The Canada Act, or, as it is better known, the Constitutional Act, cut off Upper Canada.  Lower Canada was now the old Quebec reduced to its right size, endowed with clarified laws and a brand-new parliament, and made as acceptable as possible to the English-speaking minority without any injustice to the vastly greater French majority.  Quebec, Three Rivers, Montreal, and Sorel got each two members in the new parliament, an allotment which ensured a certain representation of the ‘British’ merchants.  The franchise was the same in both provinces:  in the country parts a forty-shilling freehold or its equivalent, and in the towns either a five-pound annual ownership value or twice that for a tenant.  The Crown gave up all taxation except commercial duties, which were to be applied solely for the benefit of the provinces.  Lands outside the seigneuries were to be in free and common socage, while seigneurial tenure itself could be converted into freehold on petition.  One-seventh of the Crown lands was reserved for the endowment of the Church of England.  The Crown kept all rights of veto and appointment.  The legislatures were small in membership.  The Upper Houses could be made hereditary; though the actual tenure was never more than for life during good behaviour.  Carleton favoured the hereditary principle whenever it could be applied with advantage.  But he knew the ups and downs of colonial fortunes too well to believe that Canada was ready for any such experiment.

No one dreamt of having what is now known as responsible government, that is, an executive sitting in the legislature and responsible to the legislature for its acts.  Nor was the greatest of all parliamentary powers—­the power of the purse—­given outright.  This, however, was owing to simple force of circumstances and not to any desire of abridging the liberties of the people.  The fact is that at this time eighty per cent of the total civil expenditure had to be paid by the home government.  It is frequently ignored that the mother country paid most of Canada’s bills till long after the War of 1812, that she paid nearly all the naval and military accounts for longer still, and that she has borne far more than her own share of the common defence down to the present day.

The new constitution came into force on the 26th of December 1791; and, for the first time, Upper and Lower Canada had the right to elect their own representatives.  Assemblies, of course, were nothing new in British North America.  Nova Scotia had an assembly in 1758, the year that Louisbourg was taken.  Prince Edward Island had one in 1773, the year before the Quebec Act was passed.  New Brunswick had one in 1786, the year Carleton began his second term.  But assemblies still had all the charm of novelty in ‘Canada proper.’  Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that Upper Canada experienced more charm than novelty while Lower Canada experienced more novelty than charm.  The Anglo-Canadians