on Trade and Commerce in this Province, to a very considerable amount, and to the manifest advantage of Great Britain, m confident expectation of the early accomplishment of his Majesty's said Proclamation, giving express power and direction to his Governour, with the advice and consent of his Council, to summon and call General Assemblies, to make, constitute, and ordain, Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances, for the publick peace, welfare, and good government of the said Province, as near as might be agreeable to the Laws of England. For which reasons your Memorialists have, drawn up and transmitted herewith, their most humble Petition to the King, praying his Majesty will, out of his royal and paternal care of all his dutiful and, loyal subjects of this Province, be graciously pleased to relieve them from the apprehensions they are under of their property being endangered, and losing the fruits of their labour, exposed to Ordinances of a Governour and Council, repugnant to the Laws of England which take place before his Majesty's pleasure is known, and are not only contrary to his Majesty's commission and private instructions to his said Governour; but, we presume, equally grievous to his Majesty's new and ancient subjects.

Your Lordship's Memorialists further see, with regret, the great danger the children, born of Protestant parents, are in, of being utterly neglected, for want of a sufficient number of Protestant Pastors, and thereby exposed to the usual and known assiduity of the Roman Catholic Clergy of different orders, who are very numerous in this country, and who, from their own immense funds, have lately established a Seminary for the Education of Youth, in this Province, which is the more alarming, as it excludes all Protestant Teachers of any science whatever.

Wherefore, your Lordship's Memorialists humbly pray, that you will be pleased to present their said Petition to his Majesty, and also pray your Lordship's intercession and good offices in that behalf.

And your Lordship's Memorialists, as in duty bound, shall ever pray.

Montreal, January 15, 1774.

A Committee appointed at a General Meeting of the Inhabitants of Montreal.

This Petition and Memorial were sent over to Francis Maseres, Esq., Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, (who had formerly been Attorney General of the said Province,) in order to be by him presented to the Earl of Dartmouth: and he did accordingly present them to that noble Lord soon after he had received them, that is, about the beginning of the month of March, 1774.

LETTER FROM MASERS TO THE QUEBEC COMMITTEE

Inner Temple, (London) March 19, 1774.

GENTLEMEN: I have presented the papers you have done me the honour of transmitting to me, concerning your desire of having an House of Assembly in the Province of Quebec, to my Lord Dartmouth, and have waited upon his Lordship at his levee, since I did so. But his Lordship has not informed me of the sentiments of himself, or any other of his Majesty's Ministers of State, concerning your request: so that I cannot, yet, transmit to you any information upon that subject. But I conjecture, that his Majesty's servants are of opinion, that the state of the Province is not yet quite ripe for the establishment of an Assembly, and that they rather incline, for the present, to supply the want of one, by establishing a Legislative Council, nominated by the King, with sufficient powers to do the necessary business of the Province, till the more natural and constitutional measure, of a General Assembly, shall appear to them more practicable. If such a Council should be established, I hope it will be made as popular and independent as may be, that it may be respected by the people, and act agreeably to their sense and true interests. With a view to which, I have suggested to his Majesty's Ministers, and others, that it would be expedient that the members of it should be thirty-one in number, and not either removeable or suspendable by the Governour; and that seventeen of them should be necessary to make a

House, and do business; and that a fortnight's notice should be given in the Quebec Gazette, before every meeting of them, to prevent the Governour's packing them; and that every member should be at liberty to propose a Bill in it, as well as to assent to those proposed by the Governour; and that it should not have the power of laying taxes, but only that of making Laws; and that it should consist only of Protestants. But whether this plan is approved, or not, by his Majesty's Ministers, I know not. If it should be approved, and carried into execution, I confess I should think the inhabitants of the Province would be likely to be governed more happily under it for seven or eight years to come, than under the influence of an Assembly into which the Papists should be admitted. As to an Assembly of Protestants only, I see no objection to the establishment of one, but the danger of disobliging the Catholics of the Province, who are so much superiour in number. If that can be got over, and the Catholics can be brought to acquiesce in the erection of an Assembly, in which they are not permitted to sit, by indulging them with the liberty of voting in the election of the members of it, as I remember to have heard some gentlemen suggest when I was in the Province, or by some other compromise or expedient, I should be very glad to see your Petition for an Assembly immediately complied with, as, indeed, I suppose it would, in that case, be. But, whatever may be my own opinions upon this subject, I shall always faithfully and cheerfully represent yours to the King's Ministers, and deliver such papers and messages as you shall think proper to intrust to me. And, in order to facilitate the attainment of your wishes, I here beg leave to hint to you, that I believe it would greatly contribute to that end, if you would previously declare, that you conceive the British Parliament to have a complete legislative authority over the Province of Quebec, and that such authority will continue after the establishment of an Assembly; and that you, and the other petitioners, are willing, that every member of such future Assembly, should be required to recognise the said supreme authority in every article whatsoever, both of Legislation and Taxation, in the plainest and strongest terms, before he is permitted to take his seat. Such a previous declaration, would greatly tend to remove the prejudices now subsisting in the minds of many people in England against the erection of new Houses of Assembly in America, arising from the conduct of the Assembly at Boston, and in others of the American Provinces, in totally denying the supreme authority of Parliament, and thereby dismembering and dividing, as much as in them lies, the British Empire, into so many distinct and separate states, independent of each other, though subject to the same King, like the Electorate of Hanover. I know nothing that would contribute more to your obtaining an Assembly, than your making a declaration of this kind. I hope soon to wait on Lord Dartmouth again, and to hear from his Lordship the King's answer to your Petition. When I have received it, I will transmit it to you without delay. In the mean time, I return you my sincere thanks for the honour you have done me, in approving my endeavours for the settlement of the Province of Quebec, and your declaration of your belief that I am heartily interested in that good cause, to which I shall always think it the greatest glory of my life to have contributed, if any of the measures I have proposed for that purpose should, hereafter, be adopted, though, at present, I see but little reason to flatter myself that they will be so. I remain with great regard, gentlemen, your most obedient and humble servant,

FRANCIS MASERES.

To the Committee of the Petitioners for an Assembly in the Province of Quebec.

PETITION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC INHABITANTS OF QUEBEC.

A Petition of divers of the Roman Catholic Inhabitants of the Province of QUEBEC, to the King's Majesty; signed and transmitted to the Earl of DARTMOUTH, his Majesty's Secretary of State for AMERICA, about the month of DECEMBER, 1773, and presented to his Majesty about the month of FEBRUARY, 1774.

SIR: Your most obedient and faithful new subjects, in the Province of Canada, take the liberty to prostrate them-