ember 9, 1893. Massicotte, _Bulletin des Recherches
Historiques_ for November, 1918, pp. 348 sqq.

[12] Lafontaine _ut supra_, p. 43. The advertisements spoken of are on
p. 21.

[13] _Can. Arch._, B. 217, p. 397. What if anything was done on the
petition does not appear.

[14] (1790) 30 George III, c. 27.

[15] The division of the Province of Quebec into two provinces, that
is, Upper Canada and Lower Canada, was effected by the royal
prerogative, Sec. 31, George III, c. 31, the celebrated Constitutional
Act of Canada. Technically and in law, the new province was formed by
Order in Council, August 24, 1791, but there was no change in
administration until December 26, 1791.

[16] These I owe to the kindness of the officers of the Canadian
Archives Department of Ottawa.

CHAPTER IV

LOWER CANADA

The Province of Lower Canada continued the former law--in criminal
matters, the English law, in civil matters the French law. It was not
long before the status of the slave became a burning issue. At the
first session of the first Parliament[1] of the new Province Lower
Canada, Mr. P. L. Panet, a member of the House of Assembly, moved
(January 28, 1793) for leave to introduce a bill for the abolition of
slavery in the province and leave was unanimously given. On the
twenty-sixth of February, Panet introduced a bill pursuant to leave
given, and it was read in French and in English. On the eighth of
March, Mr. B. Panet proposed the first reading of the bill and it was
so read. On the nineteenth of April Mr. P. L. Panet moved that the
bill be taken into consideration by the Committee of the Whole on the
following Tuesday. The motion was debated and Mr. Debonne moved an
amendment to table the bill, which was carried 31 to 3.[2] There was
no further effort toward legislative dealing with slavery until
1799.[3]

The sale of Negroes continued as indicated by the records.[4] On the
twelfth of May, 1794, Francois Boucher de la Periere and Marie Pecaudy
de Contrecoeur, his wife, gave liberty to James, their Negro slave,
aged 21 years, on condition that he should live in the most remote
parts of the upper country. If, however, he left those parts, he
should return to slavery. On the fifteenth of December, 1795, Frs.
Dumoulin, merchant of Bout de l'ile sold to Myer Michaels, merchant, a
mulatto named Prince, aged 18 years, for the price of 50 louis.

On the sixteenth of January, 1796 there was found a bill of sale of a