So early as 1628 Quebec was captured by the English, in spite of Champlain's brave defence; but Canada was restored to France by one of the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which was concluded in 1632. Richelieu at once sent Champlain back to Quebec as Governor-General of Canada.
Twice more, in 1690 and 1711, the English besieged Quebec, but they were not able to capture the town. But in 1759 General James Wolfe was ordered by Pitt to clear the French right out of Canada. The French troops were under the command of Marquis Ludwig Joseph Montcalm, of Saint-Veran. Although the latter was in command of only a small force, he was able to claim several victories, but finally he was besieged in Quebec by General Wolfe, at the head of 30,000 men. He was obliged to give battle under unequal conditions, and on September 13th was mortally wounded at the battle of the Heights of Abraham and died two days later. The victorious English general was also killed in the same battle.
The names of both these leaders, enemies though they were, have graven themselves inseparably on the memories of the inhabitants of Quebec. In 1827 the Governor of Canada, Lord Dalhousie, erected a marble monument to their memory, on which is a Latin inscription, which may be rendered freely thus:—
“Their courage caused their death.
History praises them both.
Posterity erects this monument to
their honour.”
No advance information was published as to the numbers printed of the several values in the series, as in the case of the Jubilee set, so that little attempt at cornering any particular values was made by speculators. True, large quantities of the ½c value were bought up by people who imagined it would be as rare as the corresponding value of the Jubilee stamps, but as there were two million of these they did not turn out to be the gold-mine it was fondly imagined they would. By September, 1908, all values except the 10c, 15c and 20c had been exhausted and by the end of October these three values were sold out as well. The numbers issued were later given out by the Postmaster-General in answer to two questions propounded to him in the House of Commons by Mr. Perley, a member. The Canadian Hansard gives this data as follows:—
1.—What was the total amount received by the Post Office Department from the sale of the special Tercentenary stamps? 2.—What part of this sum would probably have been received as ordinary revenue if there had been no special issue of stamps?
To these questions the Hon. Rudolphe Lemieux, Postmaster-General, responded: The following was the issue to Postmasters of the Tercentenary postage stamps:
| Denominations. | Quantities. | Value. |
| ½ cent | 2,000,000 | $10,000 |
| 1 cent | 22,530,000 | $225,300 |
| 2 cent | 35,100,000 | $702,000 |
| 5 cent | 1,200,000 | $60,000 |
| 7 cent | 700,000 | $49,000 |
| 10 cent | 500,000 | $50,000 |
| 15 cent | 300,000 | $45,000 |
| 20 cent | 304,200 | $60,840 |
| Totals, | 62,634,200 | $1,202,140 |
The department has no knowledge whether the stamps in question have all been sold, as during their issue the ordinary postage stamps were also on sale, both issues being in use as preferred by the public. The proceeds derived from the sale of stamps of the two issues were not kept separately, but treated as arising from a common source. It is, therefore, impossible to state to what extent the issue of the Tercentenary postage stamps may have affected the ordinary revenue.