nd appealed to the Canadians to join
them on the broad grounds of continental freedom. The time, however,
was too short to convince the clergy and leading men of the province
that there was a change in the feeling of the majority in the congress
with respect to the Roman Catholic religion. The mass of the French
Canadians, especially in the rural districts, no doubt looked with
great indifference on the progress of the conflict between the King of
England and his former subjects, but in Quebec and Montreal,
principally in the latter town, there were found English, as well as
French-speaking persons quite ready to welcome and assist the forces of
congress when they invaded Canada. On the other hand, the influences
of the Quebec Act and of the judicious administrations of Murray and
Carleton were obvious from the outset, and the bishop, Monseigneur
Briand--who had been chosen with the silent acquiescence of the English
Government--the {282} clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, and the
leading seigniors combined to maintain Canada under the dominion of a
generous Power which had already given such undoubted guaranties for
the preservation of the civil and religious rights of the "new
subjects." In fact, the enemies of England were to be found chiefly
among the "old subjects," who had attempted to obtain an assembly in
which the French Canadians would be ignored, and had been, and were
still bitterly antagonistic to the Quebec Act, with its concessions to
the French Canadian majority. Many of these disaffected persons were
mere adventurers who were carrying on a secret correspondence with the
leaders of the American Revolution, and even went so far as to attempt
to create discontent among the French Canadians by making them believe
that their liberties were in jeopardy, and that they would have to
submit to forced military service, and all those exactions which had so
grievously burdened them in the days of the French dominion. The
_habitants_, ignorant and credulous, however, remained generally inert
during the events which threatened the security of Canada. It was left
to a few enlightened men, chiefly priests and officers of the old
French service, to understand the exact nature of the emergency, and to
show their appreciation of what England had done for them since the
cession.

When the first Continental Congress met at Philadelphia, on September
5, 1774, the colonies were on the eve of independence as a result