All that territory from the Ottawa River to the Detroit, in which the Loyalists settled, inclusive of the western bank of the latter river, was, of course, part of the Province of Quebec; but there was very little in common between the newly-arrived settlers and their French neighbours on the lower St. Lawrence. There were no judges, no lawyers, and no regularly established courts in any of the new settlements. The people were too busy to devote much time to litigation. The nearest court was at Montreal, and to the English-speaking settlers the French civil code, which was in force, was an untried experiment, and they wisely endeavoured to avoid making use of the legal machinery at their disposal. Minor differences were frequently referred to some of the officers who had been appointed to take charge of the bands of emigrants when they left their former homes. These officers did not profess to be versed in the law, but they had exercised a certain amount of authority during the voyage and in locating the families committed to their care, and in distributing the supplies. It was quite natural that they should be appealed to when the parties to a dispute were unable to come to a satisfactory understanding between themselves. They were not hampered by hair-splitting precedents or long-established forms of procedure; but they made the best use of their common sense in their efforts to apply the Golden Rule, and so far as is known, substantial justice was done. As early as 1785, indeed, the Justices of the Peace were given jurisdiction in civil cases up to £5 ($20); but they had little to do, and their courts were very informal. On the 24th of July, 1788, Lord Dorchester, Governor of Quebec, issued a proclamation dividing the newly-settled territory into four districts as follows: Lunenburg, composed of all that portion east of the Gananoque River; Mecklenburg, from Gananoque to the Trent; Nassau, from the Trent to a line running north and south through the extreme projection of Long Point into Lake Erie; and Hesse, that portion of the province west of the last mentioned line. There was established in each district a Court of Common Pleas of unlimited civil jurisdiction, presided over by three judges (except in Hesse, where one judge only was finally appointed), attended by a sheriff and the other necessary officers. In naming the first judges to serve in the newly-established courts, Lord Dorchester selected men of well-known probity from different walks of life, regardless of their experience in courts of law.