Project Gutenberg's The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2), by George Warburton

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Title: The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2)

Author: George Warburton

Release Date: April 21, 2008 [EBook #25119]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE
CONQUEST OF CANADA.

BY

THE AUTHOR OF "HOCHELAGA."

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. 1.

NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
82 CLIFF STREET.
1850.

INTRODUCTION.

England and France started in a fair race for the magnificent prize of
supremacy in America. The advantages and difficulties of each were much
alike, but the systems by which they improved those advantages and met
those difficulties were essentially different. New France was colonized
by a government, New England by a people. In Canada the men of
intellect, influence, and wealth were only the agents of the mother
country; they fulfilled, it is true, their colonial duties with zeal and
ability, but they ever looked to France for honor and approbation, and
longed for a return to her shores as their best reward. They were in the
colony, but not of it. They strove vigorously to repel invasion, to
improve agriculture, and to encourage commerce, for the sake of France,
but not for Canada.

The mass of the population of New France were descended from settlers
sent out within a short time after the first occupation of the country,
and who were not selected for any peculiar qualifications. They were not
led to emigrate from the spirit of adventure, disappointed ambition, or
political discontent; by far the larger proportion left their native
country under the pressure of extreme want or in blind obedience to the
will of their superiors. They were then established in points best
suited to the interests of France, not those best suited to their own.
The physical condition of the humbler emigrant, however, became better
than that of his cou