found, by a tiny cove (Wolfe’s cove), from which a steep footpath led to the summit. It was no place for artillery, and even for infantry the climb was long and exhausting, but the attempt was made. Considered as a way of taking Quebec, it was in the last degree a forlorn hope, but Wolfe, as a true soldier, felt the imperative necessity of preventing his opponent from sending reinforcements to the force opposing Amherst, and staked everything upon achieving this at least. “Happy if our efforts here,” as he wrote, “can contribute to the success of His Majesty’s arms in any other part of America.” What with losses in action and by sickness, and detachments to guard the camps and batteries, only 3600 men could be spared for the attempt. These embarked on the warships on the evening of September 12, and sailed up stream. The watchful Montcalm sent a detachment to observe their movements, but the ships proceeded to a point well above the cove, luring the detachment out of the way. Then at 1 a.m. Wolfe, with half his force, dropped down stream in the boats of the squadron and landed. The path was guarded by a redoubt, but the light infantry which led the advance scarcely attempted to follow it, scrambling up the hillside wherever they could find a foothold. The garrison of the redoubt, startled by the unforeseen attack, abandoned the work, and by daylight Wolfe had assembled his 3600 men on the plains above the city. Montcalm meanwhile had been held in check by a demonstration of part of the fleet under Admiral Saunders on Beauport, but at last, realizing that the real attack was coming from the other flank, he hurried all the troops he could collect over the St Charles and drew them up on the plain, with their backs to the walls of the upper town. He took the offensive at once. He had plenty of militiamen and irregulars, and these rapidly drove the British light infantry on to their main body, which was threatened on both flanks. On so small a battlefield, the troops in Wolfe’s line of battle quickly became aware that the enemy was attacking in superior force. But their leader steadied them by his personal example, and when the French came within closing range one “ perfect volley ” from the whole line decided the battle. Then as the French stopped, with great gaps in their lines, Wolfe led on his men to complete the victory. He received two painful wounds and then a shot through the breast. His last order, one rare indeed in the annals of 18th-century fighting, was to send a force to the St Charles bridge to cut off the retreat of the French. Montcalm too was mortally wounded, and died next day. On the 18th of September Quebec surrendered.
QUEBEC ACT, the title usually given to a bill introduced into the House of Lords on May 2, 1774, entitled “An Act
for making more Effectual Provision for the Government of
the Province of Quebec, in North America.” It passed the
House of Lords on May 17, was discussed in the Commons
from May 26 to June 13, and finally passed with some amendments.
These were accepted by the Lords, in spite of the
opposition of Lord Chatham, and the bill received the royal
assent on June 22. The debates in the House of Commons
are not found in the Parliamentary History, but were published
separately by J. Wright in 1839. The speech of Lord Chatham
is given in the Chatham Correspondence (iv. 351–353).
By this act the boundaries of the Canadian province of Quebec were extended so as to include much of the country between the Ohio and the Mississippi. The French inhabitants of the province were granted the liberty to profess “the religion of the Church of Rome”; the French civil law was established, though in criminal law the English code was introduced. Government was vested in a governor and council, a representative assembly not being granted till the Constitutional Act of 1791.
The granting of part of the Western territory to Quebec, and the recognition of the Roman Catholic religion, greatly angered the American colonies. On the other hand, it did much to keep the French Canadians from joining the Americans in the coming struggle. The act is still looked back to by the French in Canada as their great charter of liberty.
QUEDLINBURG, a town of Germany in the Prussian province of Saxony, situated on the Bode, near the N.W. base of
the Harz Mountains, 12 miles S.E. by rail from Halberstadt
on the line Magdeburg-Thale. Pop. (1905) 24,798, almost
all Protestants. It consists of the old town, which is still
partly surrounded by a turreted wall, the new town and four
suburbs. On the west it is commanded by the castle, formerly
the residence of the abbesses of Quedlinburg, connected with
which is the interesting Schlosskirche, which was dedicated
in 1129 and completely restored in 1862–82. The German
king, Henry the Fowler, his wife Matilda, and Aurora,
Countess of Konigsmark, the mistress of Augustus the Strong,
are buried in the Schlosskirche. There are many interesting
articles in the treasury. The Gothic town hall, a 14th-century
building, restored and enlarged in 1900, contains a collection
of antiquities, and near it stands a stone figure of Roland.
The town also possesses a gymnasium founded in 1540 and
now containing the abbey library and a municipal museum.
It has a fine memorial of the war of 1870–71. Quedlinburg is
famous for its nurseries and market gardens, and exports
vegetable and flower seeds to all parts of Europe and America.
Its chief manufactures are iron goods, machinery and cloth,
and it has a trade in grain and cattle. Near the town is the
church of St Wipertus, which dates from the 12th century,
and has a crypt of the 10th century.
Quedlinburg was founded as a fortress by Henry the Fowler about 922, its early name being Quitlingen. Soon it became a favourite residence of the Saxon emperors and was the scene of several diets. It afterwards joined the Hanseatic League. The abbey of Quedlinburg was planned by Henry the Fowler, although its actual foundation is due to his son Otto the Great. It was a house for the daughters of noble Saxon families and was richly endowed, owning at one time a territory about 40 sq. m. in area, The abbesses, who were frequently members of the imperial house, the second of them being Otto’s daughter Matilda, ranked among the princes of the empire, and had no ecclesiastical superior except the pope. The town at first strove vigorously to maintain its independence of them, and to this end invoked the aid of the bishop of Halberstadt. In 1477, however, the abbess Hedwig, aided by her brothers, Ernest and Albert of Saxony, compelled the bishop to withdraw, and for the next zoo years both town and abbey were under the protection of the elector of Saxony. In 1539 the townsmen accepted the reformed doctrines and the abbey was converted into a Protestant sisterhood. In 1697 the elector of Saxony sold his rights over Quedlinburg to the elector of Brandenburg for 240,000 thalers. The abbesses, however, retained certain rights of jurisdiction, and disputes between them and the Prussian government were frequent until the secularization of the abbey in 1803. The last abbess was Sophia Albertina (d. 1829), sister of King Charles XIII. of Sweden. After forming for a few years part of the kingdom of Westphalia, the abbey lands were incorporated with Prussia in 181 .
See the Urkundenbuch der Stadt Quedlinburg, edited by Janicke (Halle, 1873-82); Ranke and Kugler, Beschreibung und Geschichte der Schlosskirche zu Quedlinburg (Berlin, 1838); Lorenz, Alt-Quedlinburg, 1485–1698 (Halle, 1900); and Huchs, Führer durch Quedlinburg. For the history of the abbey see Fritsch, Geschichte des Reichsstifts und der Stadt Quedlinburg (Quedlinburg, 1828).
QUEEN (O.E. cwen, wife, related to “quean,” O.E. cwene, a hussy; cf. Gr. γυνή: from root gan-, to produce; cf. genus, “kin,” &c.), the title of the consort or wife of a king (“queen consort”), or of a woman who is herself the sovereign ruler of a state (“queen regnant”); the widow of a former reigning sovereign is a “queen dowager,” and, when the mother of the reigning sovereign, a “queen mother.”
For the position of the queen in English constitutional law see Consort, and for her household see Household, Royal.
QUEEN ANNE’S BOUNTY, the name applied to a perpetual fund of first-fruits and tenths granted by a charter of Queen Anne, and confirmed by statute in 1703 (2 & 3 Anne, c. 11), for the augmentation of the livings of the poorer Anglican
