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the laws of Canada from 1764 to 1774. The Advocate- 

 General, Marriott, maintained the contrary. One can 

 easily imagine the chances of promotion Maseres must 

 have lost by thus rudely thwarting the plans of such a 

 self-willed, obstinate sovereign as was George III. The 

 Koman Catholics must also have felt grateful to him 

 for his efforts to have the obnoxious Test oath modified. 

 A warm friend to popular liberties, he had another 

 wrong, in the eyes of the King — he was a Whig. An 

 implacable foe he ever was to religious intolerance and 

 arbitrary power ; standing up firm for the maintenance 

 of order and public authority. 



The study of the Greek and Latin classics was. 

 Maseres' delight. Homer, Lucain, Horace were his 



law (or legal officers), viz., Solicitor-General Wedderburne 

 and Attorney-General Thurlow, with orders for each to make 

 a report upon what was placed before them. There was in 

 the reports of these juriconsults, as often happens among 

 learned people, a divergence of opinion ; but both agreed 

 generally in showing much sympathy, — thus going against the. 

 ideas of Maseres. It was apropos of this that Maseres published 

 his " Draught of an Act of Parliament for settling the laws 

 of the Province of Quebec." It is to the large and liberal views 

 contained in these reports of Thurlow and Wedderburne that 

 we owe all the liberties granted to the Canadian Catholics 

 by the famous Act of Quebec of 1774, which so much enraged 

 the Tories of that time. " 



" After his return to England, Maseres continued to occupy 

 himself with the affairs of Canada. He took a very active 

 part in the cause of Du Calvet. He contested with the greatest 

 vigour the illegality of the imprisonment of the latter by 

 Haldimand ; it is said even that he contributed a large por- 

 tion to the expenses of the law-suit which took place in this 

 connection. At the death of Du Calvet, Maseres charged 

 himself with the education of his son, of whom nothing was 

 heard afterwards. One would like to know, perhaps, what 

 Eoubaud thought of Maseres, with whom he had much to do. 

 In a letter to Haldimand, dated March 23rd, 1785, which was 

 found in the archives, at Ottawa, after having related a con- 

 versation which he had with him on the subject of the impri- 

 sonment of Du Calvet, he expresses himself as follows : 

 " During the course of this important conversation, M. 



