26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE, 



in 1756 issued an ordinance, declaring null all enfranchisements not made in com- 

 pliance with certain regulations, and registered. 



A declaration of the Paris Royal Council of 23rd July, 1745, declared that slaves 

 who follow the enemy to the colonies of France, and their effects, should belong to 

 His Most Christian Majesty. 



This was a precedent of General Butler's famous order, made more than a 

 century later, confiscating slaves coming into the Union ranks as '' contrabands." 



The Parliament of Great Britain was, when Canada was secured to the Empire, 

 very favourable to the importation of slaves into the plantations, and had passed 

 many Acts to aid that object. 



Proceedings in the Montreal courts towards the end of last century tended to 

 weaken the master's claims, and ultimately entirely broke them, with more regard to 

 the rising public sentiment in England and France against slavery than to the actual 

 state of the law, as has been shown in our previous paper. (17) 



A census taken in 1784 states the number of slaves in Lower Canada at 304, of 

 whom 212 were in the District of Montreal, 88 in that of Quebec, and 4 in Three 

 Rivers. No distinction is there made between negroes and panis. An attempt was 

 made in the first Parliament of Lower Canada, in 1793, to obtain an Act similar to 

 that passed in the Upper Canada House at Niagara, which would have declared all 

 slaves then held, to be in bondagre for life, and only g-iven freedom gradualy to their 

 offspring ; but this proposal, though warmly debated, was not successful. In 1799, 

 and again in 1800, Mr. Papineau presented petitions from many inhabitants of 

 Montreal referring to the ordinances of Intendants Raudot and Hocquart, also to 

 the Quebec Act, maintaining the former laws and usages to the people of 

 Canada, and also to an Act of George HL, under cover of which the petitioners 

 allege a number of slaves, panis and negroes, were imported (18). Bills brought in 

 on these petitions were much discussed, but sentiment was against their object; the 

 declaration of the rights of slave-holders, and they failed to pass into law — thus 

 slavery disappeared from Lower Canada. (iQ^i It practically ceased at this time in Nova 

 Scotia also and New Brunswick. The Upper Province had no such judicial and 

 legislative experience as Lower Canada in regard to domestic slavery. When 

 separated from the Mother ' Province in 1791, civil rights, including the law and 

 customs as to slaves, still held in force. The Upper Canada Act of 1793 passed 

 without difficulty, and there was no enactment here between that and the Imperial 

 Act, which freed the few remaining slaves in 1834. While slavery existed, its char- 

 acter was modified, and personal cruelty guarded against by the code noir and 

 provincial ordinances. As for the Indian slaves, there was also sympathy through 

 the fact that not a few of the inhabitants were connected with the tribes by marriage. 

 Mr. Parkman says with much truth : " Spanish civilization crushed the Indian, 

 English civilization neglected him, French civilization embraced and cherished 

 him. (20) 



IV. There are few instances of panis in Western Canada. That of Mr. Lang- 

 lade, who saved the life of Henry, the traider, at Mackinac, has been referred to. By 

 the second article of a treaty of peace and amity, made by Sir W. Johnson with the 

 Hurons 18th July, 1764 (21), it is provided that "any Enghsh who may be prisoners 

 or deserters, any negroes, panis, or other slaves amongst the Hurons, who' are 

 British property, shall be delivered up within one month to the commandment of 

 the Detroit." It may be concluded that there were a considerable number of panis 

 in this western region then. 



(17) " De Lesclavage in Canada," by Sir L. H. Lafontaine, Proceedings of Societe Historique da 

 Montreal, 1858, and " Slavery in Canada," by J. C. Hamilton. Transactions of Canadian Institute, 1890. 

 Vol. I., p. 102. 



(18) 14 Geo. III., cap. 83 ; 30 Geo. III., cap. 27. 



(19) Journal of 1799, p. 123, and of 1800, p. 51. 



(20) " The Jesuits in North America," p. 44. 



(21) Mr. S. White has the original treaty, but for copy see N.Y. Colonial Documents Vol. VII., p. 650. 



