The building was so attractive that the Parliament of the Province of Canada moved into it in 1844, where the representatives of Upper and Lower Canada sat (present-day south Ontario and Quebec). It was burned down on April 25, 1849. English-speaking demonstrators drove the representatives out and set fire to the building because they opposed the Rebellion Losses Bill, pardoning those who had been involved in the Lower Canada Rebellion. Montreal thus lost its status as capital city.