The following summary of investigations conducted for the governments at this time may now be added as evidence of the military strength of the party Carleton wished to conciliate.
Captains having the order of St. Louis 9 Captains named in the order but not invested 1 Captains who have not the order 4 Lieutenants having the order 1 Lieutenants 16 Ensigns 2 Officers de Reserve 2 Cadets 23 Have never been in the service 44 In the upper country who have never been in the service 6 ---- Total 126 (At least eighty-five of these are reported as in the Montreal district.)
Grand Croix 1 Governors, lieutenant governors, majors, aide majors, captains and lieutenants of ships of war, having the order of St. Louis 26 Aide-majors and captains not having the order 6 Lieutenants 12 Ensigns 19 Canadian officers in actual service whose parents have remained in Canada 15 ---- Total 79
Natives of France who came over to Canada as cadets, served and were preferred in the colony troops and were treated in France as Canadian officers:
Captains not having the Croix of St. Louis 7 Had the rank of captain in 1760, raised to lieutenant in France, Knight of St. Louis 1 Lieutenants 7 Was captain in the colony troops at Mississippi, came to Canada in 1760 and is raised to the rank of colonel in the Spanish service at Mississippi; Knight of St. Louis 1 Having had civil employment 5 Officers of the port 2 ---- Total 23
The case of the seigneurs and that of the merchants was by this time well understood in England by the colonial authorities and the parliament. The insistent demand for an assembly had been well presented by Masères, while the no less repeated opposition to it in the form of an amended constitution to guarantee French-Canadian liberties had been equally well presented by the seigneurs and their upholders. It remained for legislators to settle which was the more opportune, the delay of the assembly or the immediate concessions of favours to the conquered race.
The session of 1774 was drawing to a close but the culminating point looked to with such eagerness on both sides of the Atlantic, the Quebec act, was not introduced till May 17th, when it quickly passed the three readings in the house of lords. On the 26th it reached the second reading in the commons when the serious opposition began. The debate was continued on June 6th, 7th, 8th and 19th, on which latter day the bill was carried in committee by eighty-three to forty. On the third reading the final vote was fifty-six to twenty. The House of Lords received the bill and its amendments for further consideration on June 17th and the bill was passed on June 22d. The house was prorogued.