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At the peace, Quebec had 7,000 inhabitants, and the population of all Canada amounted to 25,000, of whom 5,000 were capable of bearing arms. Already the banks of the St. Lawrence below Quebec were laid out in seigniories, and the farms were tolerably well cultivated. Some farmers were in easier circumstances than their seigneurs. The imported nobility had dwindled down to the condition of placemen or traders. The Baron Beçancour held the office of Inspector of Highways, and Count Blumhart made ginger beer. Three Rivers contained 800 inhabitants. A few farmers lived in the neighbourhood of the mouth of the St. Francis. Montreal was rising rapidly into importance, having obtained the fur trade of Three Rivers, in addition to its own, and the island having been carefully cultivated, through the well directed efforts of the Jesuits. Above Montreal there was nothing but forts—Fort Kingston or Cataraqui, Fort Niagara, Fort Detroit, and Fort Machillimakinac.

The Marquis de Vaudreuil having ruled Canada for twenty-one years, died on the 10th of April, 1725. He was succeeded by the Marquis de Beauharnois, under whose judicious management of affairs, the province became prosperous. Cultivation was extended. The Indians were so much conciliated, that intermarriages between the French and Indians were frequent. And there was nothing to excite alarm but the growing importance and grasping disposition of the New Englanders and New Anglo-Hollanders. The Governor of New York had erected a fort and trading post at Oswego, on Lake Ontario, with the view of monopolizing the trade of the Lakes. Beauharnois followed the English Governor's example, by building an opposition fort in the neighbourhood of Niagara. Another fort was erected by the Marquis, at Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, and yet another at Ticonderoga. The English very soon had a more reasonable pretext than a monopoly of the fur traffic, for more active demonstrations against the French. War was again declared in 1745, between France and England, by George II.; and Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, without waiting for instructions from England, determined upon attacking Louisbourg, then considered to be the "Gibraltar of America." Louisbourg, on Cape Breton, was fortified by the French, after the peace of Utrecht, at an expense of $5,500,000. The fortifications consisted of a rampart of stone, nearly 36 feet in height, and a ditch eighty feet wide. There were six bastions, and three batteries, with embrasures for 148 cannon and 6 mortars. On an island at the entrance of the harbor was another battery of 30 cannon, carrying 28 pound shot, and at the bottom of the harbour, opposite the entrance, was situated the royal battery of twenty-eight forty-two pounders, and two eighteen pounders. The entrance of the town, on the land side, was at the west, over a draw-bridge, near which was a circular battery, mounting 16 guns of 24 pounds shot. And these works had been 25 years in building. Louisbourg was a place of much importance to the French. It was a convenient retreat to such privateers as always annoyed and sometimes captured the New England fishing vessels. And the manner of this attack upon it is exceedingly interesting. It was determined on in January, 1745. Massachusetts furnished 3,250 men; Connecticut, 510; Rhode Island and New Hampshire, each 300. The naval force consisted of twelve ships, and in two months the army was enlisted, victualled, and equipped for service. On the 23rd of March, an express boat, which had been sent to Commodore Warren, the Naval Commander in Chief in the West Indies, to invite his co-operation, returned to Boston with the information, that without orders from England he could take no share in a purely colonial expedition. Governor Shirley and General Pepperell nevertheless embarked the army, and the colonial fleet sailed the next morning. The expedition arrived at Canso on the 4th of April, where the troops from New Hampshire and Connecticut joined it. Here, Commodore Warren, with his fleet, very unexpectedly joined the expedition. Shortly after his refusal to join, instructions which had been sent off from the British Government, approving of the attack upon Louisbourg, as proposed by Governor Shirley, and which Pepperell had gone to attack, without waiting for Imperial approval, had reached Commodore Warren, and without loss of time he proceeded direct to Canso, whither it was reported the Colonial fleet had gone. His arrival was the cause of great joy among the colonists. After a short consultation with General Pepperell, the Commodore sailed to cruise before Louisbourg, and was soon followed by the colonial fleet and army, which, on the 30th April, arrived in Cap Rouge Bay. It was not until then that the French were aware that an attack upon them was meditated. Every attempt was made to oppose the landing. They sent detachments to the landing places. But General Pepperell deceived them. He made a feint of landing at one point, and actually landed at another. The story reminds us of Sebastopol. Next morning 400 of the English marched round behind the hills, to the north west of the harbour, setting fire to all the houses and stores, till they came within a mile of the Royal Battery. The conflagration of the stores, in which was a considerable quantity of tar, while it concealed the English troops, increased the alarm of the French so greatly, that they precipitately abandoned the Royal battery. Upon their flight, the English troops took possession of it, and by means of a well directed fire from it, seriously damaged the town. The main body of the army now commenced the siege. For fourteen nights they were occupied in drawing cannon towards the town, over a morass, in which oxen and horses could not be used. The toil was incredible, but men accustomed to draw the pines of the forests, for masts, could accomplish anything. By the 20th of May, several fascine batteries had been erected, one of which mounted five forty-pounders. These batteries, on being opened, did immense execution. While the siege was being proceeded with, Commodore Warren captured the French ship of war "Vigilant," of 74 guns, with her 560 men, and a great quantity of military stores. This capture was of very great consequence, as it not only increased the English force and added to their military supplies, but seriously lessened the strength of the enemy. Shortly after this important capture, the English fleet was considerably augmented by the arrival of several men of war. A combined attack by sea and land was now determined on, and fixed for the 18th of June. Already the inland battery had been silenced; the western gate of the town was beaten down, and a breach effected in the wall; the circular battery of sixteen guns was nearly ruined; and the western flank of the King's bastion was nearly demolished. The besieged were in no condition to resist a joint attack by sea and land. The preparations for such an attack altogether dispirited them. A cessation of hostilities was asked for, on the 15th, and obtained. On the 17th, after a siege of forty-nine days, Louisbourg and the Island of Cap Breton surrendered. Stores and prizes to the amount of nearly a million sterling fell into the hands of the conquerors. Nor was this the only advantage. Security was given to the colonies in their fisheries; Nova Scotia was preserved to England; and the trade and fisheries of France were nearly ruined. The successful General, a New Englander by birth, was created a baronet of Great Britain, in recognition of his important services to the State. Sir William Pepper(w)ell rose on the ruins of Louisbourg. On France the blow fell with great severity. The court, aroused to vengeance, sent the Duke D'Anville, a nobleman of great courage, in 1746, at the head of an armament of forty ships of war, fifty-six transports, with three thousand five hundred men, and forty thousand stand of arms for the use of the French and Indians in Canada, to recover possession of Cape Breton, and to attack the colonies. Four vessels of the line, forming the West India squadron, were to join the expedition, and Canada sent off 1,700 men with the same view. The greatest consternation possessed the English colonists, as part of this immense fleet neared the American coast. But there was, in reality, no cause for fear. The tempest had blasted the hopes of France. Only two or three of the ships, with a few transports, reached Chebucto Bay, in Nova Scotia. Many of the ships of this once formidable expedition were seriously damaged by storms, others were lost, and one was forced to return to Brest, on account of cholera among her crew. On arrival at Chebucto, where Halifax is now situated, the Admiral became so despondent that he poisoned himself, and the Vice Admiral, no more a Roman than his superior, ran himself through the body with his sword. So died both these gallant but unfortunate men, whose moral courage quailed before what they knew must be public opinion in France. Nor were the disasters of the Duke d'Anville's armament yet over. That part of the fleet which had arrived in America, sailed for the purpose of attacking Annapolis, only to be dispersed by a storm, in the Bay of Fundy, and to return to France crest-fallen. Another expedition was however, determined upon. Six men of war, of the largest class, six frigates, and four East Indiamen, with a convoy of thirty merchant vessels, set sail from France, with the Admiral de la Jonquiere appointed to succeed de Beauharnois as Governor of Canada. But a British fleet, under Admiral Anson and Rear Admiral Warren, dispatched to watch, and, if possible, intercept it, fell in with the French fleet on the 3rd of May, and before night all the battle ships had surrendered. The new Governor of Canada found himself a prisoner. The disagreeable intelligence of this second failure reached France on the somewhat sudden and unexpected return of a part of the convoy, which had escaped capture, as night fell, on the day of the surrender of the fleet. Another Governor for Canada was appointed, the Count de la Gallisonière, who arrived safely. De la Gallisonière took an intelligent view of the position of affairs. He saw the folly, in a military point of view, of keeping the frontier a wilderness, and recommended that a large number of settlers should be sent from France, who, by being located on the frontier, would act as a check upon the British. His advice was, however, unheeded, and de la Jonquière having been released from captivity and conveyed to Canada, the Count resigned his trust to the Admiral, and returned to France. De la Jonquière was exceedingly active and able. Shortly after, or about the time of his release from captivity, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, and all conquests—Louisbourg included—made during the war, were mutually restored. But de la Jonquière hated the English cordially, and by his hostile acts against the English fur traders, of the Ohio Company, he brought on that war between France and England, known as "The French and Indian War." Several English traders were seized and carried to a French port, on the south of Lake Erie, and fortifications, at convenient distances, were erected and occupied by French troops, between Fort Presqu'isle and the Ohio. War was ultimately declared, and Colonel George Washington, afterwards President of the United States, was sent, at the head of a regiment of Virginians, by the British Governor Dinwiddie, to put a stop to the fort building, which, although joined by nearly 400 men from New York and South Carolina, he failed to accomplish, having been compelled by De Villiers, at the head of a force of 1,500 French soldiers, to capitulate, with the privilege of marching back to Virginia unmolested. In Canada, De la Jonquière was by no means a favorite. Terribly avaricious, while the Intendant sold licenses to trade, the Governor and his Secretary sold brandy to the Indians. De la Jonquière became enormously wealthy, but his grasping disposition so annoyed the people of Quebec and Montreal, that complaints against him were loudly made, and he was recalled. He died, however, at Quebec, before his successor, the Marquis du Quesne de Menneville, was appointed. The Anglo-Indian French War now raged furiously. The English colonists were recommended by the British Government to unite together in some scheme for their common defence. A convention of delegates from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, with the Lieut. Governor and Council of New York, was accordingly held at Albany, in 1754, and a plan of a federal union adopted. The plan was simply this:—a Grand Council, to be formed of members chosen by the provincial assemblies, and sent from all the colonies; which Grand Council, with a Governor General appointed by the Crown, having a negative voice, should be empowered to make general laws, to raise money in all the colonies, for their defence, to call forth troops, regulate trade, lay duties, &c. It met, however, neither with the approbation of the Provincial Assemblies nor the King's Council. The Assemblies rejected it because it gave too much power to the Crown, and the King's Council rejected it because it gave too much power to the people. Nevertheless, the Assemblies unreservedl declared, that, if it were adopted, they would undertake to defend themselves from the French, without any assistance from Great Britain. The mother country refused to sanction it. Another plan was proposed, which met with universal disapprobation. A convention was to be formed by the Governors, with one or more of their Council to concert measures for the general defence, to erect fortifications, to raise men, &c., with power to draw upon the British Treasury to defray all charges, which charges were to be reimbursed by taxes upon the colonies, imposed by Acts of Parliament. The English colonies, however, vigorously attempted to repel the encroachments of the French from Canada, and ultimately succeeded, notwithstanding the blundering incompetency of General Braddock and Colonel Dunbar, the afterwards celebrated Washington being Aid-de-Camp to the former on the Ohio. Braddock, in proceeding against Fort du Quesne,[3] with upwards of 2,200 men, one thousand of which were regulars, suffered himself to be surprised by only five hundred French and Indians, had five horses killed under him, was himself mortally wounded, and his troops were defeated. Nay, out of sixty-five officers, sixty-four were killed and wounded, and of the troops engaged, one half were made prisoners, through the ungovernable folly of a man, who advanced without caution, and attempted to form a line when surrounded in a thicket. It was at this time, when the English colonists, not only contemplated a federal union, but had determined upon expeditions—one against the French in Nova Scotia, which completely succeeded; a second against the French on the Ohio; a third against Crown Point; and a fourth against Niagara. The Marquis du Quesne organized the militia of Quebec and Montreal; minutely inspected and disciplined the militia of the seigneuries; and attached considerable bodies of regular artillery to every garrison. Tired of the continual fighting between Canada and the English colonies, the Marquis du Quesne solicited his recall. His request was conceded. His most Christian Majesty appointed the Marquis de Vaudreuil de Cavagnac, son of a former Governor to succeed him. De Vaudreuil de Cavagnac sailed for the seat of his government with Admiral La Mothe, who was in command of a fleet newly fitted out, at considerable cost, at Brest. The sailing was not unnoticed by the English Channel fleet. Admiral Boscawen gave chase. He had eleven ships of the line, and with these he came up with the French fleet off Newfoundland. A battle ensued, and two French vessels fell into the hands of the British, the remainder of the French ships escaping under cover of a fog. Quebec was reached without further molestation, and Governor De Vaudreuil de Cavagnac was installed. All Canada was, on his arrival, in arms. Every parish was a garrison, commanded by a captain, whose authority was not only acknowledged, but rigidly sustained. Agriculture was, consequently, entirely neglected. Provisions were scarce; the price of food was enormously high; and the fur trade was rapidly declining. Notwithstanding this, the Intendant, Bigot, shipped off large quantities of wheat to the West Indies, on his own account. The Marquis de Vaudreuil de Cavagnac sanctioned the avaricious exactions and dealings of Bigot. Practices the most dishonest and demoralizing were winked at or excused. The Governors positively enriched themselves on the miseries of the governed. A high standard value was given to grain in store. It was studiously reported that the farmers were hoarding up their stocks, and prejudice was so excited against them, that it was no difficult matter to confiscate their corn, on pretence that it was absolutely necessary for the city and the troops. De Cavagnac and Bigot bought cheaply and sold extravagantly dear. As the Russian officials cheat the Russian government, so did the French officials cheat both the people and the government of France. But it was little wonder. The Governor had only a salary of £272 sterling, out of which he was expected to clothe, maintain, and pay a guard for himself, consisting of two sergeants and twenty-five soldiers, furnishing them with firing in winter, and other necessary articles. A Governor was compelled to trade to be on a pecuniary level with the merchant.