The story of the siege of Quebec is already familiar to readers of these pages. The only further reference to that siege necessary to be made in this place is to chronicle the fact that Colonel Carleton was severely wounded in the hand on the plains of Abraham, and was only a few paces distant from his commander when the latter received his death-wound. For his services on that eventful day he was advanced to the dignity of a Brigadier-General. The next important event in his life necessary to record was his accession to the Governorship of Canada, as successor to General Murray. He was already regarded with great favour by the colonists, who had begun to look up to him as a protector. His character and conduct have been variously judged, some attributing his wisdom and gentleness to native goodness of heart, others to a prudent and far-seeing policy. There is no necessity for inquiring too curiously into his motives. Suffice it to say that he was regarded with the highest favour and admiration by the colonists. The Government of his predecessor, General Murray, had, at the outset, been an essentially military Government, and had been the reverse of popular with French Canadians generally. During his _regime_ the French Canadians seem to have been morbidly given to contemplating themselves as a conquered people, and to have been ever ready to avail themselves of any pretext for establishing a grievance. Nor were such pretexts altogether wanting. The civil and criminal law of England had been introduced into the colony by royal proclamation, and Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Chancery had been established for its administration. Now, the law of England was a system of which the French Canadians knew nothing, and for which they could hardly be expected to have much enthusiasm. Trial by jury was an especial bugbear to them. It was incomprehensible to them that any man who was conscious of the goodness of his cause should wish to be tried by twelve ignorant men; men who had never studied the principles of law, and who were very imperfectly educated. That a suitor should prefer such a tribunal to an erudite judge, whose life had been spent in the study of jurisprudence, was, to the French Canadians of those days, pretty strong evidence that the said suitor had little confidence in the justness of his plea. Moreover, trials were carried on in the English language, of which the French Canadians in general knew little more than they knew of English law. A native litigant was compelled to plead through an interpreter, and not seldom through an interpreter who could be bribed. Even the higher officials of the courts were sometimes appointed for political reasons, and were utterly unfit for positions of trust. It is not too much to say that there were flagrant instances in which judicial decisions were literally bought and sold. General Murray's report on the condition of the colony, published after his return to England in 1766, affords indisputable evidence that the alleged grievances of the French Canadians were not wholly imaginary. The ex-Governor cannot be suspected of any undue prejudice in favour of the native population. He describes the British colonists of the Province as being, with a few exceptions, the most immoral collection of men he had ever known. Most of them, he alleged, had been followers of the army, of mean education, or soldiers disbanded at the reduction of the troops, who had their fortunes to make, and who were not very solicitous as to how that end was accomplished. They were represented as persons little calculated to conciliate the natives, or to increase the respect of the latter for British laws. The officials sent out from the mother country to conduct the public service are described as venal, mercenary, and ignorant. "The Judge fixed upon to conciliate the minds of 75,000 foreigners to the laws and government of Great Britain," says the report, "was taken from a jail." Both the Judge and the Attorney-General were unacquainted with the Civil Law and with the French language. The chief offices of state were filled by men equally ignorant, who had bought their situations for a price. Such a state of things was little calculated to endear British rule to the French Canadians. The picture is a dark one, but hardly darker than the facts justified. And such was the posture of affairs when Guy Carleton succeeded to office as Murray's successor.