— 142 — 



His purse was generously placed more than once at 

 the disposal of literary, but impecunious merit. Maseres 

 lent the Eev. J. Hellins the money to pay for the 

 publishing of the excellent translation he had made of 

 Donna Agensi's treatise Institutioni Analytiche. 



He once lent $6,000, for a term of twenty years 

 without interest, to an indigent author, to edit a work. 

 In spite of these generous acts, his estate at his death 

 was of much greater value than one could have been 

 led to believe. His sojourn in Quebec afforded him, 

 ample facilities to study closely the wants of the colony, 

 the weak points of the administrative system, the bicker- 

 ings and friction between the new subjects — the French 

 Canadian's and the King's old subjects, recently arrived 

 from Britain. Though a trusted adherent of the King, 

 he took sides against him on a point of vita] importance 

 to French Canadians. 



" Maseres, when Attorney - General for the Pro- 

 vince of Quebec," says the historian Bibaud, Jeune,. 

 " denied that the King had any right to legislate for 

 Canada without the co-operation of his Parliament," 

 and according to Maseres, the French laws (1) had been 



(1) " From the year 1763 the English laws were put in force, 

 instead of the ancient French laws which governed this pro- 

 vince before the conquest. There were continually complaints 

 on the part of Canadians who found themselve molested. 

 The English Government, desiring to give a reason as to 

 what gave occasion for these complaints, sent to Quebec, 

 about 1773, one of the Under-Secretaries of state, of the name 

 of Morgan, to make a collection of all the French laws which 

 ruled the country under French sway, — a task which Morgan 

 accomplished, it is said, with the greatest fidelity. Instruc- 

 tions were at the same time sent to the Governor, to the 

 Chief Judge and the Attorney-General, to give all the assist- 

 ance possible to Mr. Morgan, and charged each of them to 

 supply the English Government with their personal opinion, 

 as well as with' the result of their conference together on 

 this question. The reports of these various officers, who 

 differed obviously among themselves, were placed before 

 the Privy Council, and from thence referred to the Board of 

 Trade. They were then sent to the two principal officers in 



