eadful. The Frazer Highlanders wore
their kilts, notwithstanding the extreme cold, and provisions were so
scarce and dear, that many of the inhabitants died of starvation. The
Marquis de Vaudreuil, the Governor General of His Most Christian
Majesty, busied himself, at Montreal, with preparations for the
recovery of Quebec, in the spring. In April, he sent the General De
Levi, with an army of 10,000 men, to effect that object. De Levi
arrived within three miles of Quebec, on the 28th, and defeated General
Murray's force of 2,200 men, imprudently sent to meet him. The city was
again besieged, but this time by the French. Indeed, it was only on the
appearance of the British ships, about the middle of May, that the
siege was raised. De Levi retreated to Jacques Cartier. The tide of
fortune was again turning. General Amherst was advancing from New York
upon Montreal. By the middle of May, that city, and with it the whole
of Canada, including a population, exclusive of Indians, of 69,275
souls, was surrendered to England.

Montcalm, who was not only a general, but a statesman, is said to have
expressed himself to the effect, that the conquest of Canada by England
would endanger her retention of the New England colonies, and
ultimately prove injurious to her interests on this continent. Canada,
not subject to France, would be no source of uneasiness or annoyance to
the English colonists, who already were becoming politically important,
and somewhat impatient of restraint. How far such an opinion was
justifiable, is to be gathered from the condition of Canada and the
colonies of Great Britain in America, at this hour.

Canada was, in 1763, ceded by His Most Christian Majesty, the King of
France, to His Britannic Majesty King George the Second. Emigration
from the United Kingdom to Canada was encouraged--not to Canada only,
but to Nova Scotia, which then included the present Province of New
Brunswick. By the treaty of 1763, signed at Paris, Nova Scotia, Canada,
the Isle of Cape Breton, and all the other Islands in the Gulf and
River St. Lawrence, were ceded to the British Crown. Britain, not only
powerful in arms, but, even at this period, great in commerce, was
about to change, though almost imperceptibly, the feelings of her new
subjects. The old or New England colonies, which had so largely
contributed to the subjugation of Canada, were already largely engaged
in trade. They had not made much progress in agriculture. They ha