Lower Canada

According to the Constitutional Act of 1791, Quebec would be divided into two provinces: Lower Canada for the Canadians; Upper Canada for the British colonists. This statute was based on an expedient that became standard practice for colonies with irreconcilable social differences – partition. While the population of Upper Canada was English-speaking and mainly Protestant, that of Lower Canada was largely French-speaking and Roman Catholic. The two newly created provincial governments were each endowed with institutional bases permitting them to exercise authority within a constitutional framework modelled on that of the government in London. French laws and customs would be continued in Lower Canada; freehold tenure would be available there as well. After the rebellions of 1837–38 the failure and disintegration of the revolutionary movement allowed the British government to enforce a solution that had been envisaged as early as 1810 by anglophone businessmen and was now proposed by Lord Durham: the political union of the Canadas. The Act of Union was sanctioned by the British parliament in July 1840 and proclaimed in Canada on 10 Feb. 1841.