Volume VI of the Canadian Centenary Series
Now available as e-books for the first time, the Canadian Centenary Series is a comprehensive nineteen-volume history of the peoples and lands which form Canada. Although the series is designed as a unified whole so that no part of the story is left untold, each volume is complete in itself.
In this perceptive history of Quebec before it was divided into Upper and Lower Canada, Professor Hilda Neatby scrutinizes the response of the British Parliament to the duty of devising a sympathetic, fair, and workable system of law and government. The author examines how successive governors administered the Proclamation of 1763 and the Quebec Act of 1774, until the passing of the Constitutional Act, leaving the marks of their unique personalities on the interpretation of often vague terms.  Intermingled with vivid descriptions of the colourful social and economic life of the times are portraits of the governors—Murray, Carleton, Haldimand, and Hamilton. Even more interesting is the character of Bishop Jean-Olivier Briand and his tireless labours, in the face of official British uneasiness, to maintain a Church fully orthodox and in communion with Rome. 
Professor Neatby had the gift of seeing history peopled by believable human beings taking part in the ordinary and often stirring events of the time. First published in 1966, Professor Neatby’s important contribution to the Canadian Centenary Series is available here as an e-book for the first time.