Canadians toward France. Canada was the child of the _ancien regime_.
Within her borders the ideas of Voltaire and Rousseau had found no
shelter. Canada had nothing in common with the anti-clerical and
republican tendencies of the Revolution. That movement created a gap
between France and Canada which has not been bridged to this day. In
the Napoleonic wars the sympathies of Canada were almost wholly with
Great Britain. When news arrived of the defeat of the French fleet at
Trafalgar, a _Te Deum_ was sung in the Catholic cathedral at Quebec;
and, in a sermon {5} preached on that occasion, a future bishop of the
French-Canadian Church enunciated the principle that 'all events which
tend to broaden the gap separating us from France should be welcome.'

It was during the War of 1812-14, however, that the most striking
manifestation of French-Canadian loyalty to the British crown appeared.
In that war, in which Canada was repeatedly invaded by American armies,
French-Canadian militiamen under French-Canadian officers fought
shoulder to shoulder with their English-speaking fellow-countrymen on
several stricken fields of battle; and in one engagement, fought at
Chateauguay in the French province of Lower Canada, the day was won for
British arms by the heroic prowess of Major de Salaberry and his
French-Canadian soldiers. The history of the war with the United
States provides indelible testimony to the loyalty of French Canada.

A quarter of a century passed. Once again the crack of muskets was
heard on Canadian soil. This time, however, there was no foreign
invader to repel. The two races which had fought side by side in 1812
were now arrayed against each other. French-Canadian veterans of
Chateauguay were on {6} one side, and English-Canadian veterans of
Chrystler's Farm on the other. Some real fighting took place. Before
peace was restored, the fowling-pieces of the French-Canadian rebels
had repulsed a force of British regulars at the village of St Denis,
and brisk skirmishes had taken place at the villages of St Charles and
St Eustache. How this unhappy interlude came to pass, in a century and
a half of British rule in Canada, it is the object of this book to
explain.

{7}

CHAPTER II

THE RIGHTS OF THE DEFEATED

The British did not treat the French inhabitants of Canada as a
conquered people; not as other countries won by conquest have been
treated by their victorious invaders. The terms of th