CHAPTER XII.

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA, AND THE DESTRUCTION
OF THE FRENCH NAVAL POWER.

§ i. Preliminary Operations.

IN the great continental war of which we have traced the
course through four campaigns, down to the point at
which Frederick seemed on the point of succumbing to
his enemies, the English have very little part. Their
energies were employed more profitably in a series of
enterprises, which laid the foundations of the present
maritime greatness of England and of her vast colonial
empire. The first quarter to which Pitt directed his
attention was North America. During his French as-
previous administration, he had formed the cendency in

* . . ' America in

idea of conquering Canada, but his tenure of 1757-
office was too short to admit of its realisation, and things
went from bad to worse, until by the close of 1757 the
French had pretty well made good their lofty claim to
the entire basins of the Ohio and St. Lawrence. Every-
where our colonies were hemmed in by a chain of French
forts; everywhere they lay exposed to incursions from
the Indian allies of France.

Various causes had combined to give the prepon-
derance to the French, although our colonists outnum- ,
bered them in the proportion of fifteen to one, Reasons
and far surpassed them in wealth. If the fc>r it-
French in Canada were few in numbers, they were all
collected under one authority; while the English were
divided amongst thirteen colonies, each with its own ad-
ministration, and with scarcely any bond of union, except
a common jealousy of interference by the home govern-
ment, which was not altogether unmerited. At the same