New York had declined to take any notice of a requisition by the General and Governor, made upon them in accordance with the provisions of the Mutiny Act, and while they had by their own vote supplied the troops with necessaries, they had refused to furnish some articles which were, it was asserted, not habitually provided under similar circumstances in England. They now announced their intention of persevering in that course. Thus within a few months of the repeal of the Stamp Act two grave constitutional questions had already arisen between England and her colonies.
While these events were passing, Shelburne was applying himself to the general settlement of America: the task for which his fitness had in former years been insisted upon by Henry Fox,[1] and with which he had already become conversant, though for a short time only, while President of the Board of Trade. He began by clearing out of his path a number of the questions which had for some time past been cumbering the office. A boundary question between Massachusetts and New York was adjusted;[2] and the validity of ancient grants in Vermont under the seal of New Hampshire was determined.[3] The situation of the Admiralty Courts, whose decisions, by a judge without a jury, had in many cases caused much discontent, he considered a matter which ought no longer to be left open. He next proposed, contrary to the advice of Sir Guy Carleton, to place Canada, like the other states, under a council and assembly.[4] To this council and assembly, to which Catholics, up to the extent of at least one-fourth, were to be admitted, he desired to entrust the settlement of the conflict between the English
- ↑ See supra, p. 148.
- ↑ Shelburne to Bernard, December i ith, 1766; Bernard to Shelburne, February 28th, 1767; and their correspondence at the time, passim.
- ↑ Shelburne to Moore, April 11th, 1767.
- ↑ Paper among Lansdowne House MS. endorsed "Relative to the present state of Quebec, May 1 7th, 1767." General Murray, the Governor of Canada, had been requested by General Conway in April 1766 to return to England to confer with the Government as to the position. Sir Guy Carleton was appointed to succeed him as Commander-in-Chief, and to act in his absence as Lieutenant-Governor. Murray was retained in his Government until April 1768—though absent from Canada—and it was not until October 1769 that Sir Guy Carleton became Governor-in-Chief.
