hese may be a screen
for the governor to excuse and justify him." Townshend next condemned
the countenance given by the bill to the church of Rome, and then put
a series of stringent questions to the ministers concerning the
administration of the French laws in Canada. Were they, he asked, to be
administered by Canadians or French lawyers? and were English gentlemen
who had bought estates in that country to be subject to them? It would
be better, he conceived, to show the French Canadians, by degrees, the
advantages of English law, and to gradually mix it with their own. In
reply, Lord North excused the delay which had occurred in bringing this
measure forward, on the ground that he had been seeking the fullest
information before he legislated. He did not pretend that the bill was
perfect, but he considered that it was the best that could have been
devised, both for Great Britain and the colony, under all circumstances.
North then justified the enlargement of the limits of the colony,
and the concessions which the bill made to the Roman Catholics. He
observed:--"The honourable gentleman dislikes the omitting the assembly;
but the assembly cannot be granted, seeing that it must be composed of
Canadian Roman Catholic subjects, for otherwise it would be oppressive.
On the other hand, as the bulk of the inhabitants are Roman Catholics,
to subject them to an assembly, composed of a few British Protestant
subjects would be a great hardship. Being, therefore, under the
necessity of not appointing an assembly, this is the only legislature
you can give the Canadians, and it is the one under which they live at
present. The governor and council really have been the legislature
ever since our conquest, only now it is put under some regulation."
As regarded the question of law, he reminded the house, that the most
material part, that of the criminal law, was to be English, and that if
the French civil law should be found incompatible with the wishes of the
colony, the governor and council would have power to alter it. Returning
to the question of religion, North remarked, that the free exercise of
it was confirmed to the Canadians by treaty, and that the laws of Great
Britain permitted the full and free exercise of any religion different
from that of the Church of England, in any and all of the colonies. It
was another question, he added, whether it is convenient to continue
or abolish the bishop's jurisdiction; though, at the same ti