The advice of Sir Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, who succeeded General Murray as Governor-General, had much to do with the liberality of the "Quebec Act" towards the French Canadians. He crossed the Atlantic in 1769 and remained absent from Canada for four years. He returned to carry out the "Quebec Act," which was the foundation of the large political and religious liberties which French Canada has ever since enjoyed. The "Act" aroused the indignation of the older American colonies, and had considerable influence in directing the early course of the Revolution which ended in the establishment of a federal republic. To it the Declaration of Independence refers as follows: "Abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbouring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in other colonies." During the Revolution the Continental Congress attempted to secure the active alliance of Canada, and to that end sent a commission made up of Franklin, Chase, Charles Carroll, and John Carroll to Quebec; but the province remained loyal throughout. It will be noticed in another chapter that General Brock, in answering the "Proclamation" issued by Hull in 1812, voiced the belief that Canada was the price the American Colonies had promised to pay France in return for her valuable aid in the Revolution! [Illustration: Pfister's Sketch of Fort Niagara and the "Communication," Two Years before the Outbreak of the Revolutionary War.]