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The trial was his punishment。 He was acquitted of taking any

share of the plunder and so drops out of history。 Bigot and his

gang; on the other hand; were found guilty of vast depredations。

The former Intendant was for a time in the Bastille and in the

end was banished from France; after being forced to repay great

sums。 We find echoes of the luxury of Quebec in the sale in

France of the rich plate which the rascal had acquired。 There

were; however; other and even worse plunderers。 They were tried

and condemned chiefly to return what they had stolen。 We rather

wonder that no expiatory sacrifice on the scaffold was required

of any of these knaves。 Lally Tollendal; who; as the French

leader in India; had only failed and not plundered; was sent to a

cruel execution。



Under the terms of the surrender and of the final Treaty of Peace

in 1763; civilians in Canada were given leave to return to

France。 Nearly the whole of the official class and many of the

large landowners; the seigneurs; left the country。 In Canada

there remained a priesthood; largely native; but soon to be

recruited from France by the upheaval of the Revolution; a few

seigneurial families; natural leaders of their race; a peasantry;

exhausted by the long war but clinging tenaciously to the soil;

and a good many hardy pioneers of the forest; men skilled in

hunting and in the use of the axe。 Out of these elements;

amounting in 1763 to little more than sixty thousand people; has

come that French…Canadian race in America now numbering perhaps

three millions。 The race has scattered far。 It is found in the

mills of Massachusetts; in the canebrakes of Louisiana; on the

wide stretches of the prairie of the Canadian West; but it has

always kept intact its strong citadel on the banks of the St。

Lawrence。 New France was; in reality; widely separated in spirit

from old France; before the new master in Canada made the

division permanent。 The imagination of the Canadian peasant did

not wander across the ocean to France。 He knew only the scenes

about his own hearth and in them alone were his thought and

affections centered。



The one wider interest which the habitant treasured was love for

the Catholic Church of his fathers and of his own spiritual

hopes。 It thus happened that when France in revolution assailed

and for a time overthrew the Church within her borders; the heart

of French Canada was not with France but with the persecuted

Church; she hated the spirit of revolutionary France。 Te Deums

were sung at Quebec in thanksgiving for the defeats of Napoleon。

In language and what literary culture they possessed; in

traditions and tastes; the conquered people remained French; but

they had no allegiance divided between Canada and France。 To this

day they are proud to be simply Canadians; rooted in the soil of

Canada; with no debt of patriotic gratitude to the France from

which they sprang or to the Britain which obtained political

dominance over their ancestors after a long agony of war。 To the

British Crown many of them feel a certain attachment because of

the liberty guaranteed to them to pursue their own ideals of

happiness。 In preserving their type of social life; their faith

and language; they have shown a resolute tenacity。 To this day

they are as different in these things from their fellow…citizens

of British origin in the rest of Canada as were their ancestors

from the English colonies which lay on their borders。



The French in Canada are still a separate people。 From time to

time a nervous fear seizes them lest too many of their race may

be lost to their old ideals in the Anglo…Saxon world surging

about them。 Then they listen readily to appeals to their racial

unity and draw more sharply than ever the lines of division

between themselves and the rest of North America。 They remain a

fragment of an older France; remote and isolated; still dreaming

dreams like those of Frontenac of old of the dominance of their

race in North America and asserting passionately their rights in

the soil of Canada to which; first of Europeans; they came。 At

the mouth of the Mississippi in the Louisiana founded by Louis

XIV; along the St。 Lawrence in the Canada of Champlain and

Frontenac; with a resolution more than half pathetic; and in a

world that gives little heed; men of French race are still on

guard to preserve in America the lineaments of that older France;

long since decayed in Europe; which was above all the eldest

daughter of the Church。





BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE



While the present narrative is based for the most part on more

recondite and widely scattered sources; the most accessible

volumes relating to the period are the following works of Francis

Parkman (Boston: many editions): 〃La Salle and the Discovery of

the Great West; Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV; A Half

Century of Conflict〃 (2 vols。); and 〃Montcalm and Wolfe〃 (2

vols。)。 To these should be added; as completing the story; George

M。 Wrong; 〃The Fall of Canada〃 (Oxford; 1914) which dwells in

detail on the last year of the struggle。 All these volumes

contain adequate references to authorities。 The last of Parkman's

works was published more than twenty…five years ago and later

research has revised some of his conclusions; but he still

commands great authority。 In 〃The Chronicles of Canada〃 (Toronto;

191316) half a dozen volumes relate to the period; each of these

volumes; which embody later research and are written in an

attractive style; contains a bibliography relating to its special

subject: C。W。 Colby; 〃The Fighting Governor〃 'Frontenac'; Agnes

C。 Laut; 〃The Adventurers of England on Hudson Bay〃; Lawrence J。

Burpee; 〃The Pathfinders of the Great Plains〃; Arthur G。 Doughty;

〃The Acadian Exiles〃; William Wood; 〃The Great Fortress〃

'Louisbourg'; 〃The Passing of New France〃; and 〃The Winning of

Canada。〃 Lawrence J。 Burpee's 〃Search for the Western Sea〃

(Toronto; 1908) deals with the work of La Verendrye and other

explorers。 Anthony Hendry's 〃Journal〃 is published in the

〃Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada;〃 series iii; volume

i。 The latest phase of the discussions on La Verendrye are

reviewed in an article by Doane Robinson in 〃The Mississippi

Valley Historical Review〃 for December; 1916。 The material

relating to the discoverer was long scattered; but it has now

been collected in a volume; edited by Lawrence J。 Burpee for the

Champlain Society; Toronto; but owing to the war it is at the

present date (1918) still in manuscript。 Much of what is

contained in Mr。 Burpee's volume will be found in 〃South Dakota

Historical Collections;〃 volume vii; 1914 (Pierre; S。D。)。



Additional references are given in the bibliographies appended to

the articles on 〃Chatham; Seven Years' War;〃 and 〃Nova Scotia〃 in

〃The Encyclopaedia Britannica;〃 11th Edition。











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