George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

[527] from political considerations sanctioned on the Saint

Chap. LII.} 1774. April.

Lawrence ‘the free exercise of the religion of the Church of Rome, and confirmed to the clergy of that Church their accustomed dues and rights.’ So far the act was merciful; but it extended the boundaries of the Government to the Ohio and the Mississippi, and over he vast region, which included, besides Canada, the area of the present States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, it decreed an arbitrary rule. The establishment of Colonies on principles of liberty is ‘the peculiar and appropriated glory of England,’¹ rendering her venerable throughout all time in the history of the world. The office of peopling a Continent with free and happy commonwealths was renounced. The Quebec Bill which quickly passed the House of Lords, and was borne through the Commons by the zeal of the Ministry and the influence of the King, left the people who were to colonize the most fertile territory in the world without the writ of Habeas Corpus to protect the rights of persons, and without a share of power in any one branch of the Government.

In this manner Great Britain, allured by a phantom of absolute authority, made war on human freedom. The liberties of Poland had been sequestered, and its territory began to be parcelled out among the usurpers. The aristocratic privileges of Sweden had been swept away by treachery and usurpation. The Free Towns of Germany, which had preserved in that empire the example of Republics, were, ‘like so many dying sparks that go out one after another.’