In a P.S. from Sir Guy Carleton to Lord Shelburne it is stated: “The attorney general at the desire of Mr. Walker objected to the Knights of St. Lewis being of the grand jury as not having taken the oath of allegiance, which objection they immediately removed by cheerfully taking them.” CHAPTER V THE PRELIMINARY STRUGGLE FOR AN ASSEMBLY THE BRITISH MERCHANTS OF MONTREAL “VERY RESPECTABLE MERCHANTS”--A LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY ON BRITISH LINES PROMOTED BY THEM--INOPPORTUNE--VARIOUS MEMORIALS TO GOVERNMENT--THE MEETINGS AT MILES PRENTIES’ HOUSE--CRAMAHE--MASERES--COUNTER PETITIONS. Trade passed over almost bodily to the English. The records of the _Chambre de Milice de Montreal_ at present at Quebec reveal even in the civil disputes during the Interregnum of 1760-63 a boom in trade in Montreal such as those of the past never portrayed. The early traders have been whipped unmercifully by Murray and Carleton but there were certainly some who were recognized as “very respectable merchants.” The British merchants were first at Quebec at its fall, and soon they also followed to Montreal at the Capitulation. Many were weeded out by failure and the climate, but the residue that remained of the class of the canny mercantile adventurers who always adorn the hour of advancing civilization, with the addition of more solid representatives of the large English houses, was the foundation of the enterprising merchant class of Quebec and Montreal, but especially of the latter centre, which quickly seized the control of the wholesale business, particularly the fur trade, the traffic with the Indians and the foreign commerce. Despite the narrowness of their vision and the jealous grasping after power due to them, they considered, as the conquering body, this small group of men by their superior activity, wealth and political skill came to wield great influence in the city and on the country on the whole well and wisely.