rance was allowed to retain the barren islands of
St. Pierre and Miquelon, and certain fishing rights on the coasts of
Newfoundland, which she had previously given by the Treaty of Utrecht.
George II. had died during 1760, and George III. was now King of
England. Pitt was forced to resign, and the King's favourite, the
incapable Bute, who became premier, made peace without delay. Pitt
opposed the fishery concessions to France, but Bute attached relatively
little importance to them, and they have ever since remained to torment
the people of Newfoundland, and create complications in case that
island consents to enter the Canadian Dominion. Still, despite these
concessions, England gained great advantages from the peace, and became
the greatest colonial and maritime power of the world.

[Illustration: View of Montreal in 1760.]

Freedom won on the Plains of Abraham, and a great Frenchman and a great
Englishman consecrated by their deaths on the same battlefield the
future political union of two races on the northern half of the
continent, now known as the Dominion of Canada.

[1] Named after Abraham Martin, a royal pilot, who, in early times,
owned this now historic tract.

{267}

XIX.

A PERIOD OF TRANSITION--PONTIAC'S WAR--THE QUEBEC ACT.

(1760-1774.)

The Canadian people, long harassed and impoverished by war, had at last
a period of rest. They were allowed the ministrations of their
religion without hindrance, and all that was required of the parochial
clergy was that they should not take part in civil affairs, but should
attend exclusively to their clerical duties. The seigniors and
priests, no doubt, did not give up for some time the hope that Canada
would be restored to France, but they, too, soon bowed to the necessity
of things, and saw that their material and spiritual interests were
quite secure under the new government. None of the _habitants_ ever
left Canada after the war. A few members of the seigniorial nobility,
the officials and some merchants--perhaps three hundred in all--may
have gone back to France. Men like Bigot and Varin on their return
were severely punished, and forced to give up as much as possible of
their ill-gotten {268} gains. Governor de Vaudreuil himself was cast
into the Bastile, but it was ascertained after investigation that he
had no connection with the crimes of the worthless parasites that had
so long fattened on the necessities of the unhappy province.