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Indiana University 
Quebec, and that the policy announced in the Proclama- 
tion of 1763 would never be successful. In December, 1767, 
he again wrote to Shelburne arguing against the substitution 
of English for French law.^- Under the old French system 
the habitants were held in subordination, as Carleton believed 
they should be, and they might be kept in that position if 
French law should be restored. The habitants were rapidly 
learning that they were not so completely under the control 
of the seigneurs as they had been before 1763, and Carleton 
viewed this situation with misgivings or alarm. Carleton 
stated that the French Canadians generally had not yet 
realized that their laws and customs had been abolished, but 
that when full realization did come “the Consternation would 
become General”. The best method of correcting the mistake 
in policy, Carleton thought, would be to repeal the Ordinance 
of September 17, 1764, “as null and void in its own nature, 
and for the present leave the Canadian Laws almost entire”.^^ 
Such alterations as should later seem advisable could, and 
should, be made gradually “without risking the Dangers of 
too much Precipitation”. Lord Hillsborough, in a letter to 
Carleton, March 6, 1768, acknowledged that a mistake had 
been made regarding Canada, and he expressed the hope that 
it would soon be corrected.^' The British government still 
intended to grant a general assembly to the province and in 
1768 again instructed Carleton “to give all possible attention 
to the carrying this Important Object into Execution”. 
Carleton did not take steps in this direction, however, and 
about 1770 a number of the English settlers again petitioned 
for an assembly.^® The French Canadians also petitioned for 
the restoration of French law and custom. Carleton went 
to England about this time, and, probably as a result of his 
arguments, action was taken in 1771 to restore the seigneurial 
Carleton to Shelburne, November 25, 1767, Canadian Archives, Q. 4, p. 130, in 
Short! and Doughty, op. cit., I, 281-285. 
I, 288-291. 
Carleton to Shelburne, December 24, 1767, Canadian Archives, Q. 5-1, p. 316, in 
ibid., I, 288-291. 
Hillsborough stated that he was at the Board of Trade in 1763 and knew “what 
was the Intention of those who drew the Proclamation, having myself been concerned 
therein ; and I can take upon me to aver, that it never entered into our Idea to over- 
turn the Laws and Customs of Canada, with regard to Property, . . Canadian 
Archives, Q. 5-1, p. 344, in ibid., I, 297, 298. 
Ibid., I, 304. 
I, 417, 418. ^ 
Ibid., I, 419, 420. 
