ONTARIO AND QUEBEC. 17 
law was to prevail in criminal matters, but as regards pro- 
perty and civil rights recourse was to be had to the laws 
of Canada which were based on the customs that the French 
settlers had brought with them. The legislative power was The Legis. 
placed in the hands of a Council appointed by the Crown, a 
consisting of not more than 23 and not less than 17 persons, 
No ordinance was to be passed unless a majority of the 
Council were present, and every ordinance was to be trans- 
mitted, within six months after its enactment, for His 
Majesty's approbation, and if disallowed was to be null and 
void from the time the disallowance was promulgated at 
Quebec. 
Shortly after the passing of the Quebec Act war broke Results of 
out between England and her American Colonies. One result on 
of the war was the immigration of a large number of British 
subjects into the Province. The new settlers located them- 
selves chiefly in the west, along the banks of the St Lawrence, 
and in the neighbourhood of the lakes Ontario and Erie 
Serious complaints were made by the new British settlers of 
the state of affairs in the Province, and a demand was made 
for a constitution resembling that to which they had been 
accustomed. 
In 1791 a bill was introduced by Pitt dividing the Pro- Bill intro. 
vince into Upper and Lower Canada, the line of division 3a by 
being so drawn as to give a great majority to the British 
element in Upper Canada and a great majority to the French 
settlers in Lower Canada. The measure was strongly opposed 
by Fox, who urged that the separation of the English and 
French inhabitants was most undesirable, and that general 
and political expediency required that the French and English 
should coalesce into one body, so that the different distinctions 
of the people might be extinguished for ever. Many Cana. 
dians were opposed to the principle of the bill, and their 
{ Christie, 1. p. 68,