province of Quebec was extremely unsatisfactory. It was ordered that so
soon as the state and circumstances of the colony admitted, the
governor-general could with the advice and consent of the members of the
council summon a general assembly, "in such manner and form as is used
and directed in those colonies and provinces in America which are under
our immediate government." Laws could be made by the governor, council,
and representatives of the people for the good government of the colony,
"as near as may be agreeable to the laws of England, and under such
regulations and restrictions as are used in other colonies." Until such
an assembly could be called, the governor could with the advice of his
council constitute courts for the trial and determination of all civil
and criminal cases, "according to law and equity, and as near as may be
agreeable to the laws of England," with liberty to appeal, in all civil
cases, to the privy council of England. General Murray, who had been in
the province since the battle on the Plains of Abraham, was appointed to
administer the government. Any persons elected to serve in an assembly
were required, by his commission and instructions, before they could sit
and vote, to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and subscribe a
declaration against transubstantiation, the adoration of the Virgin, and
the Sacrifice of the Mass.

This proclamation--in reality a mere temporary expedient to give time
for considering the whole state of the colony--was calculated to do
infinite harm, since its principal importance lay in the fact that it
attempted to establish English civil as well as criminal law, and at the
same time required oaths which effectively prevented the French
Canadians from serving in the very assembly which it professed a desire
on the part of the king to establish. The English-speaking or Protestant
people in the colony did not number in 1764 more than three hundred
persons, of little or no standing, and it was impossible to place all