[1] Under the Canada Act of 1791, the provinces had each a parliament or legislature, an upper house, the Legislative Council, of nominated members, not fewer than seven in Upper and not fewer than fifteen in Lower Canada, and a lower house, the House of Assembly, sometimes called the House of Commons elected by the people, not fewer than sixteen in Upper and not fewer than fifty in Lower Canada.
[2] In the sister province a bill to the same effect was more fortunate in the same year a little later. This will be considered in the next chapter.
[3] In a work of some authority, Bibaud's Pantheon Canadien, page 211, it is said that "Joseph Papineau, Notary Public, Member of the Legislature Assembly for Upper Quebec presented about 1797 a petition of the citizens of Montreal for the abolition of slavery." If that be the case there was nothing done on the petition, but it seems probable that the author refers to the petition of 1799 spoken of later in the Text.
[4] From Massicotte ut supra in Le Bulletin des Recherches Historiques, Vol. II, p. 136, it is said: "Une annonce publiée dans la Gazette de Quèbec vers: cette époque (i.e., 1797) represente un nègre courant à toutes jambes. 'Il est offert une recompense honnête a qui remenera a son maître marchand de Trois Rivières son esclave fugitif' Ce pauvre diable pensait sans doute que la loi qu'on proposait pourrait pas d'effet retroactif."
[5] Lafontaine ut supra, pp. 49-51.
[6] Lafontaine ut supra, pp. 52 & 56.
[7] For the Act of 1732 (5 George II, c. 7). The repealing Act was (1797) 37 George III, c. 119 (Imp.).
[8] The Statute of 1562, 5 Elizabeth, c. 4, not repealed until 1814, 54 George III, c. 96 (Imp.).
[9] See ante, p. 304.
[10] Ibid., p. 305.