he Canadians will, in the course of time, enjoy as much of
our laws and as much of our constitution as may be beneficial to that
country and safe for this", but "that time," he concluded, "had not yet
come." It does not appear from the evidence before us that the British
had any other motive in passing the Quebec Act than to do justice to
the French Canadian people, now subjects of the crown of England. It was
not a measure primarily intended to check the growth of popular
institutions, but solely framed to meet the actual conditions of a
people entirely unaccustomed to the working of representative or popular
institutions. It was a preliminary step in the development of
self-government.

On the other hand the act was received with loud expressions of
dissatisfaction by the small English minority who had hoped to see
themselves paramount in the government of the province. In Montreal, the
headquarters of the disaffected, an attempt was made to set fire to the
town, and the king's bust was set up in one of the public squares,
daubed with black, and decorated with a necklace made of potatoes, and
bearing the inscription _Voila le pape du Canada & le sot Anglais_. The
author of this outrage was never discovered, and all the influential
French Canadian inhabitants of the community were deeply incensed that
their language should have been used to insult a king whose only offence
was his assent to a measure of justice to themselves.

Sir Guy Carleton, who had been absent in England for four years,
returned to Canada on the 18th September, 1774, and was well received in
Quebec. The first legislative council under the Quebec Act was not
appointed until the beginning of August, 1775. Of the twenty-two members
who composed it, eight were influential French Canadians bearing
historic names. The council met on the 17th August, but was forced to
adjourn on the 7th September, on account of the invasion of Canada by
the troops of the Continental Congress, composed of representatives of
the rebellious element of the Thirteen Colonies. In a later chapter I
shall very shortly review the effects of the American revolution upon
the people of Canada; but before I proceed to do so it is necessary to
take my readers first to Nova Scotia on the eastern seaboard of British
North America and give a brief summary of its political development
from the beginning of British rule.

SECTION 2.--The foundation of Nova Scotia (1749--1783).

The fo