellation of CANADA was given to these territories, as well as to those afterwards discovered by Jacques Cartier, a subject of France. Of the origin of the word CANADA there are various accounts. It is by some asserted to be a word of the Iroquois language, signifying a collection of huts; others, however, give it a fanciful derivation from the Spanish. It is said that the Spaniards, long before Verazani was dispatched by Francis I. on a voyage of discovery, had disembarked in the bay now called Chaleurs, and, in their B search after mines, pronounced constantly before the savages of the country the two words, aca nada-here nothing; which words the Indians afterwards repeated to the French. Others, again, assert, that the term is a corruption of capo de nada-cape of nothing; which appellation the Spaniards are supposed to have conferred on the country, believing it utterly barren and desolate. The territory now known by the name of Canada was, until the year 1759, in possession of France; and, together with the remainder of her possessions in that part of America, was distinguished by the appellation of La Nouvelle France. In 1629, Canada was taken by the English, but was then held in so little estimation as to be returned to its former owners, the French, in three years afterwards. In 1759, however, General Wolfe was dispatched for the purpose of conquering the country; and on the plains of Abraham, under the walls of Quebec (the capital), he defeated the French troops, who had been induced to leave their almost impregnable fortress. Wolfe lost his life in the action; but the victory he had gained decided the fate of Canada, which then passed for ever from under the dominion of France. A capitulation was entered into by the inhabitants of Quebec and Montreal, and ratified by the regular authorities. To this capitulation I shall hereafter have to revertt. For some time the country was under the direction of one government, and was generally designated the Province of Quebec. In 1791, the province of Quebec was divided into the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. To Lower Canada alone, as then marked out, are the succeeding observations intended to apply. *Le conseil de Louis XIII. tenait aussi si peu à cet établissement, qu'il opinait à ne pas en demander la restitution; mais Richelieu, qui avait fondé la dernière compagnie, fit changer d'avis. On arma six vaisseaux pour soutenir cette demande, et la cour d'Angleterre, d'après le conseil du Lord Montague, rendit le Canada aux Français en 1631.-Beautés de l'Histoire du Canada, p. 84. + See Appendix, Nos. IV. and V. |