but “that time,” he concluded, “had not yet come.”  It does not appear from the evidence before us that the British had any other motive in passing the Quebec Act than to do justice to the French Canadian people, now subjects of the crown of England.  It was not a measure primarily intended to check the growth of popular institutions, but solely framed to meet the actual conditions of a people entirely unaccustomed to the working of representative or popular institutions.  It was a preliminary step in the development of self-government.

On the other hand the act was received with loud expressions of dissatisfaction by the small English minority who had hoped to see themselves paramount in the government of the province.  In Montreal, the headquarters of the disaffected, an attempt was made to set fire to the town, and the king’s bust was set up in one of the public squares, daubed with black, and decorated with a necklace made of potatoes, and bearing the inscription Voila le pape du Canada & le sot Anglais.  The author of this outrage was never discovered, and all the influential French Canadian inhabitants of the community were deeply incensed that their language should have been used to insult a king whose only offence was his assent to a measure of justice to themselves.

Sir Guy Carleton, who had been absent in England for four years, returned to Canada on the 18th September, 1774, and was well received in Quebec.  The first legislative council under the Quebec Act was not appointed until the beginning of August, 1775.  Of the twenty-two members who composed it, eight were influential French Canadians bearing historic names.  The council met on the 17th August, but was forced to adjourn on the 7th September, on account of the invasion of Canada by the troops of the Continental Congress, composed of representatives of the rebellious element of the Thirteen Colonies.  In a later chapter I shall very shortly review the effects of the American revolution upon the people of Canada; but before I proceed to do so it is necessary to take my readers first to Nova Scotia on the eastern seaboard of British North America and give a brief summary of its political development from the beginning of British rule.

SECTION 2.—­The foundation of Nova Scotia (1749—­1783).

The foundation of Halifax practically put an end to the Acadian period of Nova Scotian settlement.  Until that time the English occupation of the country was merely nominal.  Owing largely to the representations of Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts—­a statesman of considerable ability, who distinguished himself in American affairs during a most critical period of colonial history—­the British government decided at last on a vigorous policy in the province, which seemed more than once on the point of passing out of their hands.  Halifax was founded by the Honourable Edward Cornwallis on the slope of a hill, whose woods then dipped their branches into the very waters of the noble harbour long known as Chebuctou, and renamed in honour of a distinguished member of the Montague family, who had in those days full control of the administration of colonial affairs.