a few miles wide.  No provision whatever was made in the proclamation for the government of the country west of the Appalachian range, which was claimed by Pennsylvania, Virginia, and other colonies under the indefinite terms of their original charters, which practically gave them no western limits.  Consequently the proclamation was regarded with much disfavour by the English colonists on the Atlantic coast.  No provision was even made for the great territory which extended beyond Nipissing as far as the Mississippi and included the basin of the great lakes.  It is easy to form the conclusion that the intention of the British government was to restrain the ambition of the old English colonies east of the Appalachian range, and to divide the immense territory to their north-west at some future and convenient time into several distinct and independent governments.  No doubt the British government also found it expedient for the time being to keep the control of the fur-trade so far as possible in its own hands, and in order to achieve this object it was necessary in the first place to conciliate the Indian tribes, and not allow them to come in any way under the jurisdiction of the chartered colonies.  The proclamation itself, in fact, laid down entirely new, and certainly equitable, methods of dealing with the Indians within the limits of British sovereignty.  The governors of the old colonies were expressly forbidden to grant authority to survey lands beyond the settled territorial limits of their respective governments.  No person was allowed to purchase land directly from the Indians.  The government itself thenceforth could alone give a legal title to Indian lands, which must, in the first place, be secured by treaty with the tribes that claimed to own them.  This was the beginning of that honest policy which has distinguished the relations of England and Canada with the Indian nations for over a hundred years, and which has obtained for the present Dominion the confidence and friendship of the many thousand Indians, who roamed for many centuries in Rupert’s Land and in the Indian Territories where the Hudson’s Bay Company long enjoyed exclusive privileges of trade.

The language of the proclamation with respect to the government of the province of Quebec was extremely unsatisfactory.  It was ordered that so soon as the state and circumstances of the colony admitted, the governor-general could with the advice and consent of the members of the council summon a general assembly, “in such manner and form as is used and directed in those colonies and provinces in America which are under our immediate government.”  Laws could be made by the governor, council, and representatives of the people for the good government of the colony, “as near as may be agreeable to the laws of England, and under such regulations and restrictions as are used in other colonies.”  Until such an assembly could be called, the governor could with the advice of his council constitute courts for the trial