the French government at the faid time of the last breach between the two nations, the faid duty of threepence for every gallon on all British fpirits imported into the faid Province shall be paid.

the Gover

Council.

And it is hereby further enacted and provided, that Publick Money to it fhall be lawful for the Governour, or Commander in be issued Chief, of the faid Province, by and with the advice by Order of and confent of his Council, and according to Ordinances nour and to be by them made and published from time to time for that purpose, to iffue warrants under his hand to the Receiver-general of the publick revenue of the faid Province to pay fuch fums, as, by fuch Ordinances fhall be appointed, to the perfons appointed therein to receive the fame, for purposes relating to the government and publick welfare of the Province; fuch as building or repairing barracks for foldiers, building or repairing churches for the ufe of the Proteftant inhabitants of the faid Province, affigning falaries, or other rewards, to fuch Proteftant minifters as labour zealously and fuccessfully in the converfion of the Roman-Catholick inhabitants of the said Province to the Proteftant religion, and erecting schools for teaching the English language, building or repairing fortifications or other useful publick buildings, widening or repairing publick roads and highways, and the like useful purposes relating to the faid Province of Quebeck. But it shall in no cafe be lawful for the faid Governour, or Commander in Chief, to iffue warrants for the payment of any part of the publick Revenue of the faid Province, nor for the Receiver-general, or any other officer, of the Revenue in the faid Province to pay, by virtue of such warrant, or of any other order whatfoever, any part of the faid publick Revenue of the Province, to any perfon not refiding in the faid Province, nor for any purpose

whatsoever

whatfoeverbut fuch as fhall be expreffed in an Ordinance of the Governour and Council made and publifhed for that purpose, excepting only the falaries and fees of the Governour and other civil officers of the government of the faid Province actually refiding in the faid Province.

Ordinances Alfo it is further enacted, that all Ordinances of every

to be sign

Persons

who enact

them.

ed by the kind, whether for iffuing money, making or introducing laws, or any other purpofes whatfoever, fhall be figned by the Governour, or Commander in Chief, and the majority of the members of the Council prefent at the time of making them. And thefe original draughts of the ordinances fo figned fhall be kept among the

records of the Council.

FINIS.

The foregoing Tract and Sketch of an act of Parliament were drawn up by me at the defire of General Carleton, (the Lieutenant-Governour,) and Mr. Hey, the Chief Justice, of the Province of Quebeck; and a few copies of it were printed for the infpection of the Marquis of Rockingham, and Mr. Dowdeswell, (the Chancellor of the Exchequer,) and General Conway, (the Secretary of State,) and Mr. Charles Yorke, (the Attorney-General,) and Mr. De Grey, (the SollicitorGeneral,) and others of his Majefty's fervants, who were likely to take a part in procuring for them an act of Parliament to be the ground of their proceedings in the Settlement of the Government of that Province, if fuch a measure had been thought advifeable. But no copies of it were published, or fold. Nor had either

General

General Carleton, or Mr. Hey, carefully read and examined every claufe in the foregoing sketch of an Act of Parliament for the foregoing purpose, and given a ́ deliberate affent to it; but they thought that, fuch as it was, it might be fufficient to point-out to his Majefty's Minifters the feveral important fubjects which they wished to have determined, by the authority of Parliament, before they entered upon the difcharge of their leveral offices in the Province; and the Minifters might alter and modify the proposed sketch of an A&t of Parliament in the manner they thought proper, before they brought it into Parliament. But Mr. Yorke, the Attorney-General, was not inclined to bring the fubject into Parliament; and the other fervants of the Crown adopted his opinion, and accordingly no bill of the kind here deferibed was brought into Parliament. The reafons for their refufal to employ the Authority of Parliament in this important and difficult business, I do not know: but I conjecture that it might be, partly, from the fear of engaging in violent debates, that might arife from the fubject, on the extent of the Power of the Crown over conquered and ceded territories, and the effect of the mere conqueft and ceffion of them as to the continuance, or difcontinuance, of the old Laws that had prevailed in them before the conqueft, and the right of introducing into them either all, or some, of the laws of England; and, if only fome of them, then determining which fhould be fo introduced, and which should not,—and as to what degree of indulgence ought to be flown to the RomanCatholicks in the faid Province, and whether the Popish religion shonld be only tolerated there, by permitting the Roman-Catholicks of the Province to attend Mafs and all the Sacraments and Ceremonies of

the

the Church of Rome, or to enjoy and practice the worship preferibed by that Religion, (which is all that is granted to them by the Capitulation of the Province with Sir Jeffery Amherst, in September, 1760; and by the Treaty of Peace between France and England, concluded at Paris, in February, 1763,) or whether the faid Popish religion fhould be not only tolerated in the faid Province, but efiablished there, by giving the Romish Pricfts that officiate in the Province a legal right to demand their tithes, and other antient dues, by Law, and to sue for them in the Courts of Justice; which has fince been enacted by the Quebeck-act of the year 1774, though it had been afked by the French General, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, in the Capitulation of September, 1760, but refufed by the wife and cautious English General, Sir Jeffery Amherst;—and whether it would be expedient to permit a Popish French Bishop to go into the Province, though the Province had done without one for fix years, or, ever fince the Surrender of it to General Amherst, in 1760; the former French Bifhop having died a little before that event; (all which fubjects might have afforded matter for long and warm debates in Parliament ;) and, partly, from an opinion, that they themfelves were not likely to continue long in the great Offices they then held; which opinion was but too well grounded, as they were removed from them about three months after, in the month of July, 1766. They might, alfo, perhaps, think it prudent to obtain more accurate informations concerning the state of the Province, in various important points; fuch as the number of English fettlers there; the number of the French or Canadians, and their inclinations and qualities; the number of the Priefts, Monks,

and

and Nuns; the number of the parishes and the values of the tithes; the fize and values of the feveral Seigniories, and the annual profits of them; and many other fuch interefting particulars; before they drew-up a plan to be presented to Parliament for fettling their Laws and Government. But the two former reasons feem fuffcient to account for their unwillingnefs at that time to bring the fubject before the Parliament.

Whoever reads the foregoing fketch of an Act of Parliament with attention, cannot fail to obferve that the perfon who drew it up was defirous of introducing by gentle means the Proteftant religion amongst the French, or Canadian, inhabitants of the Province: and he may, in confequence, be fomewhat furprized that it should contain a claufe for permitting a RomanCatholick Bifhop to be fent into the Province, and to exercife his Epifcopal functions there; wbich feems more likely to prevent, than to encourage, the converfion of the Roman-Catholicks from Popery to the Proteftant Religion. To remove this furprize, I muft inform my readers that I found that a refolution had been already taken by his Majefty's Minifters of that time to permit a certain Roman-Catholick Priest, who had long refided in the Province of Quebeck, (though he was not a native of it, but of the Province of Britany in Old France,) to come from Quebeck to England, in the winter of the foregoing year, 1765; and to go over to the North of France, in the month of January, or February, 1766, in order to be confecrated by some Bishops in France, as Bishop of Quebeck; which ceremony of Confecration was (as I was told,). performed at the City, of Amiens in Picardy. And it was agreed amongst the King's Minifters of that time, that he fhould be permitted to return to Quebeck in

the