Treaty of Paris (1763) - Effects On French Canada

Effects On French Canada

The article provided for unrestrained emigration for 18 months from Canada. However, passage of British ships was expensive. A total of 1600 people left New France through the Treaty clause, but only 270 French-Canadians. Some have claimed that this was part of British policy to limit emigration.

Article IV of the treaty allowed Roman Catholicism to be practiced in Canada. George III agreed to allow Catholicism within the laws of Great Britain. In this period, British laws included various Test Acts to prevent governmental, judicial, and bureaucratic appointments from going to Roman Catholics. Roman Catholics were believed to be agents of the Jacobite Pretenders to the throne, who normally resided in France supported by the French regime. This was relaxed in Quebec to some degree, but top positions like governorships were still held by Anglicans.

Article IV has also been cited as the basis for Quebec often having its unique set of laws that are different from the rest of Canada. There was a general constitutional principle in the United Kingdom to allow colonies taken through conquest to continue their own laws. This was limited by royal prerogative, and the monarch could still choose to change the accepted laws in a conquered colony. However, the treaty eliminated this power because by a different constitutional principle, terms of a treaty were considered paramount. In practice, Roman Catholics could become jurors in inferior courts in Quebec and argue based on principles of French law. However, the judge was British and his opinion on French law could be limited or hostile. If the case was appealed to a superior court, neither French law nor Roman Catholic jurors were allowed.

Many French residents of what are now Canada's Maritime provinces, called Acadians, were deported during the Great Expulsion (1755–63). After the signing of the peace treaty guaranteed some rights to Roman Catholics, some Acadians returned to Canada. However, they were no longer welcome in English Nova Scotia. They were forced into New Brunswick, which is a bilingual province today as a result of that relocation.

The French people of Quebec felt great betrayal at the French concession. Commander-in-Chief of the British Jeffrey Amherst noted that, “Many of the Canadians consider their Colony to be of utmost consequence to France & cannot be convinced ... that their Country has been conceded to Great Britain”.