ctober, were
duly followed by the inauguration of civil government in
Canada. The incompetent Bute, anxious to get Pitt out of
the way, tried to induce him to become the first British
governor of the new colony. Even Bute probably never
dared to hope that Pitt would actually go out to Canada.
But he did hope to lower his prestige by making him the
holder of a sinecure at home. However this may be, Pitt,
mightiest of all parliamentary ministers of war, refused
to be made either a jobber or an exile; whereupon Murray's
position was changed from a military command into that
of 'Governor and Captain-General.'

The changes which ensued in the laws of Canada were
heartily welcomed so far as the adoption of the humaner
criminal code of England was concerned. The new laws
relating to debtor and creditor also gave general
satisfaction, except, as we shall presently see, when
they involved imprisonment for debt. But the tentative
efforts to introduce English civil law side by side with
the old French code resulted in great confusion and much
discontent. The land laws had become so unworkable under
this dual system that they had to be left as they were.
A Court of Common Pleas was set up specially for the
benefit of the French Canadians. If either party demanded
a jury one had to be sworn in; and French Canadians were
to be jurors on equal terms with 'the King's Old Subjects.'
The Roman Catholic Church was to be completely tolerated
but not in any way established. Lord Egremont, in giving
the king's instructions to Murray, reminded him that the
proviso in the Treaty of Paris--_as far as the Laws of
Great Britain permit_--should govern his action whenever
disputes arose. It must be remembered that the last
Jacobite rising was then a comparatively recent affair,
and that France was equally ready to upset either the
Protestant succession in England or the British regime
in Canada.

The Indians were also an object of special solicitude in
the royal proclamation. 'The Indians who live under our
Protection should not be molested in the possession of
such parts of our Dominions and Territories as, not having
been ceded to or purchased by Us, are reserved to them.'
The home government was far in advance of the American
colonists in its humane attitude towards the Indians.
The common American attitude then and long afterwards
--indeed, up to a time well within living memory--was
that Indians were a kind of human vermin to be exte