The Father of British Canada | Page 7

war that more than any other, laid the foundations of the
present British Empire--was to be ended on any terms the country
could be persuaded to bear. Thus the end of the Seven Years' War, or,
as the British part of it was more correctly called, the 'Maritime War,'
was no more glorious in statesmanship than its beginning had been in
arms. But the spirit of its mighty heart still lived on in the Empire's
grateful memories of Pitt and quickened the English-speaking world
enough to prevent any really disgraceful surrender of the hard-won
fruits of victory.
The Treaty of Paris, signed on the 10th of February 1763, and the
king's proclamation, published in October, 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 exterminated without mercy, unless, of course,
more money was to be made out of them alive. The result was an
endless struggle along the ever-receding frontier of the West. And just
at this particular time the 'Conspiracy of Pontiac' had brought about
something like a real war. The story of this great effort of the Indians to
stem the encroachments of the exterminating colonists is told in another

chronicle of the present Series. [Footnote: The War Chief of the
Ottawas.] The French traders in the West undoubtedly had a hand in
stirring up the Indians. Pontiac, a sort of Indian Napoleon, was
undoubtedly cruel as well as crafty. And the Indians undoubtedly
fought just as the ancestors of the French and British used to fight when
they were at the corresponding stage of social evolution. But the mere
fact that so many jealously distinct tribes united in this common cause
proves how much they all must have suffered at the hands of the
colonists.
While Pontiac's war continued in the West Murray had to deal with a
political war in Canada which rose to its height in 1764. The king's
proclamation of the previous October had 'given express Power to our
Governor that, so soon as the state and circumstances of the said
Colony will admit thereof, he shall call a General Assembly in such
manner and form as is used in those Colonies and Provinces in America
which are under our immediate government.' The intention of
establishing parliamentary institutions was, therefore, perfectly clear.
But it was equally clear that the introduction of such institutions was to