h Catholics in the neighbouring Prince Edward Island
were denied all civil rights in 1770, and only gained them in 1830. In
England, the Quebec Act with difficulty survived a storm of indignation,
in which even Chatham joined. The small minority of British settled in
Quebec and Montreal made vehement protests, while the American Congress
itself in 1774 committed the irreparable blunder of making the
establishment of the Roman Catholic religion in Canada one of its
formally published grievances against Great Britain. When war broke out,
and the magnitude of the mistake was seen, efforts were made to seduce
the Canadians by hints of a coming British tyranny, but the Canadians
very naturally abode by their first impressions.

The peace of 1783 and the final recognition of American Independence led
to results of far-reaching importance for the further development of the
British Empire. Out of the loss of the American Colonies came the
foundation of Australia and of British Canada. Before the war it had
been the custom to send convicts from the United Kingdom to penal
settlements in the American Colonies. The United States stopped this
traffic. Pitt's Government decided, after several years of doubt and
delay, to divert the stream of convicts to the newly acquired and still
unpopulated territory of New South Wales, made known by the voyages of
Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks. At the same period a very different
class of men, seeking a new home, were thrown upon the charity of the
British Government. These were the "United Empire Loyalists," as they
styled themselves, some 40,000 Americans, with a sprinkling of Irishmen
among them, such as Luke Carscallion, Peter Daly, Willet Casey, and John
Canniff,[20] who had fought on the Royalist side throughout the war, and
at the end of it found their fortunes ruined and themselves the objects
of keen resentment. Pitt, with a "total lack of Imperial imagination,"
as Mr. Holland Rose puts it,[21] does not seem to have considered the
plan of colonizing Australia with a part of these men, 433 of whom were
reported to be living in destitution in London three years after the
war. No more alacrity was shown in relieving the distress of those still
in America. In 1788, however, a million and a quarter pounds were voted
by Parliament for relief, and large grants of land were made in Canada,
whither most of the Loyalists had already begun to emigrate. Some went
to the Maritime Provinces, notab