in all five provinces were used to parliaments in America.  Their ancestors had been used to them for centuries in England.  So the little parliament of Upper Canada at Newark passed as many bills in five weeks as that of Lower Canada passed in seven months.  The fact that there were fifty members in the Assembly at Quebec, while there were only half as many in both chambers at Newark, doubtless had something to do with it.  But the fact that the Quebec parliament was an innovation, while the one at Newark was a simple development, had very much more.

There is no need to follow the course of legislation in any of the five provinces.  As most of the civil and practically all the naval and military expenditure had to be met by the Imperial Treasury, and as Canada was five parts and no whole from her own parliamentary point of view, the legislation required for a grand total of two hundred and fifty thousand people could not be of the national kind.  But at Quebec the scene, the setting, and the unheard-of innovation itself all give a special interest to every detail of the opening ceremony on the 17th of December 1792.

Carleton was in England, so the Speech from the Throne was read by the lieutenant-governor, Major-General Sir Alured Clarke.  Half of the Upper House and two-thirds of the Lower were French Canadians.  A French-Canadian member was nominated for the speakership and elected unanimously.  Both races were for the most part represented by members whose official title of ‘Honourable Gentlemen’ was not at all a misnomer.  The French members of the Assembly were half distrustful both of it and of themselves.  But they knew how to add grace and dignity to a very notable occasion.  The old Bishop’s Palace served as the Houses of Parliament and so continued for many years to come.  It was a solid rather than a stately pile.  But it stood on a commanding site at the head of Mountain Hill between the Grand Battery and the Chateau St Louis.  Every one was in uniform or in what corresponded to court dress.  Round the throne stood many officers in their red and gold, conspicuous among them the Duke of Kent.  In front sat the Executive and Legislative Councillors, corresponding to the modern cabinet ministers and senators.  Their roll, as well as the Assembly’s, bore many names that recalled the glories of the old regime—­St Ours, Longueuil, de Lanaudiere, Boucherville, de Salaberry, de Lotbiniere, and many more.  The Council chamber was crowded in every part long before the governor arrived.  ’The Ladies introduced into the House’ were ’without Hat, Cloak, or Bonnet,’ the ‘Doorkeeper of His Majesty’s Council’ having taken good care to see them ’leave the same in the Great Committee Room previous to their Introduction.’  ’The Ladies attached to His Excellency’s Suite’ were admitted ‘within the railing or body of the House’ and ’accommodated with the seats of the members as far as possible.’  Outwardly it was all very much the same in principle