This Act was made necessary by the great influx of United Empire Loyalists after the American Revolutionary War. The new English-speaking settlers did not want to live under French law, despotic governors, or the Roman Catholic Church. In order to help the Protestants, the act provided that every eighth acre of land should be set aside to provide revenue for the clergy. These were called "the clergy reserves." When Pitt was asked what he meant by the "Protestant clergy," he replied that it was the clergy of the Church of England. This caused great problems later on because many of the new settlers were Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists and Congregationalists.