QUEBEC 



4897 



QUEBEC ACT 



ship that attempted to pass them. For sev- 

 eral miles on either side of the promontory on 

 which Quebec is built, the north bank of the 

 Saint Lawrence is high and steep. Along these 

 heights the French forces under the command 

 of Montcalm were stationed. Wolfe landed his 

 army on the island of Orleans four miles below 

 the city. He then sent a detachment to Point 

 is on the south bank of the river directly 

 opposite the citadel. From these two points 

 th> British bombarded the city with such suc- 

 cess that the inhabitants were compelled to 

 abandon their homes, and many buildings were 

 yed. 



On July 31 the British made an attack on 

 Beauport, near Montmorenci, which resulted 

 in failure, but a detachment of the British 

 forces encamped on the opposite side of the 

 Montmorenci where they remained until they 

 were withdrawn for the final attack upon the 

 Wolfe now conceived one of the most 

 daring projects in military history. He would 

 scale the heights in the night and attack Mont- 

 calm in the rear. The plan was desperate. If 

 it succeeded Quebec would be won; if it failed 

 the British army would be destroyed. 



The most careful preparations were made. 

 The time chosen was when there was no moon, 

 and the bed of a little brook (then dry) was 

 selected as the pathway up the ascent. On the 

 night of September 12, the British forces rowed 

 to the designated 

 point with muffled 

 oars and began 

 the ascent in sin- 

 gle file. Before 

 daybreak between 

 4,000 and 5,000 of 

 the best troops in 

 the British army 

 : n battle ar- 

 ray on the Plains 

 of Abraham. Th> 

 French were 

 amazed , but 

 M M n t c a 1 m 

 hroimlit his forces 

 ick in 



good order. Tin- 

 llnti-h 



however, had 

 commanded their men to reserve their t 



my was within forty paces, and the 



first volley piled the ground with heaps of 



broke and fled, and 



all the efforts of their officers to rally them for 

 307 



BATTLE MONTM 

 On the Plains of Abraham. 



a secpnd attack were in vain. The battle was 

 short, but Quebec was won. Both commanders 

 lost their lives, but within a few days the city 

 surrendered to General Townsend, the British 

 commander who succeeded General Wolfe. 



With the fall of Quebec, the French lost all 

 hope of retaining their American possessions, 

 and at the Treaty of Paris, 1763, all of Canada 

 was ceded to Great Britain. The Battle of 

 Quebec, therefore, was one of the most im- 

 portant military events in American history. 

 At the celebration of the Ter-Centenary of the 

 founding of Quebec in 1908, this battle field 

 and the battle ground of Saint Foy were made 

 into a national park and given the name Bat- 

 tlefields National Park. See MONTCALM, Louis 

 JOSEPH, MARQUIS DE; WOLFE, JAMES. W.F.R. 



QUEBEC ACT, an act passed by the British 

 Parliament in 1774 for the purpose of organ- 

 izing the government of Canada, which had 

 been acquired from France in 1763, at the close 

 of the French and Indian Wars. For ten years 

 affairs in the new possession were in a trou- 

 bled state. The "new subjects," as the French- 

 Canadians were called, desired to continue 

 their "ancient customs and usages," particularly 

 in the administration of justice. They were 

 accustomed to trial by a judge without a jury 

 and to other features which the "old sub- 

 jects," the English colonists, did not like. Gen- 

 eral discontent made a definite arrangement 

 necessary, and in 1774 Parliament organized 

 the province of Quebec. 



The Quebec Act included three provisions 

 which caused great indignation among the Eng- 

 lish-speaking colonists. First, the province of 

 Quebec was extended to include all of the 

 territory north of the Ohio River and east 

 of the Mississippi, a section which the colonies 

 on the Atlantic coast claimed by their original 

 charters. Second, in this territory the act sub- 

 stituted French for English civil law. Third, 

 the act withheld the privileges of representa- 

 tive government from the inhabitants. 



The Quebec Act was justified in the eyes of 

 its supporters by the arguments that most of 

 the settlers in the Northwest Territory I 

 French, and that they wrrr not acquainted with 

 and did not want English law and institutions. 

 English colonists, however, regarded the 

 act as a blow at them and their desire for ex- 

 pansion. For this reason the Quebec Act was 

 one of the chief factors in stirring them to 

 revolt. Even in Knuhnd tin-re was consid- 

 erable resentment, and charges were publicly 

 mad. th.it thr interest of the English Protes- 



