Quebec Act, legislation passed by the British Parliament in 1774
for governing Canada, at that time called the Province of
Quebec. The act continued French civil law in the province,
admitted Roman Catholics to full citizenship, and permitted the
Catholic Church to retain privileges it had when the area
belonged to France. The Quebec Act withheld a representative
assembly, providing instead for government of the province by an
appointed governor and council. It also extended the boundaries
of the province to include land between the Appalachian
Mountains and the Mississippi River north of the Ohio. The act
was designed largely to win the loyalty of the French in the
province, and may have been influential in keeping them from
joining in the American Revolution. However, the act infuriated
the colonies to the south because it added to Quebec lands that
these colonies had previously claimed. They considered the
Quebec Act as one of the "Intolerable Acts" adopted by Great
Britain in 1774. The Declaration of Inde