[48] A French Canadian petition to the King, drawn up about the end of 1773, referred in the following terms to the Labrador question: ‘We desire also that His Majesty would be graciously pleased to re-annex to this province the coast of Labrador, which formerly belonged to it, and has been taken from it since the peace. The fishery for seals, which is the only fishery carried on upon this coast, is carried on only in the middle of winter, and sometimes does not last above a fortnight. The nature of this fishery, which none of His Majesty’s subjects but the inhabitants of this province understand; the short time of its continuance; and the extreme severity of the weather, which makes it impossible for ships to continue at that time upon the coasts; are circumstances which all conspire to exclude any fishermen from old England from having any share in the conduct of it.’ (Shortt and Doughty, pp. 358-9.) [49] See above, p. 6, and Shortt and Doughty, p. 111. [50] See _Canadian Constitutional Development_, Egerton and Grant, p. 28. [51] See Shortt and Doughty, p. 381. Paper as to Proposed extension of Provincial Limits: ‘The King’s servants were induced to confine the government of Quebec within the above limits, from an apprehension that there were no settlements of Canadian subjects, or lawful possessions beyond those limits, and from a hope of being able to carry into execution a plan that was then under consideration for putting the whole of the interior country to the westward of our colonies under one general control and regulation by Act of Parliament.... The plan for the regulation of the interior country proved abortive, and in consequence thereof an immense tract of very valuable land, within which there are many possessions and actual colonies existing under the faith of the Treaty of Paris, has become the theatre of disorder and confusion....’ [52] See above, p. 5, and Shortt and Doughty, p. 108. [53] See above, p. 59. [54] _Annual Register_ for 1774, p. 77. [55] The Quebec Act was 14 Geo. III, cap. 83, and its full title was ‘An act for making more effectual provision for the government of the Province of Quebec in North America’. The Quebec Revenue Act was 14 Geo. III, cap. 88, and its full title was ‘An act to establish a fund towards further defraying the charges of the Administration of Justice and support of the Civil Government within the Province of Quebec in America’. Much was heard of this latter Act in the constitutional wrangles of later years in Lower Canada. [56] See above, p. 60.