No natural frontier
between New France
and the English
colonies.

The interesting point, however, to notice is that there was no natural frontier between Canada and the English colonies, at the time when they came into serious competition; for the line of the Alleghanies, even if recognized, could fully delimit only the more southerly colonies. To use a modern term, two separate spheres of influence in North America had not been marked out by nature. But in new countries, unless there is some strongly defined natural line of division, it is true to say, however paradoxical it may appear, that there is not room for two incoming white races to colonize as equals side by side. It is precisely when the land is thinly populated, and when therefore the population is in a fluid condition, that collisions will and must occur. Given a continent like Europe at the present day, the geography of which is accurately known, the resources of whose soil in every part have been fully gauged, and whose surface has been for many generations parcelled out in effective occupation, one province to one race, another to another; then, when the peoples are crystallized in their respective moulds, war is not inevitable; and when war arises, it is the artificial result of political naughtiness and ambition, unless indeed it be the effect of some inaccuracy in the map, which needs to be adjusted. In new fields of colonization, on the other hand, wars are not artificial; they are natural, and not only natural but sometimes absolutely necessary to future happiness and welfare. Just as Europe was herself once in the melting-pot, so the lands which Europeans have settled and are settling, if they are to be the homes of strong peoples in days to come, must, when rival races are planted there, be the scenes of armed strife.

Colonial wars which end where they began, with indecisive treaties tending to further bloodshed, may well be the subject of national sorrow and regret; but it is otherwise when a great issue has been achieved, and when it has been decided once for all what lines shall be laid down for the future of a great country, not yet peopled as it will be in the coming time. Then the millions of money, which seem to have been wasted, are found to have been invested for the good of men; and the mourners for the lost sorrow not as without hope, inasmuch as those who have gone have died that others may live. The foundations of peoples are the nameless dead, who have been laid amid North American forests or under the bare veldt of South Africa.

APPENDIX I

LIST OF FRENCH GOVERNORS OF CANADA

PERIOD
Samuel de Champlain1632-1635
Chevalier de Montmagny1636-1648
Chevalier d'Ailleboust1648-1651
Jean de Lauzon1651-1657
Vicomte d'Argenson1658-1661
Baron d'Avaugour1661-1663
Sieur de Mésy1663-1665
Marquis de Tracy1665-1667
Chevalier de Courcelles11665-1672
Comte de Frontenac1672-1682
Sieur de la Barre1682-1685
Marquis de Denonville1685-1689
Comte de Frontenac1689-1698
Chevalier de Callières1699-1703
Marquis de Vaudreuil1703-1725
Marquis de Beauharnois1726-1747
Comte de la Galissonière1747-1749
Marquis de la Jonquière1749-1752
Marquis Duquesne1752-1755
Marquis de Vaudreuil21755-1760

1 While Tracy was in Canada he was Governor-General, and Courcelles was Governor.