The Integration of the Province of Quebec into the British Empire, 1763–91

This selection from Pierre Tousignant’s essay puts the constitution of 1791 into perspective while attempting to explain its scope:

“The year 1791 marked in fact both a fracture and an amputation, the territory of Quebec being divided into Upper and Lower Canada and the way left open to two destinies, two orientations, two evolutions, two distinct developments: English Canada and French Canada. That separation assumed even more importance in that the two newly created provincial governments were each at the same time endowed with institutional bases permitting them to exercise authority within a constitutional framework modelled on that of the government in London. And in the historical perspective adopted here this political linking with the British empire must be considered a culmination rather than a turning-point – the final outcome of a solution envisaged 30 years earlier, just after the signing of the treaty of Paris in 1763.”