d for that special purpose by
the Governor or {276} commander-in-chief where such lands were
situated. This was the commencement of that just and honest policy
towards the Indians which has ever since been followed by the
government of Canada. One hundred and ten years later, an interesting
spectacle was witnessed in the great Northwest Territory of Canada.
The lieutenant-governor of the new province of Manitoba, constituted in
1870 out of the prairie lands of that rich region, met in council the
representatives of the Indian tribes, and solemnly entered into
treaties with them for the transfer to Canada of immense tracts of
prairie lands where we now see wide stretches of fields of nodding
grain.

Governor Murray conducted his government on principles of justice and
forbearance towards the French Canadians, and refused to listen to the
unwise and arbitrary counsel of the four or five hundred "old
subjects," who wished to rule the province. He succeeded in inspiring
the old inhabitants of the province, or "new subjects," with confidence
in his intentions. The majority of the "old subjects," who were
desirous of ruling Canada, are described by the Governor in a letter to
Lord Shelburne, as "men of mean education, traders, mechanics,
publicans, followers of the army,"--a somewhat prejudiced statement.
As a rule, however, the judges, magistrates, and officials at that time
were men of little or no knowledge.

In 1774, Parliament intervened for the first time in Canadian affairs,
and passed the Quebec Act, which greatly extended the boundaries of the
province of Quebec, as defined by the proclamation of {277} 1763. On
one side, the province now extended to the frontiers of New England,
Pennsylvania, New York province, the Ohio, and the left bank of the
Mississippi; on the other, to the Hudson's Bay Territory. Labrador,
Anticosti, and the Magdalen islands, annexed to Newfoundland by the
proclamation of 1763, were made part of the province of Quebec.

The Quebec Act created much debate in the House of Commons. The Earl
of Chatham, in the House of Lords, described it as "a most cruel, and
odious measure." The opposition in the province was among the British
inhabitants, who sent over a petition for its repeal or amendment.
Their principal grievance was that it substituted the laws and usages
of Canada for English law. The Act of 1774 was exceedingly unpopular
in the English-speaking colonies, then at the commenceme