A DRAUGHT O F An Intended REPORT of the Honourable the Governor in Chief and the Council of the Province of QUEBEC to the King's most Excellent Majesty in his Privy Council ; CONCERNING The State of the Laws and the Administration of Justice in that Province. May it please your Majefty, 'N humble obedience to your Majesty's order in council, of the 28th day of August 1767, wherein your Majesty is pleased to order that we should report to your Majesty, First. Whether any, and what, defects are now fubfifting in the present state of Judicature in this your Majesty's province of Quebec : And Secondly. Whether the Canadians are, or think themselves, aggrieved according to the prefent administration of justice : wherein, and in what refpects; together with our opinions of any alterations or amendments that we can propofe for the general benefit of the faid province; and that fuch alterations and amendments, for the clearer apprehenfion thereof, be transmitted to your Majefty in the form of ordinances, but not paffed as fuch; and that fuch report be returned, figned by your Majesty's governor, or his locum tenens, the chief justice, and attorney general of the faid province; but that, if they fhould not concur, the perfon or perfons differing in opinion fhould be required to report the difference of his opinions, together with his reafons for fuch difference of opinion, fully and at large: The laws of nerally thought We lay before your Majefty the following view of the laws and customs which at prefent prevail in this province, and of the rules of decifion obferved by your Majefty's courts of judicature in the administration of justice, together with fuch obfervations on these heads as the experience we have had in our refpective offices fince we have had the honour to ferve your Majefty in this province has enabled us to make. In the first place, we beg leave to obferve to your Majefty, that England the laws of England are generally fuppofed to be in force in this to be in force in province. All criminal proceedings have been carried on according this province. to thefe laws and in civil matters no other laws are cited, or of the chief them. appealed to, or allowed to be of any weight in the courts of justice; though in one or two caufes certain customs that prevailed here in the time of the French government have been admitted as the grounds of the decifions, because the causes of action in those litigations had arisen either in the time of the French government, or during your Majefty's government of this province by your military commanders, during which period the ancient laws and ufages of the country were fuppofed to be in force. But fince the establishment of civil government your Majefty's chief justice of The commiffion the province has acted by virtue of a commiffion that commands juftice refers to him to decide all matters that come before him according to the laws and customs of that part of your Majefty's kingdom of Great Britain called England, and the laws, ordinances, rules, and regulations of your Majefty's province of Quebec hereafter in that behalf to be ordained and made: fo that he is not at liberty to allow of any other laws or customs but thofe of England, unless they are exprefsly introduced or revived by fome of the ordinances of the province made fince the establishment of the civil governSo does the or- ment. And further, befides this commiffion, there is an exprefs 17th of Septem- ordinance of the province which obliges both your Majefty's chief juftice and the other judges of the province to follow the fame rule of judgment. This is the ordinance of the 17th of September 1764, paffed by the governor and council of the province upon the introduction of the civil government, to erect and conftitute the courts of juftice by which the faid civil government was to be carried dinance of the ber 1764, Purport of this on. ordinance. This ordinance erects, in the first place, one fuperior court of judicature, called the King's Bench, in which it directs that your Majefty's chief juftice of the province fhall prefide, with power and authority to bear and determine all criminal and civil causes, agreeable agreeable to the laws of England and to the ordinances of this province: It the ordinance. "Whereas it is highly expedient and neceffary for the well The words of "governing of his Majefty's good fubjects of the province of Quebec, and for the fpeedy and impartial diftribution of justice among the fame, that proper courts of judicature, with proper powers and authorities, and under proper regulations, fhould be "eftablished and appointed; his excellency the governor, by and "with the advice, confent, and affiftance of his Majefty's council, "and by virtue of the power and authority to him given by his Majefty's letters patent under the great feal of Great Britain, hath thought fit to ordain and declare, and his faid excellency, by and "with the advice, confent, and affiftance aforefaid, doth hereby ❝ ordain and declare; "That a fuperior court of judicature, or court of King's Bench, "be established in this province to fit and hold terms in the town "of Quebec twice in every year, viz. one to begin on the 21ft day of January, called Hilary term, the other on the 21ft day of June, called Trinity term. A 2 " In "In this court his Majefty's chief juftice prefides, with power "and authority to hear and determine all criminal and civil causes, "agreeable to the laws of England and to the ordinances of this province; and from this court an appeal lies to the governor and "council, where the matter in contest is above the value of three "hundred pounds Sterling; and from the governor and council an appeal lies to the King and council, where the matter in conteft "is of the value of five hundred pounds Sterling, or upwards. "In all trials in this court all his Majefty's fubjects in this colony "are to be admitted on juries without diftinction. "And his Majesty's chief justice once in every year to hold a "court of affize and general gaol delivery, foon after Hilary term, "at the towns of Montreal and Trois-Rivieres, for the more eafy " and convenient distribution of juftice to his Majefty's fubjects in "thofe diftant parts of the province. "And whereas an inferior court of judicature, or court of "Common Pleas, is alfo thought neceffary and convenient, it is "further ordained and declared, by the authority aforefaid, that an "inferior court of judicature, or court of Common Pleas, is hereby established, with power and authority to determine all property above the value of ten pounds, with a liberty of appeal "to either party to the fuperior court, or court of King's Bench, "where the matter in conteft is of the value of twenty pounds, "and upwards. 66 "All trials in this court to be by juries, if demanded by either "party; and this court to fit and hold two terms in every year at "the town of Quebec, at the fame time with the fuperior court, "or court of King's Bench. Where the matter in conteft in this "court is above the value of three hundred pounds Sterling, either "party may (if they fhall think proper) appeal to the governor and "council immediately, and from the governor and council an appeal lies to the King and council, where the matter in contest "is above the value of five hundred pounds Sterling, or upwards. " "The judges in this court are to determine agreeable to equity, "having regard nevertheless to the laws of England, as far as the "circumstances and present fituation of things will admit, until "fuch time as proper ordinances for the information of the people |