the Church of Rome, or to enjoy and practice the worship prefcribed by that Religion, (which is all that is granted to them by the Capitulation of the Province with Sir Jeffery Amherst, in September, 1760; and by the Treaty of Peace between France and England, concluded at Paris, in February, 1763,) or whether the faid Popith religion fhould be not only tolerated in the faid Province, but eflablished there, by giving the Romish Pricfts that officiate in the Province a legal right to demand their tithes, and other antient dues, by Law, and to sue for them in the Courts of Justice; which has fince been enacted by the Quebeck-act of the year 1774, though it had been afked by the French General, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, in the Capitulation of September, 1760, but refused by the wife and cautious English General, Sir Jeffery Amherf;-and whether it would be expedient to permit a Popish French Bifhop to go into the Province, though the Province had done without one for fix years, or, ever fince the Surrender of it to General Amherst, in 1760; the former French Bifhop having died a little before that event; (all which fubjects might have afforded matter for long and warm debates in Parliament ;) and, partly, from an opinion, that they themfelves were not likely to continue long in the great Offices they then held; which opinion was but too well grounded, as they were removed from them about three months after, in the menth of July, 1766. They might, alfo, perhaps, think it prudent to obtain more accurate informations concerning the ftate of the Province, in various important points; fuch as the number of English fettlers there; the number of the French or Canadians, and their inclinations and qualities; the number of the Priefts, Monks,

and

and Nuns; the number of the parishes and the values of the tithes; the fize and values of the feveral Seigniories, and the annual profits of them; and many other fuch interefting particulars; before they drew-up a plan to be prefented to Parliament for fettling their Laws and Government, But the two former reafons feem fuffcient to account for their unwillingness at that time to bring the fubject before the Parliament.

Whoever reads the foregoing fketch of an Act of Parliament with attention, cannot fail to obferve that the perfon who drew it up was defirous of introducing by gentle means the Proteftant religion amongst the French, or Canadian, inhabitants of the Province: and he may, in confequence, be fomewhat furprized that it fhould contain a claufe for permitting a RomanCatholick Bishop to be fent into the Province, and to exercife his Epifcopal functions there; wbich feems more likely to prevent, than to encourage, the converfion of the Roman-Catholicks from Popery to the Proteftant Religion. To remove this furprize, I muft inform my readers that I found that a refolution had been already taken by his Majefty's Minifters of that time to permit a certain Roman-Catholick Priest, who had long refided in the Province of Quebeck, (though he was not a native of it, but of the Province of Britany in Old France,) to come from Quebeck to England, in the winter of the foregoing year, 1765; and to go-over to the North of France, in the month of January, or February, 1766, in order to be confecrated by some Bifhops in France, as Bithop of Quebeck; which ceremony of Confecration was (as I was told,) performed at the City of Amiens in Picardy. And it was agreed amongst the King's Minifters of that time, that he fhould be permitted to return to Quebeck in

the

the fpring of the fame year, 1766, to exercife his Epifcopal functions in the Province, as Bishop of Quebeck. His name was Olivier Briand, or Oliver Briand; and he was a well-sized, comely, man, of about 50 years of age, of eafy and agreeable manners, and faid to be a man of fober and regular life, and unimpeached morals. And he accordingly went to Quebeck in the faid fpring of the year 1766, and lived there many years in the exercife of his office of B.fhop of Quebeck; but, as I am informed, has been dead now feveral years, and has been fucceeded by another Popish Bishop. Now, as this measure of permitting Mr. Oliver Briand to go to Quebeck, in the character and station of a Bishop, and to exercife his Epifcopal functions there, was already agreed to by his Majefty's Minifters, I thought it better to have it done openly by the Supreme Authority of Parliament, than privately and almoft clandeftinely, by the mere connivance of the Minifters of State, in oppofition to the above-mentioned, important, and fundamental, Statute of Queen Elizabeth, which prohibits all exercife of the Pope's authority, or of any authority derived from the Pope, (as that of a Popish Billop is exprefsly,) not only in the kingdom of England itself, and the doininions then belonging to the Crown, but in all the dominions that should belong to the Crown in any future times. And this must be my excufe for inferting in the foregoing fketch of an Act of Parliament the Claufe for permitting a Popish Bishop to excrcife his Epifcopal functions in the Province of Quebeck. For, as for the measure itfelf," of permitting a Popish Bishop to refide there," I never could approve of it, nor, if I had been one of his Majefty's Minifters, whofe confent had been neceffary to it's adoption, would I ever have confented to it.

I have

I have just now faid, that this permiffion to Mr. Briand, to refide in the Province of Quebeck, as Bishop of the Diocese, was given only by the connivance of his Majesty's Minifters of state of that time, because I never could find that there was any patent, or warrant, under his Majesty's Signature, or any of his Seals, that gave him the title of Bishop of Quebeck, or, authorised him to ordain Priefts, or execute any one of his Epifcopal functions, but only an inftruction either to the Governour or the Receiver General of the Revenue, (I forget which), in which he is called Super-intendant of the Clergy, with an order, (if I remember right,) to pay him the moderate fum of 200l. a year, for his support. And, perhaps, the unwillingness of his Majefty's Minifters to have this measure of permitting a Popish Bishop to refide in the Province," publickly difcuffed, might be an additional reafon to the two already mentioned, for their not chufing at that time to bring the fettlement of the Laws and Government of the Province under the consideration of Parliament.

I was told at the time, by Mr. Fowler Walker, (a Barrister at Law, who practifed with fuccefs and reputation in the Court of Chancery, and, who was well acquainted with the then state of the Province of Que

*

beck,)

This Gentleman had been employed, by the agents of several of the English and Scotch merchants that were settled in the Province of Quebeck, in drawing-up and conducting their complaints to the King in his Privy-Council, against the late General James Murray, (then Captain-General and Governour in Chief of the Province of Quebeck,) for several acts done by him in his first office of Military Governour of the Province, as Commander in Chief of the Troops that were quartered

beck,) that this permiffion, thus granted by connivance, to Mr. Oliver Briand, to return to Quebeck, in the character of Bishop of the Province, was obtained from his Majesty's Ministers of State at that time, and particularly from the Marquis of Rockingham, (who was confidered as the principal Minifter,) by the influence of the late celebrated Mr. Edmund Burke, who was at that time his Lordship's private Secretary, and who had then acquired, and ever after retained, a very : great degree of his confidence. And I am much inclined to believe this to have been the cafe. For, other. wife, it seems fomewhat furprising that, that refpect-able Nobleman, who, had been placed at the head of the Whig Party, and had been earnestly folicited and preffed, by the then Duke of Newcastle, (who thought himself too old to return again into that active and important station,) to accept the Office of Firft Commiffioner of the Treasury, almoft against his will, and who, therefore, might be fuppofed to entertain the fentiments that had always heretofore been profeffed by that party, and confequently to have confidered Popery and Slavery as the two grand objects of fear and abhorrence to all true English Patriots, against

quartered in it, during the years 1761, 1762, and 1763, and of some few acts done by him afterwards in his second office of Captain-General and Governour in Chief of the Province, in the years 1764 and 1765, which they alledged to be illegal and injurious to them; and by his conversations with these agents and with the merchants of London who were the correspondents of the said complainants, concerning the grounds, and proofs, and circumstances, of the Acts complained-of, he had acquired a more intimate knowledge of the state of the Province, and all that was done and doing in it at that time, than any other person that I then conversed-with.

F. M.

the