Studies in American History 
221 
the new colony. These men were interested primarily in 
trade, and they were extremely anxious to secure the liberal 
government, including an assembly, which had been promised 
them. As a consequence they were soon at outs with Governor 
Murray and the leading French Canadians who knew nothing 
and cared nothing for an assembly. Governor Murray re- 
garded these English traders as “Licentious Fanaticks” who 
wanted to expel the French Canadians, and there soon de- 
veloped the peculiar situation where a British governor took 
the side of the French Canadians, whom he characterized as 
“perhaps the bravest and best race upon the Globe’', against 
his own countrymen.* The Quebec traders petitioned the 
king for the redress of the grievances which they suffered 
at the hands of Governor Murray, ® and they were joined by 
the London merchants, who requested that the government 
of Canada be put “upon the same footing with the rest of 
your Majesty’s American Colonies”."^^' Governor Murray, as 
well as Francis Maseres, who was appointed attorney-general 
of the province of Quebec in 1766, believed that the proposal 
for an assembly was premature. The bulk of the inhabitants 
were French Catholics, who could not sit in an assembly if 
one was established, and the government of the colony would 
consequently fall into the hands of a very small minority. 
Governor Murray wished to reconcile the French clergy and 
nobility to British rule and depend upon them to keep the 
habitants reconciled. This policy would be impossible if the 
English traders secured control of the government thru an 
assembly. The dispute became so bitter that Governor 
Murray was recalled to England in 1766 and was finally 
succeeded by Sir Guy Carleton. Instead of securing redress, 
however, the traders were in a worse situation than before 
because Sir Guy Carleton followed Murray’s policy and be- 
came more and more determined to make Canada British by 
preventing it from becoming English. This policy, and 
Carleton’s determination to maintain it, had important con- 
sequences. 
As early as November, 1767, Carleton argued that Canada 
would never be settled by any large number of Englishmen, 
that the French element would always predominate in 
® Murray to Lords of Trade, October 29, 1764. Canadian Archives, Q. 2, p. 233, in 
ibid., I, 231. 
^ Canadian Archives, B. 8, p. 6, in ibid., I, 232. 
Canadian Archives, 10, in ibid., I, 235, 236. 
