at home, would soon get the better of every national antipathy to their conquerors and become the most faithful and most useful set of men in this American Empire.’[44] [Sidenote: Petition for recall of Murray.] The Grand Jury’s presentment was followed by a petition for the recall of Murray, drawn up in the next year and signed by twenty-one persons, which accused him of military prejudice against civil liberties, and of discouraging the Protestants and their religion. It asked for a new governor of a less military type, and for a House of Representatives composed of Protestants alone, though Roman Catholics might be allowed to vote for Protestant members. Never did a small minority make more extravagant claims, or attack with greater want of scruple those who were trying to hold the balance even. [Sidenote: The ordinance of 1770.] [Sidenote: The Quebec Act.] Carleton succeeded Murray, and soon after his arrival showed that he was as little disposed, as Murray had been, to submit to dictation. A side issue had arisen as to the appointment and precedence of members of the council, and, in answer to a protest addressed to him by some of the councillors, he laid down that ‘I will ask the advice and opinion of such persons, though not of the council, as I shall find men of good sense, truth, candour, and impartial justice; persons who prefer their duty to the King, and the tranquillity of his subjects to unjustifiable attachments, party zeal, and to all selfish mercenary views.... I must also remind you that His Majesty’s service requires tranquillity and peace in his province of Quebec, and that it is the indispensable duty of every good subject, and of every honest man, to promote so desirable an end.’[45] Still intrigue went on: religious bitterness did not abate, as men spoke and wrote on either side: legal confusion became worse confounded, and reports were made on what was and what ought to be the state of the law, by the English law officers of the Crown, by a delegate sent out from England, and by Masères, the Attorney-General in Canada. One crying evil, however, arising from the proceedings for the recovery of debts, which were enriching magistrates and bailiffs and reducing Canadian families to beggary, was remedied by Carleton in an ordinance dated 1st February, 1770, which among other provisions deprived the justices of the peace of jurisdiction in cases affecting private property.[46] It was a righteous ordinance, and those who had profited by the old system raised an outcry against it, but in vain. Eventually the Quebec Act was passed in 1774, the provisions of which must now be considered. [Sidenote: Its objects.]