[riddell] PRE-ASSEMBLY LEGISLATURES IN BRITISH CANADA 115 



The Province being under the immediate government of the 

 King, and not that of the Parhament of the United Kingdom, of 

 course it was for the King to give directions as to the legislative body 

 in the colony. While by his Instructions, he directed the Governor 

 to nominate and appoint Members of the Council he was not thereby 

 deprived of the common-law power of himself appointing others to 

 any desired number — those were appointed by a Mandamus issued 

 to the Governor. There were then to be the two methods of appoint- 

 ment to the Council (1) by Summons from the Governor and (2) by 

 Royal Mandamus — some of the Consequences of this dual system 

 will be mentioned in the Memorandum added to this Chapter. 



Governor Murray proceeded in June and July, 1764, to appoint 

 Councillors; and at the first Council held Monday, August 13, 1764, 

 there were present in addition to himself and Chief Justice William 

 Gregory, seven persons "nominated Members of His Majesty's Honour- 

 able Council by His Said Excellency" — a mandamus had issued in 

 July for another but he was not yet sworn in and is, of course, not 

 noted as being present. Chief Justice Gregory was appointed Presi- 

 dent of the Council (3). 



The Council with the successive Governors passed much useful 

 legislation — of a purely local character of course; and seem to have 

 been fairly efficient as legislators. But there was dissatisfaction in 

 some quarters. It was not long before the English traders in Quebec 

 began to press for an Assembly; and their request was backed up by 

 a number of London merchants trading with Quebec — it was of course 

 intended that the Members of the Assembly should be Protestants, 

 as no others were considered qualified. There was no objection to 

 Roman Catholics voting; and it was urged that there was a number 

 more than sufficient of loyal and well-affected Protestants to form a 

 competent and respectable House of Assembly. As early as Sep- 

 tember, 1765, the Board of Trade recommended the summoning of an 

 Assembly, the Members to be Protestants, the voters of either religion. 

 Opinions as to the expediency of an Assembly differed; e.g. Francis 

 (afterwards Cursitor Baron) Masères (4) who became Attorney- 

 General of Quebec in 1766 thought that such an Assembly would in 

 truth be representative of only the 600 (5) new English Settlers and 

 an instrument in their hands of domineering over 90,000 French — 

 moreover he thought that the Canadian bigotted to the Popish religion 

 should not be trusted with any power. 



Masères afterwards in 1769, as Attorney General for the Province 

 and on the order of Carleton the Governor, drew up a Report concern- 

 ing the state of the Laws and the Administration of Justice in the 

 Province in which he said that Murray's Commission did not justify 



