s civil nor its military side were any rights extended to the
individual. Up to the Conquest, the citizens of Quebec had been no
more than cogs in the wheel of State, driven fast or slow according to
the spasmodic interest felt by the Home government in her always
troublesome colony--a land which had first claimed consideration as
the gateway to Cathay, and presently appeared to be nothing better
than a "thousand leagues of snow and ice." This decline from the
equator of enthusiasm to the north pole of neglect indicated the
unstable fortunes of the colony. National spirit was left to fill up
the ranks of her army when danger threatened the frontiers; and to
the simple _habitant_, who had no interest to keep alive the memory of
France, Quebec and Louisbourg were the ends of the earth, and the
annals of his parish the Alpha and Omega of knowledge.

With British rule all this was changed. In Quebec the _Tiers Etat_
awoke to its latent destiny thirty years before the same realisation
came to Paris; and it was the new principles of government which
achieved this bloodless revolution. The rights of man were no longer
confined to the Governor, Intendant, and the Sovereign Council; and
the plainest citizen felt a new pulse within him as soon as he saw the
trend of the English system. Instead of being kept in the dark as to
what was taking place in the outside world, he found a strange
solicitude in high quarters to keep him informed on every subject of
public importance. Under General Murray a newspaper was established,
the _Quebec Gazette_, which began as a weekly in 1764.[34] The first
issue of this pioneer of Canadian journalism consisted of four folio
pages, two columns to a page, one French, one English; and the outline
of its policy is given in the _Printer's Address to the Public_,
promising:--

"A view of foreign affairs and political transactions
from which a judgment may be formed of the interests and
connections of the several powers of Europe; to collect
the transactions and occurrences of our mother-country;
and to introduce every remarkable event, uncommon
debates, extraordinary performances, and interesting turn
of affairs that shall be thought to merit the notice of
the reader as matter of entertainment, or that can be of
service to the public as inhabitants of an English
colony....And here we beg leave to observe that we shall
have nothing so much at heart as the support