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Indiana University 
time. Sir Guy Carleton was in England between 1770 and 
1774 and was consulted by British ministers in regard to 
the formulation of the new policy regarding Canada, and one 
of Carleton’s chief points was to reconcile the French Cana- 
dians by extending privileges to the clergy and nobility. In 
other words, Sir Guy Carleton was trying to prevent the de- 
velopment in Canada of the revolutionary ideas then preva- 
lent in the English North American colonies. For this reason 
the English traders with their demands for an assembly re- 
ceived little favorable consideration. The French clergy and 
nobility must be satisfied at all odds for they could then be 
depended upon to keep the habitants quiet. This is the reason 
why such favorable provisions for these classes were included 
in the Quebec Act. With clergy and nobility satisfied there 
would be no rebellion in Canada even if matters should come 
to the worst in the English colonies, and further if war 
should come between the colonies and the mother country, 
Canada would be a good base for military operations against 
the rebels. This was the substance of Carleton’s policy, and 
it was embodied in the provisions of the Quebec Act. As one 
Canadian historian has said, “The Quebec Act was formed 
with an eye fixed, not on Quebec, but on Boston. This 
phase of the problem should receive more consideration than 
some American historians at present are inclined to give it 
if the full truth about the Quebec Act is to be known. 
Late in the year 1773, the British ministry seems to have 
begun to give serious consideration to the formulation of a 
new policy regarding Canada. A “Memorandum on Govern- 
ment of Quebec”, found among the papers of Lord Dart- 
mouth, stated that the first action necessary was “to get rid 
of the Proclamation of 1763 with the Commissions & Ordi- 
nances depending thereon and to restore the old Law and 
Constitution”.-^ In getting rid of the Proclamation of 1763, 
however, there was no intention of encouraging settlement 
in the western country by white men from the English 
colonies. The Illinois Country was annexed to Quebec partly 
to right the wrong of 1763 when the settlers in the Illinois 
villages were left without civil government, but a chief reason 
for this action was that the French clergy and nobility re- 
Duncan McArthur in Shortt and Doughty (eds.). Canada and Its Provinces, 
III, 45. 
23 Shortt and Doughty, Docuincnts, I, 533, 534. 
