This, he opined, would one day cause
a revolution, and would tend to re-establish the dominion of France in
that country. As for the legislative council he deemed it as proposed
the very worst kind of government ministers could have invented. He
remarked:--"If it is not the proper time to give to Canada an assembly
like those which exist in our other American colonies, it is better to
let the governor be absolute--better to let him be without a council. He
will then be responsible. But what have we here? Seventeen or eighteen
gentlemen, who may be removed or suspended by the governor; so that, if
an act of oppression should come from the crown, these may be a screen
for the governor to excuse and justify him." Townshend next condemned
the countenance given by the bill to the church of Rome, and then put
a series of stringent questions to the ministers concerning the
administration of the French laws in Canada. Were they, he asked, to be
administered by Canadians or French lawyers? and were English gentlemen
who had bought estates in that country to be subject to them? It would
be better, he conceived, to show the French Canadians, by degrees, the
advantages of English law, and to gradually mix it with their own. In
reply, Lord North excused the delay which had occurred in bringing this
measure forward, on the ground that he had been seeking the fullest
information before he legislated. He did not pretend that the bill was
perfect, but he considered that it was the best that could have been
devised, both for Great Britain and the colony, under all circumstances.
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