QUEBEC 



4893 



QUEBEC 



the Crown and an elective assembly of eighty- 

 two members. Members are not required to 

 be residents of the district which they are 

 chosen to represent, and this plan gives the 

 voters better opportunity to choose the best 

 men. Quebec has sixty-five members in the 

 Dominion House of Commons, and the number 

 from each of the other provinces is regulated 

 l>y this number, which was originally assigned 

 to Quebec with the provision that it should 

 remain unchanged (see CANADA, subtitle The 

 Dominion Government). 



For purposes of local government the prov- 

 ince is divided into counties, townships and 

 municipalities, each having its special officers. 



The courts consist of the court of the king's 

 bench, or appeals, the superior court and dis- 

 trict courts. Judges of the king's bench and 

 superior court are appointed by the governor- 

 general in council. Police courts and courts 

 of the justice of the peace have jurisdiction 

 over small cases in townships and villages. 



Education. The public schools are under the 

 control of a superintendent of public instruc- 

 tion, who is assisted by a council of thirty-five 

 members. This council is divided into two 

 committees, one having the management of the 

 Roman Catholic schools and the other that of 

 the Protestant schools. The main support of 

 the schools is local taxation. Owners of prop- 

 erty pay their taxes into the Roman Catholic 

 or Protestant or neutral panels respectively. 

 Public companies pay into the latter panel, 

 which is divided between the other two on the 

 basis of population. There are also govern- 

 ment grants, divided on the same basis. Each 

 school municipality is in the immediate care of 

 its local board. The educational institutions 

 are divided into three classes: (1) primary 

 schools, which include elementary, model or 

 ; mediate schools and academic or high 

 schools; (2) classical colleges; (3) technical 

 schools, such as schools of agriculture, schools 

 of mines and schools of art. The two leading 

 universities, McGill at the head of the Protes- 

 tant schools, and Laval at the head of the 

 Catholic schools, are described under their 

 respective titles. 



History. Until the conquest of Canada by 



Great Britain, 1759-1763, the history of Quebec 



was the history of New France. For a detailed 



account of this period see CANADA, subtitl. 



'II oj Canada. 



By the Treaty of Paris in 1763 all of Canada 



to Great I 1 . iic.il 



:;trr <>!' administration followed. Tin- Brit- 



ish government secured the good will of their 

 new French subjects by leaving the laws and 

 institutions under which they had lived undis- 

 turbed and by allowing the free use of the 

 French language in the government and in 

 education. At the breaking out of the Revo- 

 lutionary War, emissaries from the American 

 colonies tried to induce the Canadians to join 

 with them in the struggle for an independent 

 government, but without success. An expedi- 

 tion against Quebec under Montgomery and 

 Arnold in 1775 was defeated and Montgomery 

 was slain. Another against Montreal failed. 

 At the close of the war a large number of 

 English and Scotch settlers entered the coun- 

 try from the United States, the original set- 

 tlers of the Eastern Townships being among 

 them. 



In 1791 the English settlers in the western 

 part of Canada petitioned for a separate gov- 

 ernment, and the provinces of Upper Canada 

 (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec) were 

 organized. In 1812 there was a growing an- 

 tagonism between the English and French ele- 

 ments of the population, but the War of 

 1812-1814 between England and the United 

 States served to unite these nationalities in 

 support of the British government. For twenty 

 years following the close of this war, govern- 

 ment conditions in Canada were not satisfac- 

 tory, and this led some of the French in Quebec 

 to join in the Rebellion of 1837. This was 

 headed in Upper Canada by William Macken- 

 zie and in Lower Canada by Louis Papineau, 

 who declared the purpose of the uprising to 

 be the establishing of an independent Canadian 

 nation. At this time the population of Lower 

 Canada was about 300,000, three-fourths of 

 whom were French. In 1841 the provinces 

 were united under one government and a 

 Canadian Parliament of two houses waa estab- 

 lished, and this arrangement continued until 

 the formation of the Confederation in 1867, 

 when Quebec became a province of the Do- 

 minion of Canada. 



Since Quebec became a member of the Do- 

 minion its record has been one of progress and 

 prosperity. The energies of the government 

 have been devoted to the development of th. 

 natural resources of the provnu. . tho advance- 

 ment of education and the conservation of the 

 political rights of the people in the Dominion 

 government. During the century and a In If of 

 ^tence under British rule tin Frmdi 

 Canadians have been insistent upon ret a in mu 

 tin ir native language and all social customs. 



