The Imperial Challenge: Quebec and Britain in the Age of the American Revolution

Martin L. Nicolai is an adjunct assistant professor of history at
Queen’s University.

Historians of the past 40 years have generally seen the Quebec Act of
1774—which legalized French civil law and property rights in the
colony, enabled Roman Catholics to hold office, restored the Catholic
Church’s right to collect the tithe, and blocked the domination of
French Canadians by a Protestant assembly—either as an unremarkable
confirmation of the terms of the 1760 capitulation or as a pragmatic
tool to keep French Canadians docile and prevent them from being
affected by the political ferment in the other American colonies.

Lawson’s meticulous research into the papers of the men involved in
policymaking for Quebec between 1759 and 1774, however, leads him to a
different conclusion. He rightly perceives the act as a radical
departure from British tradition, a product of political courage and
liberal thinking among Britain’s leading politicians that created a
precedent for future policy toward oppressed minorities in the Empire.
The political orthodoxy of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 dictated that
British subjects should have an assembly, common law, and a Protestant
(preferably Anglican) established church. After lengthy study of the
conflicting advice coming from Canada, however, George III’s ministers
felt sufficiently secure to brave the anti-Catholic bigotry of
Britain’s high-church reactionaries, dissenters, and radical Whigs
alike and prepare legislation that respected the traditional laws of the
conquered population and prevented the creation of another Ireland. In
addition, Lawson argues convincingly, the act was not prepared with the
other American colonies in mind; it is sheer coincidence that the bill
was passed not long after parliament closed Boston harbor.

Lawson could have devoted more attention to the instructions that
accompanied the act when it was forwarded to Carleton, and to the
government’s long-term view of Quebec’s place in the empire.
Nevertheless, The Imperial Challenge provides a balanced, persuasive
analysis of British policy toward Quebec during the two decades after
the Conquest, and furnishes intriguing insights into British political
ideology during this important period.