The building is in a very dilapidated state, and has been reported to be very insecure by each successive grand jury which has visited it during the last 10 years. [B. B. for 1836.]

X. The constitution of the Lower Province, until the late insurrection suspended it, may be thus summarily stated. The authority of the sovereign of Canada, limited by the laws of Great Britain and by the capitulations of the Province. The supreme legislative authority in His Majesty and the two houses of the Imperial Parliament; this authority again limited by the capitulations and its own acts; the most remarkable of which, the Act 18 George III. cap. 12, confirmed by 31st George III. cap. 13. declares that no taxes shall be imposed on the colonies but for the regulation of trade, and that the proceeds of such taxes shall be applied to and for the use of the Province, in such manner as shall be directed by any law or laws which may be made by His Majesty, his heirs or successors, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly of the Province. The Provincial Legislature consists of His Majesty, acting by the Governor of the Province for His Majesty, of a Legislative Council of 34 members, the Chief Justice and Protestant Bishop, appointed by His Majesty for life; of a House of Assembly, of 88 members, elected for four years by His Majesty's subjects resident within the Province, and possessed, for their own use and benefit, in the counties, of real property to the yearly value of 40s. sterling; in the towns of the yearly value of 57. sterling, or paying rent to the amount of 101. sterling. No religious disabilities exist as to electors, but clergymen or Jews are not eligible as representatives. The Assembly is empowered to make laws for "the peace, welfare and good of the government" of the Province, such laws not being repugnant to the Act of 31 George III. c. 31, elections by open voting. Members of the House of Assembly allowed, by grant of the Legislature, an indemnity of 10s. currency per diem, and 4s. per league from their places of residence to the town or capital where the sittings of the Legislature are held, which is Quebec. Session of the Parliament of Lower Canada generally lasts three months, seldom more than four, and is held during the winter. Salary of the Speaker of the House of Assembly 9001. voted annually by the Provincial Legislature.

The constituency of Lower Canada is very widely diffused among the half million of people there are

The Governor, in his Majesty's name, assembles, prorogues, and dissolves the two houses, which must be called together once in every twelve calendar months. All questions arising in either of the two houses, are decided by the majority of the members present by open voting. The Governor gives, withholds, or reserves for the further signification of His Majesty's pleasure, the royal sanction to bills proposed by the two other branches. Laws assented to by the Governor, may be disallowed by His Majesty within two years. His Majesty cannot assent to any act or acts affecting the enjoyment of the dues of the clergy of the Church of Rome, or affecting the establishment of the Church of England within the Province, or the provisions made for the same, or the enjoyment or exercise of any religious form or mode of worship, or creating penalties, burthens, disabili. ties, or disqualifications on that account, or granting, or imposing any new dues in favour of any ministers of any former form of worship, or affecting the prerogative, touching the granting of the waste lands of the Crown; without such acts having been 30 days before both houses of the British Parliament, and neither of the houses having addressed His Majesty not to sanction the same.

When Canada was in possession of the French, the government was nearly pure despotism.

Shortly after the cession of the province of Lower Canada to the British Crown, the King of England, in a proclamation dated the 7th of October, 1763, declared, that "all the inhabitants of the province, and all others resorting to it, might confide in his royal protection for enjoying the benefit of the laws of England." In 1774, the first Act of Parliament was passed, fixing the boundaries of Canada, making provision for the better government of this part of the British dominions, and vesting the authority in a governor, aided by a council of not less than 17 persons, and not exceeding 23 in number, who had power to frame ordinances, but not to levy taxes, except for making of public roads and erecting a few local structures. By this Act the English criminal law was preserved; but it was enacted, "that in all matters of controversy relative to property and civil rights resort should be had to the rule and decision of the laws of Canada," excepting, however, in this concession to French law: "lands which had been or should be granted in free and common soccage." The Roman Catholic religion, with all its immunities and rights, was secured to the Canadians.

After 17 years' interval, this Act was followed by Mr. Pitt's, or rather Lord Grenville's Act, styled the Constitution of 1791, under the provisions of which Canada was divided into upper and lower provinces. This Act gave to Lower Canada a Constitution, consisting of a Governor and Executive Council of 11

Y

members, appointed by the Crown (similar to the Privy Council in England); a Legislative Council, appointed by mandamus from the King, forming the second estate, and then consisting of 15 members (but since increased to 34, including the Protestant Bishop of Quebec and the Chief Justice, who is Speaker); and a Representative Assembly, or third estate, composed of 50 members, and consisting of four citizens from each of the cities of Quebec and Montreal; three burgesses (being two for the town of Three Rivers, and one for William Henry, so called in honour of the visit of his late Majesty), and the remaining number divided over the province as knights of the shire, representing 22 counties, into which Lower Canada was divided. Population was partly made the basis for regulating the division: thus a small and thickly-populated territory on the banks of

the St. Lawrence was found sufficient to form a county; and in the more distant parts large areas were included in one county, in order to combine the requisite amount of population necessary to a representative election.

The unequal manner in which this division of counties, with regard to population, and not to area, was felt after a few years, and a new county division proposed and adopted by the Provincial Act ix., Geo. IV.; but in order to understand the change which took place in the extension of the representation, it will be requisite to show the division as it stood according to the Act of 1791. This I can best do by the following return of the census of Lower Canada in 1827 and 1831, with the number of Members returned to the Assembly.

The laws in force in Lower Canada are: 1st. The acts of the British Parliament which extend to the Colonies 2nd. Capitulations and treaties: 3rd. The laws and customs of Canada, founded principally on the jurisprudence of the Parliament of Paris, as it stood in 1663, the edicts of the French kings, and their colonial authorities, and the Roman civil law: 4th. The criminal law of England as it stood in 1774, and as explained by subsequent statutes: 5th. The ordinances of the Governor and Council, established by the act of that year: and 6th. The acts of the Provincial Legislature since 1792. These laws are

executed in His Majesty's name, and, in virtue of his commission and instructions, by the Governor, or person administering the government, by the means of a number of inferior officers, all of whom are appointed during pleasure. The Governor also possesses all other powers and prerogatives, generally, which, His Majesty may legally enjoy, and delegates to him. The Governor of Lower Canada is Governor General of all the British Colonies in North America, and Commander-in-Chief of all the forces in those Provinces. The judiciary consists of a High Court of Appeal, a Court of King's Bench, presided over by

sion to fiefs is different from that of property held en roture or by villenage. The eldest son, by right, takes the château, and the yard adjoining it; also an arpent of the garden joining the manor-house, and the mills, ovens, or presses within the seigniory belong to him; but the profit arising from these is to be divided among the other heirs. Females have no precedence of right, and when there are only daughters, the fief is equally divided among them. When there are only two sons, the eldest takes two-thirds of the lands, besides the château, mill, &c., and the younger one-third. When there are several sons, the elder claims half the lands, and the rest have the other half divided among them. Censive is an estate held in the feudal manner subject to the seigniorial fines or dues. All the Canadian habitans, small farmers, are censitaires. Property, according to the laws of Canada, is either propre, that is, held by descent, or acquits, which expresses, being acquired by industry or other means. Communité du bien is partnership in property by marriage; for the wife, by this law, becomes an equal partner in whatever the husband possessed before, and acquires after marriage, and the husband is placed in the same position in respect to the wife's dowry. This law might operate as well as most general laws do, if both mari and femme died on the same day; but very unhappy consequences have arisen when one has predeceased the other. For instance, when the wife dies before the husband, the children may claim half of the father's property, as heirs to the mother; and the mother's relations have often persuaded, and sometimes compelled them so to do. [It has been justly observed, that it would have been almost impossible to have formed a law more fruitful of family discord, or more destructive of that affection which ought to subsist between parents and children. So fully sensible, in fact, are the most simple habitans of the unhappy operation of this law, that scarcely any of them marry without an ante-nuptial contract, which bars the communité du bien.]

The dot, or dowry, is the property which the wife puts into the communité du bien: moveable or immoveable property, falling to her by descent, is a propre, and does not merge in the communité. Dower in Canada, is either customary or stipulate. The first consists of half the property which the husband was possessed of at the time of marriage, and half of all the property which he may inherit or acquire--of this the wife has the use for life, and the children may claim it at her death. If they be not of age, the wife's relations, as guardians of the children, can take it out of the father's hands, and may compel him to sell his property and make a division. Stipulated dower is a portion which the husband gives instead of the customary dower.

Those farmers who hold land from the seignieur en roture, and who may be termed tenanciers or censitaires, are subject to certain conditions, viz. a small annual rent, from 2s. 6d. to 5s. (or perhaps more of late years) for each arpent in front; [The Canadian farms are remarkable for the small breadth of the farm on the bank of the river, and its great depth inland; the latter being often in proportion to the former as sixty to one; namely, half an arpent broad in front of the St. Lawrence, or other river, and 30 arpents in depth.] to this are added some articles of provision annually, such as a pig or goose, or a few fowls, or a bushel of wheat, according to the means of the farmer, who is also bound to grind his corn at the moulin banal, or the seignieur's mill, when onefourteenth is taken for the lord's use, as mouture or

payment for grinding. The lods et ventes form another part of the seignieur's revenue: it consists of a right to one twelfth part of the purchase-money of every estate within his seigniory, that changes its owner by sale, or other means equivalent to sale: this twelfth to be paid by the purchaser, and is exclusive of the sum agreed on between the latter and the seller, and if promptly paid, a reduction of one-fourth is usually made, in the same manner as two-thirds of the quints due to the Crown are deducted on prompt payment. On such an occasion, a privilege remains with the seignieur, but is seldom exercised, called the droit de retrait, which confers the right of preemption at the highest price offered, within 40 days after the sale has taken place.

All the fisheries within the seigniories contribute also to the lord's income, as he receives a share of the fish caught, or an equivalent in money; the seignieur is also privileged to fell timber any where within his seigniory, for the purpose of erecting mills, constructing new or repairing old roads, or for other works of public and general utility. In addition to the foregoing burdens on the farmer, he is, if a Roman Catholic, bound to pay to his curate one twenty-sixth part of all grain produced, and to have occasional assessments levied on him for building and repairing churches, parsonage houses, &c.

The duties of the seignieur to his tenants are also strictly defined,—he is bound in some instances to open roads to the remote parts of his fief, and to provide mills for the grinding of the feudal tenants' corn; he cannot dispose by sale of forest lands, but is bound to concede them; and upon his refusal to do so, the applicant may obtain from the Crown the concession he requires, under the usual seignorial stipulations, in which case the rents and dues appertain to the King. The Position and Extent of the Seignorial Grants, are:

For lands granted on free and common soccage tenures since 1796, see Appendix.

Lower Canada is in the possession of an extensive militia. In 1807, the militia men bearing arms, consisted of 50,000 able-bodied soldiers, with a due proportion of officers; and belonging to themselves, (i. e. independent of the arms furnished by government) 10,000 muskets. From this period to 1815, their numbers were little increased; but from a report of a special committee of the Assembly appointed to enquire into the state of the militia, which report, printed at Quebec, is now before me, I find the state of the militia to be, in 1827, as follows:

Total

ㄌㄧ:

66 713 470 113 12 42 22 34 3 8 121 668 733 639 28 16 2227 29140 45662 79542 149 32 6758 5071 1053 1069 14303 93845

4

The number of Militia returned to the Colonial Office in 1836, were as follows-[Blue Book.]

DISTRICTS, &c.

No. of Battalions.

No. of Companies.

| Colonels.

Lieut-Colonels.

Majors.

Etat-Major or Staff.

Officers.

ය | Serjeants not effective.

Men 60 years and upwards.

Infirm.

5「ུ。ཎྜÇ|Absent.

Exempt by law.

Total not effective.

Grand Total en masse.

Muskets in possession of the Militia Men of the district of Quebec, 3,262; ditto Three Rivers and St. Francis, 1,567; ditto Gaspé, 95; ditto Montreal, 5,479; total number of muskets, the property of the Militia Men, 10,403.

By the Militia Act, every able-abodied male inhabitant, from 18 to 60 years of age, after six months' residence, is liable to serve as a militia man, unless specially exempted by law; the exemptions embrace the clergy, civil and military officers of Her Majesty's Government, physicians, surgeons, notaries, landsurveyors, ferrymen, millers, schoolmasters, stewards of religious communities, and students in seminaries, colleges, &c., and persons who had served as officers of militia previous to the act. Officers are appointed by the government, the qualification for those above the rank of captain being a bona fide possession of an estate yielding 501. currency per annum; half the sum qualifies for a captain or subaltern's commission. There is an annual muster by companies (29th June) throughout the province. The light cavalry, artillery, and rifle corps, would do honour to any body of men under arms in Europe; and there is an esprit du corps throughout the service highly honourable to all engaged in a force which, with readiness, could turn out nearly 100,000 armed men to repel invasion, if the Americans should ever again feel disposed to attempt the conquest of Canada. A new militia levy took place during the recent insurrection; i. e. by calling into active service those only who were disposed to suppress rebellion.

The Queen's troops, in Lower Canada, generally amount to three regiments of infantry, two companies of foot artillery, and two companies of the royal engineers; the head-quarters of two regiments are Quebec, and one at Montreal. The troops of the line stationed in Canada since 1816 (including artillery and engineers), taken at four intervals, in order to shew the average number, were as follows:

Years.

1816.. 914 91 201 76 8 13 13 10 19 592 246 8205 1821.. 5 841 65 34 5 5 4 3 7 174 101 2986 1827.. 17 644 50 21 5 5 5 5 6 171 59 2855 1833.. 16 535 46 13 5 5 5 5 7 159 57 2551

The fortifications of Quebec are now impregnable; the island of St. Helen's, near Montreal, is also strongly defended, and there are some posts near the American frontier on Lake Champlain. Quebec, however, is the key to Lower and also to Upper Canada. The Governor of Quebec garrison is a major-general, and the Lieutenant governor a lieutenant-general.