Pre-Confederation Documents

Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 William F. Maton

• The Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1670 ("The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay")
  • A charter by Charles II which created the Hudson's Bay Company for Prince Rupert (hence Rupert's Land) and a group of entrepreneurs.
  • Defined the territory and the purpose of the Company, and who was in the Company as its Board of Directors.
  • The territory defined spanned the entire Hudson's Bay watershead.
  • The territory would be re-purchased in 1868 through the Rupert's Land Act, 1868 and become part of the Dominion of Canada through section 146 of the Constitution Act, 1867 and the Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory Order.

• The Treaty of Paris, 1763
  • This treaty ended the Seven Year's War, or the French-Indian War, as it is known in the United States, between Great Britain, France, Spain and Portugal.
  • Article IV of the treaty ceded the French colony of Canada and its dependencies including Cape Breton Island, to Great Britain. It also granted liberty to practice Catholicism in that colony and gave any inhabitants 18 months to leave of their free will for France.
  • Article V and VI granted fishing rights to French fishermen, as well as ceded the Island of St. Pierre-Miquelon to France as a shelter for them.
  • It also determined the fate of many lands in the East Indies, as well as the Carribean, most notably, Spain's surrender of Florida. (Article XX)

• The Proclamation of 1763
  • A declaration that England is now in the possession of former French territories, one of which is called Quebec, which were all ceded by the Treaty of Paris, above.
  • Also a survey of those possessions.
  • Guaranteed the protection of lands for Indians under the Crown that were not within the boundaries of the newly acquired provinces.
  • Required any colonists occupying Indian lands without the permission of the Crown to leave those lands.
  • Also prevented colonists from buying land directly from Indians and required them to obtain a licence for trading with the Indians.

• Report of Attorney and Solicitor General regarding The Civil Government of Quebec, April 14th 1766.
  • A report concerning the judicial problems surrounding the province of Quebec.
  • Contains an interesting paragraph hinting at the real motives behind the Quebec Act, 1774.

• The Quebec Act, 1774
  • An Act of the British Parliament to protect rights of Catholics, the French civil code, French language and culture.
  • It addressed numerous concerns raised by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, as well as other ordinances and laws passed at that time.
  • Believed by some historians to be one of the causes of the American revolution. From the U.S. Declaration of Independence:

  "For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbouring province [Quebec], establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies."

• The Constitutional Act, 1791
  • Repealed part of the Quebec Act, 1774 dealing with the government.
  • Divided Quebec into the provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada.
  • Gave each province an Assembly, but did not make the Legislative or Executive Councils responsible to those Assemblies, giving rise to the rebellions of 1837-38.
  • Expanded the prominence of the Protestant Clergy by giving them more preference in land allotments, etc.

• The Act Of Union, 1840
  • United Kingdom Parliament Act based upon the recommendations of Lord Durham's Report (Released 1839).
  • Replaces some parts of the Constitutional Act, 1791.
  • Re-united Upper Canada and Lower Canada to become, "the Province of Canada."
  • Created, as a legislative body, an appointed upper house called the, "Legislative Council," and an elected Assembly.
  • Introduced the concept of the double-majority, required to pass bills, which lead to numerous political deadlocks and would eventually give rise to the Constitution Act, 1867.
  • Abolished bilingualism in official functions, operations and proceedings of government, a part of an attempt to fully assimilate the inhabitants of French Canada
  • Contains elements of the Constitution Act, 1867, such as the Power of Disallowance (section XXXVIII.) and the existence of a Consolidated Revenue Fund (section L.)