1764] THE NEW COURTS. 151 sums involved exceeded £300, and to the king when exceeding £500. All qualified to act as jurymen were to be so admitted, without regard to religious belief.*. The chief justice once a year was to hold a court of assize and jail delivery after Hilary term, in Montreal and Three Rivers. A court of common pleas was established, the judge to determine. according to equity, having regard to the laws of England. The trials were to be by jury, if demanded by either party; two terms to be held during the year. The suits to involve values above £10, with liberty of appeal to the superior court in cases above £20. For the higher amounts the same rights of appeal were granted as in the court of Queen's Bench. In cases commenced previous to the 1st of October, 1764, French law to be recognized. Justices of the peace were appointed for their respective districts, one justice to have jurisdiction in disputes to the value of £5; cases to the value of £10 to be determined by two justices. Three justices would form a quorum to hold quarter sessions to adjudicate in cases from £10 to £30. Two justices to sit weekly in rotation in Quebec and Montreal. An ordinance was passed establishing the guinea at £1 8s. and the shilling at Is. 4d. currency; provision was also made against the undue importation of copper coins. An ordinance regulated the sale of bread. On the 6th of November, an ordinance bearing upon property, and establishing the age of majority at twenty-one, was published. The titles by cession and the rights of heritage obtained previous to the definitive. treaty, were declared to be legal when in accordance with the forms observed until the conquest; but after the 10th of August, 1764, property transmitted through death was made subject to English law. The Canadians did not observe this * In February, 1766, Murray received instructions to modify the practice of the courts. He was directed to pass an ordinance admitting Canadians of French origin to serve on juries. In suits affecting British contestants only, the jury should be British. When one was French Canadian, the jury should be mixed. When both parties were French Canadian, the jury should be so constituted. Canadians were likewise admitted to practise as advocates in the courts. + Hilary term extends from the 4th to the 31st January. new regulation, but continued to follow their old customs. The ordinances were legalized when proclaimed by beat of drum in Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal. They were published in the Quebec Gazette in French and English. It was at this date that printing was introduced into Canada, no press having been in operation during French rule. The Quebec Gazette was first published on the 21st of June, 1764. There can be no doubt that Murray was the principal cause of its establishment; there being no printers in Canada, they were found in Philadelphia; William Brown and Thomas Gilmore. The latter sailed to England to make arrangements for the type, press, and paper. Brown came to Quebec to obtain subscribers. The paper was published in columns of French and English. Advertisements could be inserted in either, or both languages: it appeared weekly. The establishment of the Quebec Gazette was also the commencement of printing in the province, no book or document having been actually printed in Canada previous to this date.* In October the first quarter sessions grand jury, which assembled in Canada, met at Quebec. Possibly on no other occasion have the duties of this body been more misunderstood, and seldom has the spirit of faction been more apparent. As might have been expected, there was a failure in many directions to appreciate at their precise value the rights and obligations conferred by the royal proclamation. In every department of life, there was much to be determined. and modelled; the provisions of the new constitution required time to be correctly formulated, and to obtain effect and vigour. We cannot then be surprised, if attempts were made to give a special meaning to some of its provisions, and that claims unwarranted by law, and unsustained by expediency were from time to time preferred. The meeting of the first grand jury is a proof of the activity of this sentiment, and The Gazette was the only published paper in Quebec for a quarter of a century until 1788. The subscription was $3 per year. It continued to be issued weekly until 1818, nearly half a century, when it appeared twice a week, Monday and Thursday, and was so continued until 1832. About eighteen months after its appearance the paper was suspended for some little time. 1764] THE QUEBEC GRAND JURY. 153 shews how imperfectly at this early date the condition of the province was understood. In the charge made to the jury Canada is represented as an "infant colony." To any one bearing in mind that at this date Canada contained between 80,000 and 90,000 inhabitants, having a code of laws with the accompaniments attendant on a civilized government which had prevailed for a century and a half, such a description can only be looked upon as ridiculous. The grand jury availed themselves of this expression in the enumeration of their supposed grievances, possibly encouraged by it, to make a presentment, to which it may safely be said no parallel can be found. It consisted of fifteen heads. It represented that: 1. The great number of inferior courts was tiresome, litigious and expensive. 2. The great number of justices of the peace, selected from so few qualified and fit to be entrusted with determining the liberty and prosperity of others, was burdensome, and should not be put in practice in such an infant colony. 3. It answered no good end to waste time in attending at courts, where no man on the bench was qualified to explain the law. 4. It would be reasonable to leave to the decision of any three justices of the peace, finally to decide the fate of any sum not exceeding ten pounds, without appeal. 5. The market places had been converted into huts and stalls for a multitude of idlers who ought to be employed in fishing, farming, etc. 6. The king's batteries, docks and wharves, had been given away as private property. 7. The better observance of the sabbath was called for; so that it should not be profaned by selling, buying, keeping open shop, balls, routs, gaming, or other idle diversions, and that a learned clergy was required to preach the gospel in both languages. 8. They resolved never to sit as jurors in a court where a man versed in the law did not preside. 9. The grand jury was the only body representing the colony; as British subjects they had accordingly the right to be consulted before any ordinance passed into law. 10. A demand was made that the public accounts should be laid before the grand jury at least twice in the year. II. An ordinance had been passed which made valid all the decisions given by the military courts during the three years of occupation. The grand jury recommended that a change should be made permitting an appeal to the civil courts for any amount exceeding £10. 12. They presented the ordinances of the governor and council establishing courts of judicature in the province, as unconstitutional; accordingly that they should be amended. 13. Proper regulations were required for the measurement, and to mark the quality of firewood; to regulate carts and carriages; for cleaning of streets; and for the establishment of public protestant schools and a poor-house. 14. For the suppression of gaming-houses, particularly the Quebec Arms kept by John King, which was presented from personal knowledge as a notorious nuisance. 15. It was demanded that persons going on their business. should not be liable to imprisonment by sentries, sergeants and officers. From the face of the presentment it would appear that no difference of opinion was to be inferred. The contrary, The names however, was the case as will presently be seen. of the foremen and twenty French and English jurors were appended; among the latter appeared that of Adam Lymburner, the founder of the firm at Quebec, one of whom a quarter of a century later was to appear as an agent of the British party before the house of commons. * A supplemental clause was added, to which only the signatures of the foreman and thirteen others were appended; the remainder refused to sign. It set forth that not the least. * The other names are of little significance: that of Alywin appears, supposed to be the grandfather of the eminent judge of that name. We read also that of Faneuil, so well known in the history of Boston. The opinion forces itself upon the reader, that most of the English speaking members had reached Canada from New England. 1764] DISAPPROBATION OF THE JUSTICES. 155 grievance was, that persons professing the religion of Rome and recognizing the supremacy of the pope should be sworn as jurors, for they were disabled from holding any office of trust or power by the 3rd James I. chap 5. Such men being named jurors acted in open violation of "our most sacred laws and liberty, tending to the entire subversion of the protestant religion and his majesty's authority." It was added that for gentlemen in the army on active service to exercise any judicial authority was unconstitutional. The presiding justices listened with some bewilderment to these unusual and unwarrantable pretensions from a body whose duties law and custom had clearly defined; at the best a farrago of mischievous folly of a few individuals, without political experience, with no defined ideas of constitutional government, who had failed to see that at this crisis what was most called for was patience, consideration due to others, and a careful estimate of the circumstances under which the new order of things was to be applied. Accordingly, the justices felt it their duty publicly to express their disapprobation of the tone of this document, and to condemn the doctrines if advocated. Placing in prominence the fact that the presentment was the work of a grand jury of the quarter sessions, the clerk was directed to read it paragraph by paragraph, the chairman replying to each statement. He pointed out that there were fewer courts in Canada than in any other American province; that.Canada was not an infant. colony, but large and respectable in character, and even required more justices, if competent people could be found; and that those presiding at a court of quarter sessions need not necessarily be learned in the law. The proposal to submit cases to three justices of the peace was impracticable, except in Montreal and Quebec, for that number could not elsewhere be brought together. As to the threat of the juries absenting themselves when summoned, if they did so they could be fined. The grand jury in no way represented the province, and their pretensions on this point were ridiculous. The practices of which they complained were in certain cases |