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had been collected by the most
Christian king.
A
small return to the exchequer blinded
Grenville to the principles of British law.
1 The same reasoning was applied to the Canadians; and the
Attorney and
Solicitor-Generals of
Great Britain gave their opinion, that the duties payable in
Canada to its former government at the time of the conquest, might be legally collected by the authority of the
British king.
2 But arbitrary taxation was the only relic of French usages which was retained.
All the laws, customs, and forms of judicature
3 of a populous and long-established colony were in one hour
4 overturned by the ordinance of the seventeenth of September; and English laws, even the penal statutes against
Catholics, all unknown to the Canadians, and unpublished, were introduced in their stead.
The improper choice and the number of the civil officers sent over from England, increased the disquietude of the colony.
The ignorant, the greedy, and the factious, were appointed to offices which required integrity, knowledge, and abilities.5 The judge pitched upon to conciliate the minds of seventy thousand foreigners to the laws and government of Great Britain, was taken from a jail, and was entirely unacquainted with the civil law and the language of the people.
The Attorney-General, with regard to the language,
