In 1763, France ceded Canada to Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris. Rapidly, the new ruling elite planned its future for the French-speaking colonists, who were to be absorbed into the English-speaking society of British North America, but they were to be allowed the right of Catholic worship under the terms of the treaty. On October 7, the British Royal Proclamation of 1763 set the new political conditions of Canada. The territory of the colony, renamed the "Province of Quebec," was reduced to the inhabited area along the Saint Lawrence River.