“Sapped by Corruption”: British Governance of Quebec and the Breakdown of Anglo-American Relations on the Eve of Revolution

"SAPPEDBY CORRUPTION": BRITISH GOVERNANCEOFQUEBECANDTHE BREAKDOWNOF ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONSON THEEVEOF REVOLUTION PhilipLawson Assessing the role of the Quebec Act, 1774, in the drama of deteriorating Anglo-American relations has proved contentious for historians. There is no secret why this should be so. The Quebec Act is an enigma in a period of imperial crisis, carrying a different historical message for each of those nations directly affected by the legislation: America, Canada and Britain. The national histories of these three nations have become very specialized and they stress disparate aspects of the genesis and final clauses of the Quebec legislation. The tradition in Britain, especially among imperial historians, has been to perceive the legislation as the finest product of the benign statesmanship that signified a maturing awareness of the real responsibilities of imperial governance in the early modern period.1 In Canada, on the other hand, for the last generation or so the debate over the Quebec Act has been dominated by concerns over the impact of conquest on a French colonial society. At the forefront of this debate has been the question: did the British decapitate a proto-nationalist middle class in Quebec and, if so, can this process explain a nascent separatist movement blossoming in the 1960s and 1970s?2 For American scholars the focus has been entirely different. An analysis of the American colonial context and response to the Quebec Act has narrowed the view of this legislation to wafer-thin proportions. To patriots in 1774, the Act threatened the very bedrock of civil society with its recognition of Catholicism, government by executive council and, worst of all, an interior boundary that placed limits on the legitimate expansionist aims of the seaboard colonies. In the summer of 1774, the Continental Congress described the measure as an "arbitrary arrangement," and ever since that date American scholarship has been transfixed by the need to examine the veracity of these sentiments and the impact of the Quebec Act on the advent of war.3 302 Philip Lawson The question now remains: has this process of compartmentalization gone to far? Is there time to reset the historiographical clock, escape these three historiographical solitudes and rethink existing approaches to the Quebec problem in the Revolutionary period? To answer these questions, this essay will first examine the trans-Atlantic celebrations in 1760 after the fall of New France, and the shared hopes and aspirations expressed about the future of the old French colony,contrasting this enthusiastic and harmonious picture to the divisiverelationships that emerged between Britain and the American colonies over a decade later with the passage of the Quebec Act. These snapshots of Anglo-American relations in the 1760s and 1770s offer a stark contrast indeed. The British governance of Quebec in these years represented a concerted effort at assimilating the newly-won possessions in North America into the imperial structure, but the effect on many of those observingthis attempt at assimilation was outrage and disillusionment. The common vision of a prosperous and united future that was sparked by the Conquest in 1760had all but disappeared by 1775, and the governance of Quebec became another profound problem in the crisis of the AngloAmerican relationship that ended in revolution. Revolution, however, seemed to be the furthest thing from everyone's mind as Britain and her colonies celebrated the victories won against the Bourbon powers from 1759 to 1762. The signing of the Peace of Paris in 1763revealed the confidence of people on both sides of the Atlantic who were suddenly enjoyingvictory over an enduring adversary. Politicians and the press of the English-speaking world indulged in an orgy of patriotic speeches, sermons and addresses, all signalling the rise of a new imperial power and the demise of old Catholic enemies.4 The conquest of Quebec, and what contemporaries believed to be the concomitant removal of French power in North America, played no small part in encouraging these celebrations. To the Duke of Newcastle,the first Lord of the Treasury in the wartime coalition government, news of Wolfe's success against the French at Quebec meant only one thing: "their affairs [were] quite over in that part of the world."5 The whole mood of the...