Distrust and jealousy pervaded the Government councils in Canada. Pierre François, Marquis of Vaudreuil, the successor of Duquesne in 1755, and Montcalm, whose cordial co-operation was essential, were at swords’ points. With each succeeding year the corrupt practices of Intendant Bigot were more openly carried on. With famine stalking through the streets of Montreal and Quebec, with the whole population living on short rations, and bread-stuffs at incredible prices, the opportunity for this wide-awake Intendant to make money was never better. If accounts are to be trusted, he availed himself of his chance; and out of the sufferings and dire necessities of this sorely pressed people he amassed a fortune.[82] All this was to the advantage of England. Every point that she gained in the struggle she kept. From each reverse that she sustained she staggered up, surprised that the little band of half-starved Canadian troops should have prevailed again, but with renewed determination to conquer. The only value of success to Canada was to postpone the invasion, and for the time being to keep the several columns which threatened Montreal from co-operation. With so feeble a force the French could not hope to maintain the widely scattered forts which they held at the beginning of hostilities. In 1759 they were threatened by hostile columns counting more than the entire number of Canadians capable of bearing arms. All hope of aid from France was crushed by the Minister, who wrote: “In addition to the fact that reinforcements would add to the suffering for food which you already experience, it is very much to be feared that they would be intercepted by the English on passage.” Such was the mournful condition of affairs when Wolfe sailed up the St. Lawrence, expecting to find Quebec ready to fall into his hands. To his surprise, the place was held by a force thoroughly capable of defending it against the combined strength of his soldiers and sailors. Fortune favored him, and Quebec was gained.
The resistance of the French during one more campaign was probably justifiable, but was a mere matter of form. Without hope of assistance from France, without means of open communication with any other French possession, without supplies of ammunition or of food, there was really nothing left to fight for. Even the surrounding parishes of Canada had yielded to the pressure of events, after the failure to recapture Quebec. When, therefore, the English columns converged upon Montreal in 1760, the place capitulated, and the French flag disappeared from Canada.
At the mouth of the Mississippi French occupation was not disturbed until the boundaries were adjusted in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Peace signed at Paris in February, 1763. No reference was made in the treaty nor in the preliminary convention to the fact that France had already granted to Spain her title to the whole of Louisiana. Knowledge of this remarkable act was kept secret for a few years longer. England, by the terms of the treaty of Paris, became the acknowledged mistress of all that portion of the American continent which lies east of the middle of the Mississippi River, with the exception of the island on which was built the city of New Orleans. Ample provision was made to protect the rights of French citizens who might wish to remove from the country. The privilege of religious worship according to the forms of the Roman Catholic Church was guaranteed to those who should remain, as far as the laws of England would permit.
The era of colonial history which this chapter covers is coincident with a period of decline in France. The transmission of the throne in the line of descent was not, however, interfered with, nor were the traditions of colonial policy changed. The causes of the rise and fall of the colonies of European Powers at that time are to be found in the history of European politics; and European politics in turn were largely influenced by the desire to control territory in the New World. The life of French colonies was in close contact with European events. If the pulse of the English settlements did not throb in such sympathy with the mother country, it was because there was a fundamental difference in the methods by which English colonies had been formed and in the conditions of their growth. A colony was not looked upon at that time as forming a part of the parent State. It was a business venture, entered into directly by the State itself, or vicariously by means of a grant to some individual or company. If the colony did not earn money, it was a failure. Spain had derived wealth from ventures of this sort. Other nations were tempted into the pursuit of the same policy in the hope of the same result.
To preserve the proper relations to the parent State, the colony should have within itself elements of wealth which should enrich its projectors; it should absorb the productions of the State which founded it; and in no event ought it to come into competition with its progenitor. The form of the French government was so logical that its colonies could be but mimic representations of France. Priests and nuns, soldiers and peasants, nobles and seigniors, responded to the royal order, and moved at the royal dictation in the miniature Court at Quebec much the same as at Paris. There was so little elasticity in French life that the French peasant, when relieved from the cramp of his surroundings, still retained the marks of pressure. Without ambition and without hope, he did not voluntarily break away from his native village. If transported across the water, he was still the French peasant, cheerful in spirit, easily satisfied, content with but little, and not disposed to wrestle for his rights. The priest wore his shovel-hat through the dense thickets of the Canadian forests, and clung to his flowing black robe even though torn to a fringe by the brambles through which it was trailed. Governor and council, soldier, priest, and peasant, all bore upon their persons the marks that they were Frenchmen whose utmost effort was to reproduce in the wilds of America the artificial condition of society which had found its perfect expression in Versailles. Autocratic as was Frontenac, unlikely as he was to do anything which should foster popular notions of liberty, or in any way endanger monarchical institutions,—even he drew down upon himself a rebuke from the Court for giving too much heed to the people in his scheme of reorganization.
From his palace in France the Grand Monarque dictated the size and shape of a Canadian farm. He prescribed the localities which new-comers ought to select. They must not stray too far from villages; they must clear lands in spots contiguous to settlements. He could find men who would go to Canada, but there was no emigration of families. Soldiers in the colony were offered their discharge and a year’s pay if they would marry and settle. Premiums were offered the colonists for marrying, and premiums for children. “The new settler,” says Parkman, “was found by the King, sent over by the King, and supplied by the King with a wife, a farm, and sometimes with a house.” Popular meetings were in such disfavor that not until 1717 were the merchants permitted to establish an exchange at Quebec. His Majesty, while pulling the wires which moved the puppets of European politics, still found time to express his regrets that the “King’s officers had been obliged to come down from Frontenac to Quebec to obtain absolution,” and to convey his instructions to the Bishop of Quebec to suppress several fête-days which interfered with agricultural labors. Cared for thus tenderly, it would seem that Canada should have thriven. Had the measures put forth been wisely directed toward the prosperity of the colony, it might have done so; but Louis XIV. was not working for the benefit of Canada; his efforts were exclusively in behalf of France. In 1706 his Minister wrote: “It is not for the interest of the parent State that manufactures should be carried on in America, as it would diminish the consumption of those in France; but in the mean time the poor are not prohibited from manufacturing stuffs in their own houses for the relief of themselves and their families.” Generous monarch! The use of the spinning-wheel and the loom was not forbidden in the log-cabins in Canada, even if this did clash somewhat with French trade. “From this permission,” says Heriot, “the inhabitants have ever since continued to fabricate coarse linen and druggets, which has enabled them to subsist at a very small expense.” Coin was almost unknown much of the time; and the paper money and bills of exchange, upon which the colony depended for a circulating medium, were often seriously depreciated.
The spirit of organization and inquisition which infested the Government pervaded all things temporal and spiritual. Trade in peltries could only be carried on by those having permits from the Government or from the firm or company which for the time being had the monopoly. All trade at outlying posts was farmed out by the governors. Young men could not stray off into the woods without violating a royal edict. Such solicitude could only produce two results,—those who endured it became automatons; those who followed their inclinations and broke away from it were proscribed as bushrangers. From the day when Champlain founded the city of Quebec down to the time when the heroic Montcalm received his death-wound on the Plains of Abraham, the motives which had influenced the French in their schemes of colonization had been uniform and their methods identical. Time enough had elapsed to measure the success of their efforts.
French colonization in America had reached three degrees of prosperity. In Acadia, under English rule, freed from military service in the ranks of the country to which they naturally owed allegiance, and with their rights as neutrals recognized by the English, the French colonists had prospered and multiplied. Originally a band of hunters and fishers, they had gradually become an agricultural population, and had conquered prosperity out of a soil which did not respond except to the hand of patience and industry. Exempt from the careful coddling of His Most Christian Majesty, they had evoked for themselves a government patriarchal in its simplicity and complete for their needs. In Louisiana, under the hothouse system of commercial companies and forced immigration, the failure had been so complete that even those who participated in it could see the cause. In Canada there was neither the peaceful prosperity of Acadia nor the melancholy failure of Louisiana. Measured by its own records, the colony shows steady growth. Compared with its rivals, its laggard steps excite surprise and demand explanation. The Acadians were French and Catholics. Neither their nationality nor their religion interfered with their prosperity. They had, however, been lucky enough to escape from the friendly care of the French Government. It is but a fair inference that the Canadians also would have thriven if they could have had a trial by themselves.
The history of England during the corresponding period showed no such uniform motive, no such continuous purpose as to her colonies. From the time of their foundation the English colonies became practically independent States, with which the Home Government, during the long period of political disturbances which intervened, seldom interfered. The transmission of the crown by descent was interrupted. A parliament displaced and executed a king. A protector temporarily absorbed his power. The regular order of the descent of the crown in the restored royal family was again interrupted. The crowned ruler of England was a fugitive on the Continent, and Parliament by act prescribed who should govern England, and afterward how the crown should be transmitted. The causes that produced English emigration, whether political or religious, varied with these events, and emigration was correspondingly affected; but whatever the extent and whatever the character of this influence, the emigration from England was, as a rule, a voluntary emigration of families. Young men might be tempted by the fascinating freedom of a wild life in the woods; but the typical emigrant was the father of a family. He abandoned a home in the old country. He took with him his wife, his family, and his household goods. Much of the furniture brought over by the sturdy emigrants of that time is still treasured by their descendants. The strong mental individuality which thus led men with families to cut adrift from the struggles and trials in England, only to encounter the dangers and difficulties of pioneer life in a new country, found expression in various ways in the affairs of the colonies, oftentimes to the vexation of the authorities.