BARON MASERES 



ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR QUEBEC 



1766-1769 



The era from 1774 to 1791, that is, the seventeen 

 years of our colonial existence governed by the constitu- 

 tion of 1774, known as the Quebec Act, without being 

 particularly brilliant, of a surety challenges the serious 

 attention of the investigator of the past. A poorly recor- 

 ded era it certainly was ; happily the documents throw- 

 ing light on the same — scant though they were for- 

 mely — are rapidly accumulating, since the creation 

 at Ottawa, under the auspices of the Department of 

 Agriculture, of a public archive office, presided over 

 by the Genius Loci, Douglas Brymner. 



To the modern annalist, the task of the historian is 

 much less arduous than it was to our patient toilers 

 who had to wade through piles of illegible manuscript. 

 What was denied to students previous to Confederation, 

 is now readily granted, since 1867 : free access to the 

 treasures of historical lore in the British Museum, the 

 archives of the War Office, the Tower of London, and 

 the British Public Eecord Office. These priceless stores 

 of information, until Confederation, had been veiled for 

 state reasons which it is unnecessary to discuss at 

 present. 



Several English jurists, without visiting Canada, the 

 advocate-general, Sir James Marriott, the attorneys and 

 solicitors-general Yorke, de Grey, Thurlow, Wedder- 

 burne, through the memoirs, official reports and state 

 dispatches they were called on to lay before the English 

 king, are either identified with this epoch, or else have 

 helped to make its history. 



