[after having been confirmed by legal ordinance] by
allowing Appeals if the matter decided exceed Ten Pounds,'
which would put it out of the reach of the 'inferior
Courts' and into the clutches of 'the King's Old Subjects.'
But the gist of it all was contained in the following:
'We represent that as the Grand Jury must be considered
at present as the only Body representative of the Colony,
... We propose that the Publick Accounts be laid before
the Grand Jury at least twice a year.' That the grand
jury was to be purged of all its French-Canadian members
is evident from the addendum slipped in behind their
backs. This addendum is a fine specimen of verbose
invective against 'the Church of Rome,' the Pope, Bulls,
Briefs, absolutions, etc., the empanelling 'en Grand and
petty Jurys' of 'papist or popish Recusants Convict,'
and so on.

The 'Presentment of the Grand Jury' was presently followed
by _The Humble Petition of Your Majesty's most faithful
and loyal Subjects, British Merchants and Traders, in
behalf of Themselves and their fellow Subjects, Inhabitants
of Your Majesty's Province of Quebec_. 'Their fellow
Subjects' did not, of course, include any 'papist or
popish Recusants Convict.' Among the 'Grievances and
Distresses' enumerated were 'the oppressive and severely
felt Military government,' the inability to 'reap the
fruit of our Industry' under such a martinet as Murray,
who, in one paragraph, is accused of 'suppressing dutyfull
Remonstrances in Silence' and, in the next, of 'treating
them with a Rage and Rudeness of Language and Demeanor