After the events of 1759 and of 1760, when Levis at St. Foy nearly won back Quebec, and the cession of the rule of France in Canada had been agreed upon, Canada had settled down into the paths of peace; soldier and habitant vied in binding up one another's wounds, and evidencing all the pleasantries of reconciliation.[67]
A memorial, the like of which has never been known elsewhere, either in history or the world, has been erected in the square of "The Governor's Garden," at Quebec, to the two heroes, Montcalm and Wolfe, equal in valour, equal in fame. A united sentiment raised this single monument to their united memory, bearing upon it the noble inscription:
MORTEM, VIRTUS, COMMUNEMFAMAM, HISTORIAMONUMENTUM, POSTERITAS DEDIT.
"Valour gave them a common death, history a common fame, posterity a common monument."
As the glory of their champions was thus intertwined, so the patriotism of the old French occupants and of the newcomers to Canada began from this splendid example to blend more closely in fraternal union.
The Treaty of Paris, in 1763, confirmed the Union Jack in its position of being the successor to the fleur-de-lis of France and the three castles of Castile of Spain over all the territory on the continent of America, stretching from Labrador along the Atlantic coast southward to Florida, and inland westward as far as the waters of the Mississippi from their highest sources to its mouth on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.[68]
In pursuance of this treaty, King George III. issued his proclamation (October, 1763) creating four provinces and governments, named Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Granada, this last consisting of the islands of the West Indies. Of these four the Province of Quebec comprised the territory lying adjacent to the St. Lawrence River system, along its whole length to the head waters on the watersheds of the farthest inland lakes.
By this proclamation French Canada ceased to be a conquered country, and became a fully established colony of the British King. It was to be governed by a governor and an assembly, entitled to arrange its own taxation, have control of its own internal welfare and local government, and empowered to institute its own courts of law; but to every subject, new or old, of the King, there was reserved the right of appeal to the foot of the throne itself in the Privy Council of Great Britain, should any person think himself aggrieved by the decision of his own locally appointed courts.[69]