Quebec Act (1774)

To maintain the authority of the British crown at a time of revolutionary crisis, in 1774 the British parliament adopted the Quebec Act, by which colonists in Canada were assured of “their Property and Possessions, together with all Customs and Usages relative thereto,” and all their other civil rights. As well, the boundaries of Quebec were extended by the Quebec Act of 1774 to include the triangle of land between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The act provoked the wrath of anglophone merchants, who were denied both English law and representative government.