50 JOHN GEORGE BOURINOT ON 
continent, and might acquire a larger degree of liberty, but all such aspirations were 
promptly checked by the governor, the intendant and the bishop, in obedience to the 
instructions of the king. No social union existed between the people, no guarantees for 
civil liberty were ever established. On every occasion the people were taught to have 
no ambition for civil power, or for a share in public businesss. Reduced at last toa 
state of passive obedience, they accepted the orders and edicts of the king without a 
murmur.” ! 
It is easy to understand that the result of this autocratic, illiberal system of govern- 
ment was complete social and political stagnation.” It was not until the people of 
French Canada had been for many years under a British system of government, that they 
awoke to the full consciousness cf their rights, and began to take that practical interest 
in public affairs which was the best evidence of their increased intelligence. 
III—LowEr CANADA, 1760-1840. 
For three years after the conquest of Canada, the government was in the hands of 
military chiefs who had their headquarters at Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers, the 
chefs lieux of the three departments into which General Amherst, the first English 
governor-general, divided the new province. During this military regime the people as 
a rule settled their difficulties among themselves, and did not resort to the military 
tribunals which were established to administer law throughout the conquered territory.’ 
In 1763, King George III established four new governments in America, viz., Quebec, 
East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada. For nearly thirty years, the people of the govern- 
ment of Quebec were not represented in a legislature, but were governed up to 1774 by 
a governor-general, and an executive council, composed in the first instance, of the two 
lieutenant-governors of Montreal and Three Rivers, of the surveyor-general of customs, 
and of eight others chosen from leading residents of the province. In 1774 the imperial 
parliament for the first time intervened in the affairs of the country, and passed the 
Quebec Act, by which the government was entrusted to a governor-general and a 
legislative council appointed by the crown, inasmuch as it was deemed ‘“inexpedient to 
call an assembly.” This irresponsible body was to contain not more than twenty-three and 
not less than seventeen members, and had power with the consent of the goyernor-general 
“to make ordinances for the peace, welfare, and good government of the province.” It 
had no authority, however, to impose any taxes or duties, except such as the inhabitants 
of any town or district might be authorized to assess or levy within its precincts for the 

1 Doutre et Lareau, p. 308. 
? “The institutions of France, during the period of the colonisation of Canada were, perhaps, more than those 
of any other European nation, calculated to repress the intelligence and freedom of the great mass of the people. 
These institutions followed the Canadian colonist across the Atlantic. The same central, ill-organized, unimprov- 
ing and repressive despotism extended over him. Not merely was he allowed no voice in the government of the 
province, or the choice of his rulers, but he was not even permitted to associate with his neighbours for the 
regulation of those municipal affairs which the central authority neglected under the pretext of managing.” 
Lord Durham’s Report, p. 9. 
# Attorney-general Thurlow’s Report in Christie’s History of Lower Canada, i. 49, 50. 
* Christie, i. 49, 50, 
