e
novelty than charm. The Anglo-Canadians 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 L