Since the Liberals did not have a majority in the Legislative Assembly, Joly de Lotbinière called an election immediately.

Joly de Lotbinière was able to stay in office for one year with a minority government, supported by two Independent Conservatives, but lost a confidence vote in 1879.

The Quebec Conservative Party led by Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau then formed a majority government for the remainder of the term of the legislature.

Only male British subjects (by birth or naturalisation), aged 21 or older, were eligible to vote, and only if they met a property qualification.

In addition to being male, twenty-one or older, and a subject of Her Majesty (by birth or naturalisation), a candidate had to be free from all legal incapacity, and be the proprietor in possession of lands or tenements worth at least $2,000, over and above all encumbrances and charges on the property.

[10] Those requirements were: The provisions of the British North America Act, 1867 did not explicitly bar women from being called to the Senate of Canada.

[12] The initial lack of a clear majority in the Legislative Assembly for either party led to political instability for the first eighteen months of the term of the Fourth Legislature.

The Liberals agreed to elect one of the two independents, Arthur Turcotte, as Speaker of the Assembly, a highly coveted position.

[14] On the Conservative side, the former house leader of the party in the Legislative Assembly, Auguste-Réal Angers, lost his seat in the general election.

This event badly weakened the authority of the leader of the party, former premier Boucher de Boucherville, who sat in the unelected Legislative Council.

[15] The next event was the dismissal of Lieutenant Governor Luc Letellier de Saint-Just by the new federal Conservative government of Sir John A. Macdonald.

[16] Macdonald replaced Letellier de Saint-Just with an equally partisan Conservative, Théodore Robitaille.

[18] Since he now had a working majority, Chapleau did not call an election, instead leading the Conservative government for the remaining term of the legislature.

Like the Conservatives the previous year, the Liberals accused the Lieutenant Governor of performing a coup d'état.

[37] The resignation of Alexandre Chauveau on September 12, 1879 marked the beginning of the dissolution of the Joly de Lotbinière government.

Chauveau would join the Conservatives a month later, along with four other Liberals who crossed the floor and voted to defeat the government on October 29, 1879.