ian
historians have, as a rule, never rendered adequate justice. During
these years Carleton had his difficulties arising out of the unsettled
condition of things in the province, the prospects of invasion, and the
antagonism of Chief-Justice Livius, who replaced a far better man, Hey,
and was himself superseded by the Governor-General on account of his
efforts to weaken the authority of the government at a time when
faction and rivalry should have ceased among those who wished to
strengthen British interests in America. Livius appealed to the home
authorities, and through the influence of Lord George Germain was
reinstated, though he did not find even in this {288} quarter an
approval in words of his own conduct, and never returned to fill his
former position in Canada.

It is not necessary to dwell here on the events of a war whose history
is so familiar to every one. Burgoyne was defeated at Saratoga, and
his army, from which so much was expected, made prisoners of war. This
great misfortune of the British cause was followed by the alliance of
France with the States. French money, men, and ships eventually
assured the independence of the republic whose fortunes were very low
at times, despite the victory at Saratoga. England was not well served
in this American war. She had no Washington to direct her campaign.
Gage, Burgoyne, and Cornwallis were not equal to the responsibilities
thrown upon them. Cornwallis's defeat at Yorktown on the 19th October,
1781, was the death-blow to the hopes of England in North America.
This disaster led to the resignation of Lord North, whose heart was
never in the war, and to the acknowledgment by England, a few months
later, of the independence of her old colonies. Before this decisive
victory in the south, the Ohio valley and the Illinois country were in
the possession of the troops of congress. George Rogers Clark, the
bold backwoodsman of Kentucky, captured Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and
Vincennes, and gave the new States that valid claim to the west which
was fully recognised in the treaty of peace.

The definitive treaty of peace, which was signed in 1783, acknowledged
the independence of the old English colonies, and fixed the boundaries
of the {289} new republic and of Canada, and laid the foundation of
fruitful controversies in later times.

The United States now controlled the territory extending in the east
from Nova Scotia (which then included New Brunswick) to the hea