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trial by jury, and they had known little of the advantages of the Habeas Corpus. Indeed, to the French gentleman it seemed monstrous that tradesmen and labourers and mechanics should sit in judgment on any issue in which he was interested. But to the British residents the Act was a cruel blow.

Carleton returned to Canada in the autumn of 1774, and was hailed by the people as a protector and friend. The Legislative Council was inaugurated, and was composed of one-third Catholics and two-thirds Protestants, some of these being natives of Jersey, and using the French language. The Congress met at Philadelphia addressed a letter to the French inhabitants of Quebec, urging the Canadians to throw in their lot with them. But this produced no effect. The leaders of the people, the clergy, the noblesse and the better class of bourgeoisie thought that they had more to lose than gain by a change. "The man," says a French historian,*" to whom the administration of the government had been entrusted, had known how to make the Canadians love him, and this contributed not a little to retain at least within the bounds of neutrality those among them who might have been able, or who believed themselves able, to ameliorate their lot by making common cause with the insurgent colonies."

On the 19th April, the battle of Lexington took place, and the insurgent colonists, believing the French Canadians were held in check by the Canadian fortifications, determined to take them. Early in May, Allen and Arnold, at the head of about three hundred men, crossed Lake Champlain, and landed under cover of night near Ticonderoga. The fort contained only a few men, and was surprised next morning, and captured without shot being fired. Crown Point, garrisoned by a sergeant and twelve men, surrendered a few days afterwards. Saint Jean, which was equally weak in garrison, fell in the beginning of June. The command of the lake had now passed out of British hands. The situation was critical. The gateways of Canada were in the hands of the Americans. Carleton at once determined to recover the forts, and proceeded to raise a militia on the basis of French feudal law. He might well think that he had more than common claims on the

M. Bibaud.

French Canadian population. It seemed. only just as he had been the means of restoring them their civil law, that he should now, in an extremity, reap the benefit of their feudal customs. But a dozen years of British rule, even in the most objectionable form it could assume, with no redeeming feature but the accidental greatness of soul of the Governor, had taught the peasants a lesson in freedom. They had half broken with a history of odious oppression. The chords of liberty in their hearts had vibrated to the hesitating touch of a new era. What at a later period, the night of the 4th August, was to the German peasant of Alsace, the proclamation of 1763 was in a sense to the French Canadian. But the proclamation of 1763 was the incomplete work of a narrow statesmanship. It was natural that the Alsatian peasants, who had leaped at a bound from serfdom into the position of landed proprietors and freemen, should have flocked to the standard of the republic. It was equally natural that the French Canadian peasant should have refused the appeal of Carleton, coming in the shape it did. Many of the seigniors took his view. But this only made the appeal more ominous. The poor people had not forgotten the hardships of the last war, nor the oppression which preceded it.

Carleton had all that wonderful power of attraction which Froude has marked as native to the Irishman. But loved as he was, he could not persuade the peasants that it was their duty to act offensively against the Americans. The seigniors assembled their tenants, and explained to them the service expected of them, and the risk of confiscation which they would incur by holding back. Some were from old habit inclined to obey, but the great majority declared that they did not feel themselves bound to be of the same opinion as their seignior, that they owed them no military services, and that they would not fight against the armies of the revolted provinces. They knew neither the cause nor the result of the present difference. They would prove themselves loyal and peaceable subjects. They could not be expected to take arms. Their position is not difficult to understand. It was but the other day that the English invaders, fighting against their own soldiers and besieging their capital, had extorted from them a strict neutrality on pain of exemplary punishment, or, as they expressed it, of sum

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mary military execution. Who could complain if they remained neutral? Their resolve placed Carleton in a difficult position. Of regular troops he had but two regiments, and these so dispersed that they could not act with efficiency. Nor was all indifference in Canada. Many sympathized with the rebels, and were determined to aid them.

To repel attack and suppress treason, the Governor resolved on the incorporation of the militia. On the 9th of June he issued a proclamation in which he said that there existed a rebellion in several of the colonies of His Majesty; that a part of the forces bearing arms had made an incursion into the province, and held the language and wore the attitude of invaders; that, therefore, he had judged it proper to proclaim martial law, and to call out the militia to defend the country and awe down revolt. Instead of. producing the desired effect, this proclamation produced discontent where there had been indifference, and transformed lukewarm sympathy into active co-operation. Nor, it seems, could the people persuade themselves that the King of England would act like the military chief of a despotic state. Voluntary enrolment, the people said, was the only means to which the Governor could legitimately have recourse.

Carleton had the perseverance and fertility of resource which have never been wanting in his countrymen in times of emergency. Unable to succeed by force, be tried persuasion. He turned to the Bishop of Quebec. That prelate addressed to the curés of his diocese, to be read in their churches, a charge in which he exhorted the people to take up arms for the defence of the country.

The charge had no more effect than the proclamation. The French Canadians had as yet developed no loyalty to the British crown strong enough to be the parent of action. Such loyalty as they had was only equal to a passive negative result. Moreover, the people, fond of their little farms, and with strong family affections, felt that if they took up arms for the defence of the country, they would be forced to wage war on any part of the continent where the Empire might need assistance, and this in a struggle the end of which, at that time, no man could foresee. If their homes were threatened, they would defend them. Their

public spirit was confined within the narrowest view of their own interest.

On the 17th of June, 1775, Bunker Hill was fought. On the 6th July the Declaration of the Representatives of the United Colonies of North America was published. Carleton, unable to overcome the popular determination to rest neutral, sought to raise a body of volunteers by offering to each volunteer two hundred acres of land, two hundred and fifty if he was married, and fifty for each of his children. His engagement to serve under arms was to terminate at the close of the war, and his lands were to be exempt from all charges for twenty years. Even this measure failed. Only a few volunteered.

In this emergency Carleton had no choice but to appeal for aid to the Indians. The Iroquois were then in the ascendant, and whatever course they took would be followed by the other tribes. Their objections to take up arms were overcome by persuasion, and a large number repaired to Montreal to engage themselves for the following year. Carleton's preparations for a war, offensive and defensive, proceeded with his usual activity and energy. But the reinforcements which he had been promised from Europe were delayed. His plan was to relieve the Boston garrison by invading American territory on the south of the St. Lawrence.

Informed of this design, and believing the French Canadians were favourable to their cause, Congress resolved to anticipate him. A considerable force under General Schuyler was ordered to invade Canada and advance against Montreal, while Arnold was to penetrate the colony by way of Kennebec and Chaudière, and operate against Quebec. Schuyler, having made himself master of Isle-aux-Noix or Fort Lennox, put forth a proclamation not unlike that which King William addressed in 1870 to the French peasantry. The invaders did not come to make war against the French Canadians. Their quarrel was solely with the British troops. The lives, property, the liberty and religion of the habitans would be respected. These appeals influenced a mere fraction of the people.

Schuyler took ill, and Montgomery assuming chief command, prosecuted the siege of St. Johns with vigour, and despatched Colonel Allen to surprise Montreal. But Carleton was now in

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Montreal, and it was not easy to surprise him. He called together about one hundred soldiers and two hundred volunteers, under Major Carsden, who, coming on the Americans, defeated them, killing fifty, and taking as many prisoners, including Colonel Allen. The rest, among whom were some habitans, escaped tothe woods, or to the American camp.

Chambly fell, or was rather given up, and Montgomery, whose powder had been nearly exhausted, with ammunition obtained from a fort which, I need not say, had not been defended by an Irishman, carried forward the siege of St. Johns with renewed vigour. The garrison expected Carleton to raise the siege. Carleton knew that want of provisions would not permit the garrison to hold out long. He sent to Colonel McLean, commanding at Quebec, to raise as many men as he could, and to come up to Sorel, where he proposed to join him. McLean had raised about three hundred men, for the most part French Canadians. The Governor assembled at Montreal nearly a thousand men, consisting of Indians, French Canadians, and regulars, enrolled with desperate exertions. Instead, however, of joining McLean, knowing how pressing was the necessity to relieve St. Johns, he crossed the St. Lawrence but, on arriving near the shore, he found that the other Irishman had anticipated him. An American force, with two field pieces, advantageously placed on shore, waited until Carleton arrived within pistol shot, and then opened a deadly fire, forcing him, with a sad but an undaunted heart, to retreat. Meanwhile McLean, on his way to Montreal, was stopped by another party of Americans, when he was deserted by most of his men, and compelled, with a remnant of the three hundred, who were determined not to recall Thermopylæ, to fall back on Quebec. The brave Preston, apprised of these events, and his garrison in want of food, saw nothing for it but to surrender, and he and his little band marched out with the honours of war.

The Governor was now in a critical position. It was impossible to defend Montreal. The retreat to Quebec was beset with formidable difficulties. Yet only by retreating on Quebec could he avoid being made a prisoner. Should he fall into American hands, all hope of saving Canada would be gone. He destroyed as much of the public stores as he could not take with him, and