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Canada

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the French governor Du Quesne, an energetic and aggressive man, established new military posts in the Ohio valley, and seized a newly-built British stockade on the spot where Pittsburgh now stands. The French were already in occupation and had named the post Fort Du Quesne, when a force, despatched by the governor of Virginia and under the command of Colonel George Washington, arrived to take possession. They were met by a small party of French sent apparently to warn them off the ground. Washington, mistaking their intention, gave the word to fire, with the result that the French leader, Jumonville, was shot. Both sides at once prepared for war. The English government sent out two regiments under General Braddock, a brave but incapable leader, who allowed himself to be surprised and routed near the Monongahela, while marching Fort Du Quesne at the head of over two thousand men. But an expedition against Crown Point under the leadership of General William Johnson drove the French within their intrenched camp at Ticonderoga. Now happened the incident of the expulsion of the Acadian peasants (immortalized in Longfellow's Evangeline), of whom about seven thousand still remained in Nova Scotia, mostly on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. Although steadily refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the British government, they were, on the whole, a peaceful and inoffensive community. But a few of the more turbulent spirits took a leading part in the Indian raids on the neighboring British settlements, and were accused, besides, of intriguing with their countrymen at Louisburg, the strong fortress of Cape Breton. On these grounds the council at Halifax resolved upon the expulsion of the whole French population, and the measure was thoroughly carried into effect, yielding some little military security at the expense of what has since been considered an example of great inhumanity. The war in America was but a portion of the great conflict in which Britain was now engaged against France-the Seven Years' War, 1756-63. The early part of the struggle was decidedly in favor of the French, whose generals Montcalm, De Levi, and St. Veran were superior in energy and ability to their opponents Loudon and Abercrombie. But when Pitt came into power in the British government in 1758 the face of affairs changed. Strong reinforcements sent out under Wolfe, Howe, and Amherst. The fortress at Louisburg, garrisoned by over 3500 soldiers and sailors. 20-2

Canada

fell before Amherst, Boscawen, and Wolfe. General Johnson took Fort Niagara; Washington pianted the British flag on the ramparts of Fort Du Quesne; Amherst drove the enemy from Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and the long struggle was at length virtually ended by Wolfe's brilliant capture of Quebec on 13th Sept., 1759. The French made a stand for a year longer at Montreal; but, on 8th September, 1760, the appearance of 16,000 British before its walls forced a capitulation, by which Canada passed forever from the dominion of France.

Canada was now formally annexed to the British Empire, and in 1774 an act passed in the British Parliament (the Quebec Act) extended the bounds of the province from Labrador to the Mississippi and from the Ohio to the watershed of Hudson Bay. In 1775 the war of the American

Canada became the scene of a brief Revolution broke out, and struggle between the royalists and the American colonists of New England. The independence of the American colonies by war ended with the recognition of the the Treaty of Versailles, September 3d, 1783, which detached from Canada the region between the Mississippi and the Ohio. American loyalists sought new homes in On the other hand, thousands of Canada; and a large number settled on the St. John River, and had that district erected into the separate province of New Brunswick. settled in Ontario, where they received More than 10,000 liberal grants of land. was divided into two provinces--Upper In 1791 Canada Canada or Ontario, and Lower Canada or Quebec-the latter still retaining its seigneurial tenure and French law in civil cases. law and freehold tenure were introduced. In Upper Canada British In both Upper and Lower Canada representative responsible government, were established. institutions, although not From 1812 to 1815 war having broken out between Great Britain and America, Canada was again the theater of a bloody strife, at first advantagous to the British, afterwards to the Americans. In 183738 the discontent of the people of Lower Canada with their system of irresponsible government took the form of a rebellion, which brief but sharp struggle. was repressed after a time the failure to At the same secure responsible government brought about an insurrection in Upper Canada under the leadership of William Lyon Mackenzie, aided filibusters, but it was quickly suppressed were subsequently by a number of American by the energy of the Canadian militia. The Earl of Durham was sent out as

Canada

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Canada

governor-general to settle affairs on a in 1866 the Reciprocity Treaty with the just and liberal basis, and made a re- United States having expired, the govport on the condition of Canada which ernment of that country practically reis one of the historical monuments of the fused to renew it except on the most discountry. The year 1839 was distin- advantageous terms for Canada. About guished by the celebrated Boundary the same time a Fenian movement Dispute between New Brunswick and against Canada, originating in the the United States. After threatening United States, began to be heard of. preparations on both sides the quarrel Gangs of desperadoes, mostly the refuse was settled in 1842 by the Ashburton of the civil war, collected near the fronTreaty, which fixed the forty-fifth par- tier, and ultimately crossed, occupying allel as the boundary-line westward from some villages and plundering the neighthe disputed territory to the St. Law-borhood. But the prompt mustering of rence, and the forty-ninth parallel from Canadian volunteers made the filibusters the Lake of the Woods to the Pacific, the recross the frontier in some haste, to be central line of the great lakes and their ultimately disarmed and dispersed by connecting rivers completing the bound- United States troops. ary. The result of the rebellion of 183738, and Lord Durham's report, was the reunion in 1841 of Upper and Lower Canada as one province with equal representation in the common legislature, and the practical concession on the part of the mother country of responsible government. Kingston was selected as the new seat of government, and three years afterwards Montreal. In 1848 the Parliament House at Montreal having been burned in a riot, the seat of government was removed to Toronto and Quebec, these cities holding it alternately every four years. In 1854 the Reciprocity Treaty with America was concluded, according to which there was to be free exchange of the products of sea and land, with navigation of the St. Lawrence, the St. John, and the canals, and the use of the inshore fisheries in the British waters to the Americans and of Lake Michigan to the Canadians. In the same year (1854) the bill for the secularization of the clergy reserve lands, originally amounting to one-seventh of the crown territory, and a bill for the abolition of seigneurial tenure in Lower Canada were passed. By the former act the principle of religious equality was practically established in Canada. In 1858 Ottawa was finally selected as the capital of Canada, the choice having been referred to the queen. During these years the population of Upper Canada or Ontario had been rapidly increasing, and now exceeded that of Lower Canada or Quebec by nearly 300,000. Under the old constitution, however, the two provinces had equal representation in the legislature. Hence a demand arose on the part of the Upper Canadians for representation by population. This demand was practically conceded in a scheme of federation of the British North American colonies approved of by the Canadian parliament at Quebec in 1865 and forwarded to the imperial government for approbation.

In 1867, March 28th, the British North America act for confederation of the colonies passed the imperial parliament. It united Upper Canada or Ontario, Lower Canada or Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, into one territory, to be named the Dominion of Canada. Newfoundland declared against joining the confederation, but with that exception all the British territory north of the United States was gradually included within the Dominion-the Hudson Bay Company territory by purchase in 1868, British Columbia in 1871, Prince Edward Island in 1873. In 1870 an insurrection of the Red River settlers, who were under apprehensions as to how their titles to their lands might be affected by the cession of the Hudson Bay Company's rights, took place under the leadership of Louis Riel, and had to be suppressed by a military expedition under Colonel (now Viscount) Wolseley. To reassure the settlers a part of the newly-purchased territory was erected into an independent province under the name of Manitoba, the unorganized territory beyond receiving the name of the Northwestern Territory. In 1871 the Washington Treaty arranged that the fisheries of both Canada and the United States should be open to each country for the next twelve years, Canada receiving a compensation, afterwards fixed at five and a half million dollars, for the superior value of its fisheries. 1884 considerable disaffection was caused amongst the half-breeds and Indians in the Saskatchewan and Assiniboine districts on account of the difficulty of obtaining valid titles to their lands. The discontent at length took shape in an insurrection which Louis Riel was invited to head. The rebels seized the government stores at Duck Lake and induced some of the Indian tribes to co-operate with them, with the result that a massa. cre of settlers took place at Frog's Lake

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"TIME'S UP. OVER YOU GO."

Official Canadian War Records. A Canadian battalion going over the top to new triumphs. At the appointed hour the attacking force climbs out of the trench in three or more lines or and moves forward against the enemy's trenches across "No Man's Land."

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