Being British-born subjects, the few hundred demand that the Governor
call an assembly,--an elective assembly; but by the laws of England,
Roman Catholics must abjure their religion before they can take office,
and by the Treaty of Paris the Catholics of Canada have been guaranteed
the freedom of their religion. To grant an elective assembly now would
mean that the representatives of the five hundred English traders would
rule over 70,000 French. When accusing the French Catholics of Quebec
of remaining a solidarity so that they may wield the balance of power,
it is well to remember how and when the quarrel began. Murray sides
with the French and stands like a rock for their right. He will have
no elective assembly under present conditions; and he puts summary stop
to the business English magistrates and English bailiffs have hatched
against the rights of the habitant,--of seizing lands for debt at a
time when money is scarce, summoning the debtor simultaneously to two
different courts, then charging such outrageous fees that the debtor's
land is sold for the fees, to be bought in by the rascal ring who have
arranged the plot. Ordinances are still proclaimed in primitive
fashion by the crier going through the streets shouting the laws to
beat of drum; but as the crier {279} shouts in English, the habitants
know no more of the laws than if he shouted in Greek.

As Murray opposes the clamor of the English minority, the English
petition the home government for Murray's recall. In the light of the
fact that there were no schools at all in Canada except the Catholic
seminaries, and that of the five hundred English residents only two
hundred had permanent homes in Montreal and Quebec, it is rather
instructive to read as one of the grievances of the English minority
"_that the only teachers in Canada were Catholics_."

The governor-generalship is offered to Chatham, the great statesman, at
5000 pounds a year. Chatham refusing the position, there comes in 1768
as governor, at 1200 pounds a year, Sir Guy Carleton, fellow-soldier
and friend of Wolfe in the great war, who follows in Murray's
footsteps, stands like a rock for the rights of the French, orders
debtors released from jail, fees reduced, and a stoppage of forced land
sales. Bitter is the disappointment to the land jobbers, who had
looked for a partisan in Carleton; doubly bitter, for Carleton goes one
better than Murray. For years the French government had