The Quebec Act was a piece of legislation passed by British parliament on June 22, 1774. It aimed to provide a clearly defined and fair system of government for the French-speaking province of Quebec, through incorporating elements of French civil law to provide a smoother transition from French rule to English. Its selfishness as perceived by the Thirteen Colonies also served to incite them to rebellion, culminating in the American Revolution and Declaration of Independence.
The St. Lawrence valley had been under French control for centuries as the colony of New France. Though at times the French influence in the New World stretched north to Hudson's Bay, west to the prairies, and south to the Gulf of Mexico along the exploratory path of Chevalier de la Salle, the St. Lawrence region had remained at the core of her colonial empire, mostly because of its strategic location; free access to the river meant that the fur trade could prosper through exports, and new goods and colonists could be brought in easily when necessary.
A series of unfortunate events, beginning in 1758 with the fall of Louisbourg to the English -- which effectively cut off access to the St. Lawrence, eliminating any strategic advantage possessed by the French -- and ending with the defeat of the French army under the Marquis de Montcalm by the English under General James Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham saw the end of French control in North America.
Now there were upwards of fifty thousand French settlers, many of whom had been there for generations, spread out through most of what had been New France, under English rule after France admitted defeat and surrendered its control in 1760. This marked the conclusion of the Seven Years' War as it was fought in the New World, though the war itself did not officially end until the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Though they were vastly outnumbered by nearly a million English-speaking colonists, they still made up a sizeable minority.
What to do? On October 7, 1763, a Royal Proclamation by British parliament renamed New France the province of Quebec, presumably in an effort to remove the last vestiges of French influence. An Anglophone governor was brought into power; James Murray spent the next four years being hassled by British merchants to remake the constitution such that it might conform to the one in Britain, until he was replaced by Guy Carleton in 1768.
Under Carleton's influence, the Quebec Act was drafted, in part to secure the allegiance of the French Canadians and prevent them from joining the rebellion that was brewing in the Thirteen Colonies. It made a number of concessions to preserve the way of life so valued by the Canadiens; the French system of civil law was restored, as was the seigneurial system of land ownership and division. Freedom of religion was brought in; most of the French Canadians were practising Roman Catholics, and now they were permitted to continue in their faith within the law. The British system of criminal law was implemented, though this had little impact on the daily life of the colonists. The compromises seemed reasonable from both sides, and it seemed as though an impending crisis had been averted.
Another clause of the Act involved redrawing the boundaries of Quebec. It now included some territory to the north, in the Great Lakes region extending into Rupert's Land, and much of the Ohio Valley. It was the latter which raised the ire of American colonists; the valley had been thought of as Indian land and thus out of their reach, corroborated by the French and Indian War over the same region. Its establishment of the Roman Catholic church as legitimate caused concern amongst those who wished for full separation of church and state; British presence in the valley also cut off the route to the west, stifling expansionist aspirations.
These points led to the recognition of the Quebec Act as one of the "Intolerable Acts", along with such other legislations as the Administration of Justice Act and the New Quartering Act, agitating the Thirteen Colonies to rebellion and severance of ties to their colonial motherland. In this sense it can be seen as a failure, though perhaps only a minor one; the benefits of securing French-Canadian allegiance and relative stability in government through compromise seem more important in retrospect.
Sources:
Quebec Act. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Act. Wikipedia. 27 May 2004.
Timeline of Quebec History. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Quebec_history. Wikipedia. 27 May 2004.
The Fall of New France. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_France#Fall_of_New_France. Wikipedia. 27 May 2004.Ouellet, Fernand. Lower Canada 1791-1840: Social Change and Nationalism, trans. Patricia Claxton. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1980.
Wade, Mason. The French-Canadian Outlook. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1964.