Following on the debate, Sydney wrote to Dorchester on the 3rd of September, asking for the fullest possible information before the next discussion should take place, and intimating that a division of the province was contemplated. On the 8th of November in the same year, Lord Dorchester replied, giving his views on the political situation. In the districts of Quebec and Montreal, exclusive of the towns, he estimated the proportion of British residents to French Canadians as one to forty; including the towns, as one to fifteen; and including the Loyalist settlements above Montreal, as one to five. The demand for an Assembly, he considered, came from the commercial classes, that is to say, from the towns where the British were most numerous: the seigniors and country gentlemen were opposed to it, the clergy were neutral, the uneducated habitants would be led by others. His own opinion was that a division of the province was at present unadvisable; but, should a division be decided upon, there was no reason why the western districts should not have an Assembly and so much of the English system of laws as suited their local circumstances, care being taken to secure the property and civil rights of the French Canadian settlers in the neighbourhood of Detroit, who had increased in numbers owing to the fur trade. A year later, on the 20th of October, 1789, he was informed by Grenville, who had succeeded Sydney as Secretary of State, that the Government had decided to alter the constitution of Canada and to divide the province of Quebec, a draft of the Bill which was to be introduced into Parliament for the purpose being enclosed for an expression of the governor’s views, with blank spaces to be filled up on receiving from him information as to certain points of detail. [Sidenote: Difficulties of the situation.]